Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Seventeen: Grounded by my Sisters
Beta:
Mikoto's vision was blurry when she awoke. Groggily, she pushed herself up from the bed that she'd been lying on.
Rubbing her eyes and looking around, alertness filled her body as she sat up. Darting her eyes over her surroundings, she noted that she was in a white room with a single bed. Besides that the room was spartanly decorated, with only a small study table and accompanying chair. There was however a door to a small room that took up a corner of the otherwise perfectly square shaped main room that Mikoto reasoned led to a ensuite bathroom. The only other feature of note was another door, presumably the exit along the far side of the room from the bed.
More distressing than all that was the fact that the bed itself and all the furniture too seemed to be made of plastic and from what she could sense, there was nothing metallic at all in the room.
She had just finished with her observations when the exit opened and two people walked in who made her scowl.
Namikaze and Saten looked at her, one looking disappointed while the other smiled nervously.
"Where the hell am I?!"
At her demand, Saten spoke up, "We have placed you under house arrest in order to protect you, Misaka-Sempai. At least until we can put an end to the Level 6 Shift experiment. I hope you understand."
"You can't do this." Mikoto snarled at the two.
Namikaze put her hands on her hips and shook her twintailed head.
"This is Academy City, a lot of things happen that are against regular laws. Plenty of them pretty damn evil, this? This is a good thing! Especially, if doing this stops you from being a moron. So I suggest that you get used to this room."
"Naru-san." Saten lightly scolded the shorter girl.
"No! She's acting like one and I'm calling her out on it."
Mikoto was not going to take being looked down on like this go. Jumping to her feet, she pushed into the blonde's personal space and demanded answers.
"Why the hell are you doing this? Are you on that murderer's side? Is that why you're not letting me put a stop to the experiment?"
"Putting a stop to the experiment!?" Namikaze scoffed as she forcibly pushed Mikoto back, causing her to stumble a few steps. "Do you honestly think your recklessness was doing any real good?"
"Of cour-"
"It wasn't." Saten cut in dispassionately. "Six. That's the number of labs you destroyed. As of the start of your rampage there were eight labs involved-."
"Then I need to destroy only two mo-"
"Let Saten-chan finish."
Saten nodded a thanks to Naru and continued. "Right now, there are twenty nine labs."
Mikoto collapsed back onto the bed in shock at the news. But that means-
"Your efforts, Sempai, has been worse than worthless. They have been counterproductive." Saten delivered her judgment with all the mechanical surety of one of the greatest minds in the City.
"I don't believe it." Mikoto whispered to herself, even as she shook her head in denial.
Namikaze snorted at the display of weakness and proceeded to add salt to the wound. "This was an experiment for the achievement of Level 6. Did you think they wouldn't make more labs? That there wouldn't be dozens of labs chomping at the bit to join in? That they would stop just because a few labs got taken out? No, these are unethical scientists that will do whatever it takes to get what they want. Even taking you down if they have to."
Mikoto held a hand over her mouth, as she fought to keep from throwing up. The revelation of what she was up against was making her feel sick to her stomach.
"And to top it off, you got the attention of my boss, the General Superintendent. That? That is how serious it's become."
The second year middle schooler paled at that. Even she knew how dangerous it was to earn the attention of the mysterious ruler of the City.
The blonde had no sympathy for her though, and ploughed on. "And now here we are, where you will stay and we will clean up your mess."
"Naru-san!" Saten hissed at her.
"It-It's my life!" Mikoto shouted at the girls, her fists white knuckled. "I get to decide what to do wi-"
Before she knew it, her blonde kohai had slapped her.
Even the petite girl seemed surprised by her own actions.
"No. Getting yourself killed will do nothing! And you will, if you keep interfering. Sooner rather than later, the higher ups will hire someone you can't beat to take care of you. So. Stop. Being. Stupid!" The short girl shouted as she threw her hands up into the air, and turned around with an aggravated huff.
"I said almost the same thing you just did during the Level Upper Incident and you stepped in to stop me. This time it's my-"
Namikaze coughed meaningfully at that.
"Our," Saten corrected, "chance to return the favor."
"You two are real pains, but I guess I just have to keep better eyes on you." Namikaze shrugged with a mock sigh, "I'd be a bad friend if I didn't."
Frustration and depression washing over her, Mikoto just lashed out with a wordless cry. Her powers reacted accordingly and electricity arced out towards the other two girls.
However, before her electricity could strike the two, they teleported out.
Panting, Mikoto fell to her knees and punched the floor.
"Sempai." Saten's voice echoed throughout the room."Escape is futile. This room was specifically constructed out of Dark Matter to confine you. It and everything within are immune to electricity or electromagnetism. So your power cannot aid you. Also, every thing that could possibly be used as ammunition for your railgun has been stripped from the room."
Fishing into her pockets, Mikoto confirmed that it was empty. Come to think of it, her clothes were different too. The outfit she was wearing now was lacking even the small metal pieces like fasteners or zippers typical to modern clothes. The humiliation and indignation of having been changed against her will would normally have made her furious but she was too overwhelmed by everything else at the moment to care.
Saten's voice paused for a moment, before she added.
"Naru-san would like to add that we will let you out as soon as possible."
As the turbulent emotions finally overcame her, tears began spilling from her eyes and she couldn't help but ask herself.
Why can't I do anything to stop this?
Squaring her shoulders, Naru teleported inside The Windowless Building.
It had taken some time, days in fact, but the Number 2 had finally managed to gain an audience with Aleister.
Standing in the room where the man floated upside down in his testtube, she nervously fidgeted while he just smiled at her with amusement.
"Hello, Naru. You wanted to speak to me?"
Offering a stiff nod, the Esper said, "Yes. It's in regards to the Level 6 Shift experiment."
"Ah, so you did manage to find your little friend in time. That's good. You have so few of those."
Naru didn't comment on that, but instead asked, "How do I stop it? You and I both know that after Misaka-Sempai interfered, it altered the experiment, but it's still ongoing. That says something."
He cocked his head to the side, "Oh?"
"What are you really aiming for?" Naru mustered out, she was one of the few people in the City who even had an inkling to how this man thought. Yet it was still practically impossible to figure out why he does what he does.
All she received for her trouble was a delighted chuckle, which caused her to sigh.
"I figured as much." Eying him with seriousness, Naru asked, "How do I stop the experiment?"
Aleister gave a thoughtful hum, as if he didn't already know, and smiled at her.
"The experiment hinges on the Number 1 being assumed as the closest Esper to Level 6, which is measured in large part by the power and versatility of his ability. That being the case, all you need to do is disprove that fact by having him be defeated by a Level 0 and the whole project would be invalidated. And there's only one person in this City who might have a chance to do so."
"[Imagine Breaker]?" Naru breathed in shock. "Are you seriously willingly to risk him by making him fight Accelerator?"
The man in the test tube just gave her an amused smirk.
"You're serious? Really?" Naru asked, stunned by this development. "Do you honestly think he has a chance?"
"He will. Or not." Crowley shrugged. "It's a test. He'll pass or he'll fail, Either way, I'll adapt."
The Esper frowned, disturbed by her superior's nonchalance to the fate of one of his most important pawns. It said a lot of what level of concern he had for her, someone which he considered far less important.
"The stage has already been set for the final act of this plan. Might as well aim to make it spectacular."
"Heh, so theatric of you." Naru commented but was inwardly pleased.
We have our solution, now it's just a matter of getting him to agree.
It wasn't hard to find [Imagine Breaker]. All Naru needed to do was teleport to his school. The unlucky young man was always stuck in one supplementary or remedial lesson or other due to his notoriously bad luck.
The Number 2 timed her arrival perfectly, so that she arrived just as he left his extra lesson for the day.
"Kamijou Touma." The Level 5 called out as she walked up to him even as he and his classmates streamed out of the classroom.
"Wha? Kami-yan does it again!" Tsuchimikado grinned broadly, elbowing the black haired boy, "Finally seeing the light for the imouto types huh?"
"Kami-yan, you kept a gem like this hidden from us?" A blue haired boy cried out, "Just look at her? The twintails, the skirt, the exotic features!" He grabbed Kamijou by the shoulders, "Why do you have all the luck?!"
"Are you nuts? I don't even know her!" The [Imagine Breaker] stammered as he pushed the perverted teen away.
The girl just kicked her fellow blonde in the shin and hissed at him. "Shut up, you siscon."
Biting back a laugh, the Magician-Esper hybrid nodded.
"Kamijou-san, could I speak to you in private?"
"A confession?"
"Shut. Up." Both the perpetually unfortunate boy and loli girl punched the blue haired boy to the ground.
"You go to the same school as Biri-Biri, so you know her I guess?" Kamijou asked her once they'd gone somewhere slightly more private.
Naru bit the inside of her cheek to not laugh at the name. She had serious matters to discuss at the moment. She could milk this little tidbit of information for her amusement at a later date.
"Yeah and she needs your help with something big." The blonde told him sternly.
He knitted his brow and leaned forward to whisper, "Her sisters?"
What the-! Oh come on, how did he stumble upon this? No, this makes it easier I guess. She inwardly sighed, How the clones messed this up is beyond me.
"Head to the Switchyard of the 17th School District at 8:30 PM, Japanese Standard Time. And be ready for a fight."
The young man just nodded. He didn't even so much as question the need for him to get involved.
What a weirdo.
"And a favor? Try not to die." Naru said as she began to fly away. As she did, a voice called out.
"God, thank you for the visage that is pure white panties!"
Naru's eyes widened as she turned around and zapped the blue haired pervert for even daring to look up!
After the perv was a lightly smoking unconscious heap, the Number 2 continued to head back to meet up with Saten.
They needed to plan.
"Uihauru!"
"Shirai-san!"
Kazari and her Judgement partner called out to each other as the latter climbed up the last few stairs to reach the floor where their Branch Office was located. Both girls weren't just exchanging greetings though, both radiated clear worry.
"You go first, Uiharu." Shirai-san said graciously, as she held open the office door to let Kazari in ahead of her. She always had such good manners. She didn't even really need to use the door, being able to teleport directly into the office, but nevertheless did so every time anyways because it was the proper thing to do.
"Thank you, Shirai-san." Kazari said with a smile, as she entered the office and led the way to the break area. "Tea?"
"Of course." The Teleporter agreed. "So what has gotten you so worked up?"
"Has Misaka-san come home yet? I tried calling her, but no one is answering." Kazari said while puffing out her cheeks in frustration. "I even asked Saten-san if she could find her. She just told me that Misaka-san was alright and not to worry."
"Namikaze-san told me much the same when I asked for help as well." The tawny haired girl said as she took the cup of tea that the Level 1 offered her.
Kazari frowned at that.
"You think they might know something and can't tell us for some reason?"
"Or won't." Her partner suggested more uncharitably.
The computing genius had the irrational urge to jump to her best friend's defense and declare that she'd never do something like that but couldn't. Not when she knew full well that her friend would do exactly that. She always had a tendency to resort to over the top solutions to things.
"You think we should look into whether they know anything?"
The Level 4 nodded. "It has been a couple days since Onee-sama disappeared and we have had no other leads. I think it is time to broaden our horizons."
Kazari gripped her tea cup tightly in indecision. After a moment, she took a steadying breath and nodded.
"I'll hack into Saten-san's database and see if she's hiding anything." The flower crown wearing girl announced as she headed over to her work station, her grip on her cup still tight.
"I still cannot believe you are given such free access to her servers." Shirai-san commented airily.
"I don't." Kazari explained as she booted up her computers. "I was serious when I said I had to hack in. I have some access, but most of the stuff is behind secure encryptions and firewalls ."
"...Uiharu, how much information have you been learning?"
"A. Lot." The computer wiz admitted. Saten-san had collected a truly phenomenal amount of information and even her limited access had let the young girl learn a great deal about the true nature of the City. It had been occasionally disturbing reading, but was overall very enlightening.
"I see." Her partner replied uneasily. "You'll have to tell me what you have learned in the future."
"No. You really don't want me to." Kazari deadpanned, her digits flying along her keyboard.
"Change of topic." The Tokiwadai student suggested, which made the Level 1 thankful. "Will Saten-san notice your hacking?"
"Probably not." Kazari confidently declared. "She has immense processing power and this gives her a great advantage at manipulating computers, but she's not very skilled and tends to favor brute force approaches. So as long as I'm careful in covering my tracks, she won't even notice for some time."
"How long?"
"Until she does a full system scan." Kazari replied somewhat evasively.
"How long?" Shirai-san pressed.
"A day."
"...Level 5s." Shirai-san huffed as she leaned closer to the screen. "By the way, you seem awfully familiar with her system's vulnerabilities. Done this before?"
Kazari gave a mischievous little smile at that. "Sometimes. It's a little game Saten-san and I play. I try to hack in and she tries to notice. If she catches me I have to get her something and if I get in without getting caught she buys me dessert the next time we eat out together."
"My my, who knew Uiharu was such a troublemaker."
Kazari's ears turned red at that.
"I'm not!" She whined in defense for a moment before her attention was caught by a file she'd just accessed inside the secure sections of Saten-san's database.
"Huh," Kazari frowned as she typed a bit faster to more quickly break through the encryption on the file, "Saten-san has done some major spending that she's budgeted under her Power Curriculum Program."
"So?"
"So, it's located in District 11. Where that secret lab was during the Level Upper Incident? She told me that lab had been shut down."
"She reactivated it?"
"Yeah," Kazari nodded. "What's even more odd is that she's arranged for food to be delivered there. Themed bento lunches? Why would she buy those? She hates pre-packaged bentos!"
"What theme?"
"Give me a minute. I need to hunt down the receipt." The hacker said as she accessed another file, before replying in a shocked whisper. "Gekota."
"Onee-sama is there!" Shirai-san gasped, her twintails in a tizzy.
"Exactly, but why is she there in the first place?" The flower crown wearing girl pondered.
"It doesn't matter. Our priority is to get Onee-sama. Forthwith Uiharu!"
Kazari just cocked an eyebrow and shot her a weary smile. "So you want to walk into whatever is set up there without any intel? You do remember how much of a deathtrap it was last time, correct?"
"Fine. Just be quick about it. Onee-sama could be in trouble."
Kazari resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Seriously, if Saten-san was having food delivered for Misaka-san then the older girl was fine. At least fine enough that being patient enough to check ahead for any dangers was a good idea. But try telling that to her partner, she was so worked up that she was pacing the Office in agitation.
"The lab's funding is actually coming from an infusion by the City's Board of Directors."
"What?"
Ignoring the interruption, Kazari continued reading the document she'd just pulled up. "Apparently it's payment for services rendered in creating a countermeasure against Misaka-san and only one of several projects, of which Saten-san is involved in several, to develop such measures against all the Level 5s."
"Countermeasures? I mean, I can understand why after Saten-san went off the reservation. Nonetheless, we can worry about this at a later date. I think it is time to act, Uiharu."
"Forthwith?" Kazari's quirked her lip, despite the situation.
Shirai-san nodded, "Indeed."
With that, the girl teleported out of the 177th Branch Office.
Locked up in the fancy cell that Saten had cooked up for her, Mikoto had few things she could do. One was the daily necessities: eat, sleep, shower, etc. At least, her two baka kohai had the decency to provide her with replacement clothing, good, non-magnetic toiletries and her favorite Gekota bentos for her meals. She loved the simple yet tasty meals, but having them for every meal for two days straight was making even her start to grow bored of it.
Baka-Usagi, these were probably her idea. Mikoto thought bitterly. Oh! How she wished she could strangle the dumb blonde.
Unfortunately, considering her situation thinking about it was about all she could do. That being the only other thing she could manage in the cell.
It was so quiet and bleak that Mikoto was starting to lose her mind.
Banging her head back into the bed, the girl held the pillow tightly. Sobs escaped her throat, as she recalled the fact that as of this evening 10031 clones had been massacred as a result of the sick experiment. The grim number having been delivered to her by Saten when she'd asked the girl when she'd brought dinner earlier.
Was it really all for nothing? The [Railgun] blinked out a few frustrated tears. Is there really no way to save them?
With a miserable wail, she burst into another of the innumerable crying fits she'd fallen into since her confinement.
And that damn [Robot]! Mikoto raged, her emotions switching tack as she finished crying herself out. She doesn't even understand why I'm upset that thousands of innocent clones are dead! Even had the gall to tell me the number didn't matter!
At least the Chibi didn't have the tact of a processor, but she'd seen neither hide or hair of that bundle of annoyance since she was locked up. It seemed after capturing her, the blonde had washed her hands of her. Some friend she was.
"Damn traitors, the pair of them!" Mikoto shouted as she punched the wall hard over her head, bruising her knuckles against the ultra hard material for her trouble.
Hissing at the pain, she glanced at her bloodied knuckle and watched her blood drip down her hand.
"Pain? What right do I have to be whining about a little pain like this when I've killed thousands?"
Thousands… Worse, they don't even care that they are being killed. Just look at all those clones showing up just to clean up after one died as if it was the natural order of things. Horrible.
As the scene ran through her mind once more, Mikoto frowned as one line in particular struck a chord with her.
"We are artificial bodies with artificial hearts. At the cost of 180,000 yen each, we are nothing more than laboratory animals."
They had called themselves nothing more than lab animals! And were completely accepting of their fate, and it was all her fault!
She was about to break out into another round of sobbing when she caught sight of the stack of documents detailing the minutiae of the project that Saten had passed her at her request yesterday.
According to that, I'm no match for Accelerator. Tree Diagram predicts that he'll only need 185 moves to defeat me. An idea, a terribly appealing one slowly began to come together in her mind. But what if I'm not even worth that much? Like say, if I were to lose after the first move? Then that prediction would be proven false. What if that made the researchers doubt the project? Or even just the validity of the simulations? That would be enough wouldn't it?
That's it! Mikoto thought with an insane glint in her eyes, "If I do that. I-I can stop it."
If Accelerator killed her, the experiment would be ruined.
Finally! Finally I have a way to save the clones.
"Any active defenses?" Kuroko asked her partner over the phone as she cautiously pushed open the door to the lab building, which at a glance had clearly been refurbished. The holes in the walls and ceiling from the Level Upper Incident had been patched and it had even gotten a fresh coat of paint.
Goosebumps ran up Kuroko's arms at revisiting this lab. It was one of the most harrowing experiences in her Judgement career. She was just glad that Uiharu couldn't see her, she did not want to consider how embarassing looking terrified in front of her partner would be.
"Nothing that I can see." Uiharu replied, the sound of her fingers flying over her keyboard echoing in the background as she hacked deeper and deeper into Saten-san's systems. "Though there might be something completely off the grid. So be careful."
"I'm always careful." Kuroko said as she walked into the building and was greeted with a strange sight.
There sitting in the centre of the loading/unloading bay that was the majority of the subterranean lab's ground floor was a single large white cube.
"Hm." Kuroko hummed as she walked up to it steadily.
"Found something?"
"A massive cube of some kind. It is just sitting here on the ground floor."
"...They wouldn't? Would they?"
"What are you talk-Onee-sama!"
"Yeah, it's a prison cell." Uiharu confirmed. "One made of Dark Matter that's specially designed to be immune to all electromagnetic effects thus making it the perfect cage for Misaka-san."
"I'm giving those two such a tongue lashing over this. Oh, I doubt I can just teleport in there. Uiharu, do you have any ideas?"
She heard a thoughtful hum as her partner pondered the situation for a moment before replying, "It's designed to hold Misaka-san, so you should be able to teleport in just fine."
"Give me the interior plans. I need to be precise." Kuroko demanded, even as she hurriedly pulled out a pen and her notepad from her field operations kit.
"Here you are." Uiharu dutifully replied and Kuroko ripped her phone from her ear and quickly memorized the plans she was sent.
Putting her phone back to her ear, she quickly scribbled a note on a page of her pad telling Onee-sama to clear the spot she was aiming for and giving her a five minutes lead. Ripping it out, she teleported the piece of paper just below the central light fixture inside so that as it fell to the floor the shadow it cast would be especially attention grabbing.
"Five minutes till I go in." Kuroko informed her partner.
"Relax, Shirai-san. I'm sure Misaka-san is fine."
Kuroko didn't bother pointing out that being kidnapped and confined against her will was plenty far from fine. Instead, she just waited impatiently for the five minutes to elapse. Once it had, Kuroko concentrated and teleported inside.
There she was, her glorious Onee-sama… surrounded by finished Gekota bento boxes.
Nonetheless!
She looked every bit the princess that she was!
"Kuroko!" The Level 5 cried out and pulled her into a tight up.
Onee-sama! Kuroko, Kuroko's heart is melting! The Level 4 was in heaven, nothing on earth could possibly ruin this moment.
Now being held at arm's length, her darling Onee-sama demanded, "What's the time and date."
"Onee-sama, I-"
"Now!"
Well, that moment was ruined. Though, now that she looked at her roommate, the chestnut haired girl was manic looking.
"August twenty first, around eight thirty or so."
Her breath hitching, her Onee-sama shook her shoulders violently, "Exactly, Kuroko, what's the exact time?"
Blinking in confusion, but complying with the request anyway, Kuroko checked her phone. "8:35 p.m."
"Crap! You need to get me to the Seventeenth District Railway Switchyard this instant."
"O-Of course! Whatever you need."
"Hurry, Kuroko! Hurry!" The Level 5 demanded as she gripped the Teleporter's arm with a vice grip.
Wincing from Onee-sama's grip, she teleported them into the sky above the lab.
Looking around to get her bearings, Kuroko quickly began to rapidly teleport towards the 17th District and whatever emergency that had Onee-sama so frantic.
The Seventeenth District Railway Switchyard was usually nothing more than one of the City's dozen or so unseen railway hubs, where the less commuter-centric parts of rail operations took place. Things like maintenance, cargo loading, etc. It therefore paid little regard to aesthetics and was nothing more than a patch of earth filled with many storey high stacks of shipping containers waiting to be loaded onto the City's trains and shipped out. These were organized in a maze like pattern discernible only to the staff and the computer system that ran the place.
Tonight however, the yard had been transformed into a battlefield.
On one side, were the two most highly ranked female Espers in the world: [Maniforce] Namikaze Naru and [Multi-Skill] Saten Ruiko. They were putting on a poor showing though as they remained on the defensive and had their hands full just doing their very best avoiding their opponent's attacks.
Just who was able to put these two powerful Level 5s on such a backfoot? Well, none other than the most powerful Esper in the world, Accelerator.
It was to the scene of said young man tossing a dozen shipping containers at the two Tokiwadai classmates that Mikoto and Kuroko witnessed as they finally reached their destination.
Acting quickly, Mikoto reached out with her powers to grab hold of a nearby container of her own and sent it in an intercept course for those barreling down on her two kohai and a battered looking clone clutched in a princess carry by the blonde.
They're fighting him? Mikoto mused as her container safely knocked the others off course. So they really were trying to help.
A small part of her was saddened with how she treated them, but a larger part was still angry at being locked up.
"What on Earth? Who are they fighting? This level of combat is unacceptable!" Kuroko asked, completely confused by the situation which was understandable since she was likely clueless about what was going on.
Whatever answer Mikoto might have given her was interrupted as the albino psycho began ranting.
"Ruiko!" He called out to his old friend, ignoring everyone else to level a glare at the aforementioned raven haired girl.
"Oi, Saten-chan. Hold him back." The Chibi called out as she leapt back several yards.
"Why are you betraying me? Huh?" The crazy continued shouting. "Stop interfering with my road!"
"Accel, listen to me. I'm not betraying you." Saten pleaded in the mechanical voice that she fell back into when she was stressed, even as she spread her arms wide to shield Namikaze and the clone.
"Then what the hell do you call this?!"
"Trying to help you see that you've gone astray."
"Onee-sama, what is going on?!"
Mikoto simply said, "Not now, Kuroko."
"You don't even believe the bullshit you're spouting!" The Number 1 exclaimed with a look of utter fury plastered on his face. "You always stare at people dead eyed when you're lying and you've been doing that the whole time since you started being a bloody busybody."
"Negative." Saten said robotically even as she vigorously shook her head.
"Liar." The young man hissed as he sent a massive spiraling gust at the Number 3.
Saten raised a shield but it faltered under the fury of the squall unleashed by the Number 1, but thankfully a large wall of earth rose up and defended her.
"Hey Shithead! Stop acting like a psycho for five seconds, will you!" Namikaze shouted at the lunatic Number 1. The clone was leaning on her shoulder as the blonde held her palm to the ground.
Mikoto looked down at one of the various railways that crisscrossed through the yard and used her electro-magnetism to pull several bolts that held the tracks down free.
Tossing one such bolt into the air, Mikoto charged her hand and punched it. Her railgun fired right at Accelerator at a much higher level of power than usual -due to her ammo- but was nevertheless effortlessly deflected.
"Huh?" The red eyed psychopath turned towards Mikoto, "Tch, you're here again? You a dumbass or something? I've got no time for pests."
Mikoto could only shout at her friends, "Fight him seriously already you morons!"
And with that, a battle of the Level 5s had begun.
Done and done. Man, kind of a short chapter but still, thanks to the team of Nameless as always.
While we are cliffhanging you here, I think it was the best place to stop since we dumped a lot of self reflection and such in this chapter. Next time, we got a whole big fight scene for you guys to enjoy.
Nameless: Sorry about all the (perhaps excessive) CD. We promised to cut back but it's hard to do so when the whole arc is full of it in canon which we are trying to stick to as far as possible. Hope our spin/additions to it was satisfying at least.
Again I think it's necessary to stress that the characters aren't exactly spot on when they describe the personalities of other people. For example, in this chapter we had Mikoto think Ruiko was callous for dismissing the thousands of Sisters that had already died. That's mainly just Ruiko saying "It doesn't matter how many died, one is too many." but Mikoto saw it as "Ten thousand is nothing."
E4E: The Mikoto reflection was her own spiral of depression until she reached a crazy low point in her life. I mean, it's basically from canon, but we put a more solitary spin to it so to say. And of course, the fight scene with Touma is on its way. Should be fun.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!