Eventually, she stopped screaming, and left the vacant lot before anyone could come investigate the noise. After that, Kuroko settled into auto-pilot, letting her old—new—memories guide her back to Tokiwadai itself. She presented herself first to the administrative office, barely paying attention after handing an administrator her doctor's note from Heaven Canceller. She was given a pass to skip the remaining classes of the day, and soon enough Kuroko found herself making her way toward her dorm room.

She paused just before the door to the room itself, her eyes catching the nameplates that hung near the entrance. She could see her own name, as well as that of…

What? Who the fuck was Makigami?

That unexpected sight caused Kuroko to short circuit for a few moments, memories of what was and yet what should have been colliding and confusing her even more. She grimaced, clutching her head as she felt the beginnings of a migraine start to develop.

It took her a good minute, but, slowly, she started to sort out her conflicting memories. It was currently May 10th of 2004. Kuroko Shirai had only transferred to Tokiwadai in the last week of April, and for the week after that, she had been hospitalized with a bad fever. While she had met Mikoto Misaka in passing, she was not slated to become her roommate until June of the same year. So, until then, her roommate was whoever had been Kuroko's roommate during that initial period, which was apparently a…Komaki Makigami, if her other set of memories served right. Huh, now that name seemed oddly familiar to her—

Wait, it was 2004?

Kuroko froze before the door of her dorm, her mouth opening and closing as her brain shut down processing this fact. After a few moments, she brought her head up and forcefully smacked herself in the forehead, wincing at the pain that brought.

Okay, sure, to add insult to injury, she was also now twenty years in the past. Sure, fine, okay. She had bigger issues to address at the moment, so she would adjust to that fact later.

The creature masquerading as Kuroko Shirai took a few more calming breaths, squaring her shoulders as she steeled her mind. Then, she finally reached for the door of her dorm room, and opened it up.

A somewhat familiar and yet utterly alien sight greeted her. Inside, she could see a pair of beds, separated by a decent amount of distance on the left and right sides of the room. Across from both beds were a pair of writing desks and a small dresser. Adjacent to the desks themselves were a pair of bookshelves, the right one stacked full of books, while the one on the left was only half full. Finally, she could see a pair of closets on either side of the room, and a door on the right that her memories told her led to the room's shared bathroom.

Kuroko slowly stepped inside, closing the door behind her as she took in the foreign yet familiar sights. Kuroko had had a full week to get used to the accommodations before falling sick, and her old self had vague memories of seeing a similar dorm room in a show that should have been fictional. One set of memories was stronger than the other, but the dissonance between them left her feeling ill at ease.

Kuroko started to examine the room with clinical detachment, her brows furrowed as she started to explore the left side of the room. Her memories told her that the right side was her roommate's, and so she steered clear of that, exploring her own half instead. The bed looked and felt comfortable enough—she had the strangest urge to call it 'soft' and 'fluffy', and she wasn't sure why—while her bookshelf had titles that were, yet again, foreign and familiar to her. A Japanese translation of Harry Potter, books on theoretical physics, several Japanese classical literature texts, a detailed history of the founding of Academy City, and more littered the half-filled shelves. Meanwhile, she found that the dresser next to her desk was filled mostly with school related material and supplies, though Kuroko also spotted a few spiral notebooks inside, her memories telling her that they were filled with the creative writing that Kuroko liked to engage in.

….

She would address that subject later.

Finally, she walked to her closet, seeing outfits that she could and could not remember wearing. Her school uniforms and a set of more casual clothes hung from the hanging rack, while a dresser was built into the back of the closet, containing the rest of her clothes. Kuroko idly browsed through them all, making note of the other outfits and clothes she had—she was and was not a fashion conscious person, so in some ways she was looking at her wardrobe with a fresh pair of eyes—before finally making her way to the bottom drawer. She had the nagging feeling she was forgetting something as she opened it up—

"Oh my god."

She slammed the drawer shut, her face carefully blank while a growing flush tinged her cheeks. She stood rooted to the spot for a good few minutes, mouth left open like a gaping fish.

She was Kuroko Shirai, the girl who considered herself far more mature and wiser than her years would otherwise suggest. She was also not Kuroko Shirai, because she had a fucking sense of shame and decency.

Well, that settled the matter. She was never opening that drawer again. She would sooner set fire to the entire dorm than open that drawer again.

After spending another few minutes ruthlessly suppressing any remaining memory of that moment, Kuroko approached her bed and laid down on it. She closed her eyes briefly, interlocking her fingers together as she tried her best to center herself. She stayed like that for a few minutes, feeling the alluring call of sleep tempting her as she rested there.

Then, her eyes opened back up, and a resigned sense of expectation filled her body. Slowly, she got up from the bed, sat down over at the writing desk, and took out a pen and a blank notebook from her dresser.

Time to settle down for business.

Kuroko stared down at the open notebook before her, twirling her pen with her fingers as she tried to wrestle with her brain for any more morsels of information. Anything, absolutely anything, that would be useful to know and remember for her new, unique circumstances.

Unfortunately, nothing else came to mind. That left her stuck with what she had written down, and what was there didn't exactly leave her feeling confident.

Why? She couldn't help but dwell upon that. It could have been anything; Star Wars, RWBY, Haruhi Suzumiya, Star Trek, Dragon Ball, Harry Potter, Naruto, Danganronpa, Steven Universe, hell, she would have taken the fucking hellscape that was Overlord. At least she had a better knowledge of the source material in those franchises! So why had she been manifested…reincarnated…transmigrated over to here?

Kuroko (that wasn't her name, it felt wrong, but she had nothing else) had always been a fan of the Raildex verse, though her knowledge of the franchise was spotty and limited at best. She had, in total, seen the first two seasons of Index, all three seasons of Railgun, read some of the associated manga, and had vague knowledge of the actual light novels.

Because of this, her foreknowledge was also spotty, patchy, and filled with more holes than swiss cheese.

She was familiar with some of the more immediate, scientific threats. Harumi Kiyama, Accelerator and the Level Six Shift Project, Awaki Musujime, ITEM, DA, the Doppelganger incident, the threat of the entire fucking Kihara clan, things like that. She was aware of some of the more magical dangers, like how the entire fucking Roman Catholic Church was apparently out to get Academy City, and…

Well, that was where things got tricky. Honestly, she had watched that show so long ago, and had always liked Railgun better. She remembered so little about the actual franchise as it stood. Aleister Crowley had vaguely sinister ambitions and goals, but what were they? Had that ever been revealed? What factions of the Catholic Church were truly dangerous, and which characters did she need to stay clear of? Hadn't there been some blonde magician wanting to use some magical cross to turn Academy City Catholic, or something? When was that supposed to happen? When was Orsola meant to seek refuge in Academy City? Why had she left the Church in the first place, again? Wait, hadn't there also maybe been an Orthodox Church faction involved somewhere in all of this? Hell, when was Index even supposed to arrive here? The entire canonical incident with the Sisters happened in August, so it had to happen in July, or early August at the latest, right?

Even worse still was her lack of knowledge of the later series. She'd heard how rushed and bad Index III was, so she'd never bothered to stick with it beyond the first few episodes. She'd purchased the light novels, but hadn't gotten around to reading them. She knew of some events, vaguely, but lacked the proper context to know the first thing about them. Who was Misaka WORST? What was World War III, and didn't it maybe have something to do with the Russians? Where did the events of the Accelerator anime fall into all of this? Wasn't there also supposed to be some magic god named Othinus running around too? Also, magic gods, what the fuck was up with that?

So, she knew everything, and yet she knew nothing.

Kuroko let out a long groan, grimacing as she felt the urge to pull at her hair. She finally set her pen down, flipping the notebook closed and shoving it away for the moment. She'd written down everything she had remembered, and as paltry as it all was, that was as good as it was gonna get for the time being. She had to move on.

Okay, okay. So, there was a bunch of stuff she couldn't remember, so she just had to focus on what she could recall. In fact, there were two events she recalled with decent clarity that were much more immediate issues, so she decided to narrow her scope of focus on those incidents, for the time being.

However, the sound of an opening door brought her out of her musings. Kuroko shifted in her chair, spotting a figure that was all at once familiar to her, and yet strangely unknown to her as well.

"Shirai!" Komaki Makigami, a young girl with brown hair ending in curved pigtails and equally brown eyes, beamed at her as she stepped into the dorm room. "It's so good to see you again!"

Komaki walked over, reaching over to give Kuroko an affectionate hug as she sat frozen at her desk. After a long moment, Kuroko started to return the hug, even as her mind reeled with another set of recovered memories.

Right, now she remembered. Komaki Makigami, a fellow Judgment member and someone Kuroko Shirai had worked with on a professional level more than once, even before transferring to Tokiwadai, and once here they had become roommates by happenstance. She also remembered that she was a somewhat prominent side character first introduced in the Astral Buddy manga, as Kuroko's partner for that set of events.

Oh, shit, Astral Buddy. God, what even happened in that again? Questions for later, clearly.

"You had me so worried," Komaki continued, still smiling at her as she pulled back. "When I heard you vomiting in the bathroom, I knew something was wrong. And then I found you had that fever…the dorm manager wanted you taken to the hospital right away."

Ah, right. Komaki was her roommate, so of course she would have been the first to discover her getting sick.

"Man, you said some of the strangest things, too…" Komaki continued, shaking her head slightly. "Still, I'm glad you're alright now. How much do you remember?"

Kuroko took a few seconds to center herself, trying to remind herself what it was like to be Kuroko Shirai. Slipping on that mask was, disturbingly, becoming very easy for her to do.

"Not a lot," she confirmed, sighing softly as she rested her chin on her open hand. "I remember waking up with a fever, and then feeling sick to my stomach, but not much else after that."

That much was…true, actually. Kuroko's memories of that week in the hospital were almost nonexistent. She had vague recollections of waking up last Sunday, sick as a dog, but after a certain point it all just faded away. Her next, clearest memory was waking up in that hospital bed two days ago.

Well, no. Not exactly. She also happened to contain an entirely separate set of memories and feelings of a completely different life, and now inhabited the skin of a dead girl. But the less she focused on that, the better.

"So, I said strange things, did I?" she continued absently, trying to make conversation.

"Oh, yeah. You were really out of it," Komaki confirmed, nodding. "I don't remember a lot of it, it was mostly nonsense. You know, stuff about magic, and...something about the Church, I think?"

Kuroko felt a chill go down her spine, and for the first time since she'd walked in, she locked eyes with Komaki Makigami. She abruptly remembered that she was part of Misaki Shokuhoui's clique, the one person she should fear the most at this school, and for a long, terrible moment, she expected a starry-eyed gaze to stare back at her.

But, all she saw was Komaki's brown eyes looking at her, a hint of concern visible as her eyebrows scrunched up.

"You are fine, right? You looked rather pale there for a second," she said, reaching over unprompted to feel her forehead.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," the lies came easily to her, her wrist reaching up to casually deflect Komaki's hand. "Just a bit tired, I suppose. Uiharu filled me in about what happened with Judgment; did I miss much here at school?"

Komaki's concern melted away at that, and she started to speak, going on and on about all the things that had transpired in her absence. Most of them had to do with the fabled Queen of Tokiwadai, but Kuroko found that she didn't care too much about that.

Instead, she did her best to listen to Komaki, pretending that everything was absolutely fine and that she wasn't talking to a living corpse. It would serve as good practice when she had her first, proper conversation with Uiharu.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Komaki invited her out, and the two went to eat at one of the many restaurants in the School Garden section of District 7. Eating at a higher end restaurant was, and was not, a novel experience for Kuroko, though she found that she enjoyed herself all the same.

After that, they wandered the district together, looking through some of the higher end stores and shops that School Garden had to offer. There was one store in particular, though, that caught Kuroko's attention, near the end of the area. A specialty store that sold manga, anime, video games, and other related paraphernalia. That also included something she had, and hadn't, seen in a lifetime.

When Kuroko exited the shop carrying four bags worth of figurines, she ignored the bemused look her roommate shot her. The two of them returned to Tokiwadai afterward, just beating curfew.

Kuroko busied herself setting up some of her new treasures while Komaki used the bath. She took a step back from her bookshelf, carefully studying the previously empty row that now housed her figures, before reaching over to slightly readjust one figurine.

They were an oddity, at least to someone who might know Kuroko Shirai intimately. But Kuroko found that she did not care what anyone thought about what would be the first wave of her new collection. They were hers, and she liked them, and that was that.

That notion gave her a moment's pause, and Kuroko felt a more natural smile starting to curve across her lips. She had, and hadn't, been a lot more self conscious and awkward around others, had she not? But Kuroko Shirai never had, she had never cared about anything even remotely like that. For better or for worse, Kuroko Shirai had been completely and utterly sure of herself, one of those rare few humans without an ounce of shame in her system. She found herself quite thankful for that.

Her musings returned back to the figures, and she absently reached over to slightly adjust another one. She had to admit, even in her old life, some of these figures would have been an odd catch for her. After all, some of them were not even from shows she'd watched, in this life or the last. The quality for some left something to be desired as well. Still, they brought an odd sense of comfort to Kuroko to have them at all. It felt…familiar to her, in a way that nothing else owned by Kuroko Shirai did.

Well. Almost nothing.

Her eyes flickered over again to the dresser drawer containing Kuroko's writing journals. However, she did not have long to dwell on that. A moment later, the door to the bathroom opened up and—

Kuroko quickly fixed her gaze to the wall, humming a tune in her head as Komaki nonchalantly changed into her pajamas.

"You know, I didn't know you were into stuff like that," Komaki said, casting a quizzical gaze to her bookshelf.

Kuroko gave a small shrug, and simply said, "I guess I am now."

Komaki shot her another odd look, but she ignored it. Soon enough, her roommate was appropriately dressed, and it was her own turn to wash up.

Kuroko approached the bathroom with a sinking feeling in her gut, a scowl on her lips just as she closed the door behind herself. She locked the door, and stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, noticing the dirty look that marred her features. She closed her eyes, pushing back another feeling of wrongness and revulsion, and started undressing.

She had used the bathroom while at the hospital, of course. It had been every bit as awkward and weird as she knew it would be, but at least she had had two days to get…used to things, as it were. She had also changed clothes to leave the hospital, so that was not an unfamiliar sensation for her either.

And yet, here and now, in the privacy of her dorm bathroom, Kuroko felt like the most disgusting, depraved pervert alive.

It was easier for her to let her body go into autopilot as stepped into the shower, her hands reaching for the shampoo Kuroko Shirai used and the various other toiletries available. She passed the entire time just going through the motions, her mind blank.

She stepped out of the bathroom twenty minutes later, already changed into the most decent set of pajamas Kuroko Shirai had, and made her way over to her bed.

"Oh, Shirai," Komaki called to her from her bed, lying on her side. "I almost forgot! The Queen wants to meet with you."

Kuroko froze for a solid moment, an icy stab of fear blossoming in her chest. Then she resumed her movement, pulling the covers of her bed back as she climbed inside.

"Does she now?" she asked, keeping her tone as neutral as possible.

"Oh, yes! Misaki wanted to meet with you last week, after you'd had a chance to settle in, but, well…"

Kuroko gave a noncommittal noise, lying on her back as her mind whirled with disparate thoughts. Finally she said, "Thank you for letting me know."

She said nothing else, though the way Komaki looked at her, clearly she expected more. Silence settled upon them, and eventually her roommate just gave a small shrug and shifted in her bed.

Kuroko stared up at the ceiling, content enough to wait for the inevitable. It took some time, but she heard Komaki's breathing even out. Kuroko waited another few minutes, then slowly pulled the sheets off of her, and slipped out of her bed.

She returned to her writing desk, flipping her notebook back open. She flipped to a random, empty page, and started to purposefully write in English. At the top of the page she wrote the word GOALS in big, underlined letters. Then, below that, she started to sort out her priorities.

1: Find out if coin has been developed yet. If not, wait until it has, then buy all the coin.

It was the first thing that came to mind as she wrote, and even after finishing the sentence, she stared down at it, utterly baffled. A sudden, frenzied giggle escaped her throat, but she quickly covered up her mouth, glancing over guiltily at her roommate. Thankfully, though, Komaki still seemed dead asleep.

Kuroko turned her attention back to her notebook, her lips still quivering into a smile as she shook her head. Now wasn't that an ideal fantasy? As if she'd live long enough to even be able to carry out that plan.

A moment later, she continued.

2: Find Harumi Kiyama, stop her plan, and if possible help her with her students. Make an ally of her if possible.

3: Save the Sisters and stop Accelerator.

She paused, biting her lip as she considered both issues. One of them was, admittedly, easier said than done. For Harumi Kiyama, at least, she might be able to leverage her future knowledge to put a premature end to the whole Level Upper incident. Furthermore, if she helped introduce Harumi to Heaven Canceller before her initial arrest, then they might be able to awaken her comatose students and prevent the need for Harumi's Level Upper scheme in the first place.

The Sisters…

She had no chance of killing Accelerator. Regardless of whether she wanted to or not, it just wasn't an option. He was basically an unkillable god to almost all Espers. Maybe magic could take him out, but Kuroko was rather unsure. It wasn't like she had easy access to a magical ally in the first place.

No, the simplest solution was just introducing Touma to the Sisters several months early, and from there, that situation would ideally play out the same way. Probably, maybe. Her sheer presence was no doubt going to make the timeline go askew, regardless of her direct actions, so there really was no guarantee that Touma could take down Accelerator as he had in the original series. But, still, it was her best option in saving the Sisters. Especially since she couldn't just wait for things to play out as they had.

Countless innocent young girls, who had never asked to be born (like she had) would die if she just let things play out without interference. She couldn't let that happen. Kuroko Shirai's better conscious wouldn't stand for it.

Even if they weren't real, they didn't deserve to be murdered like that.

Kuroko let out a small sigh, and continued.

4: Meet Touma Kamijou as soon as possible. Befriend him, turn him into an ally.

A whole lot of this would be easier to address if she could count on Touma's help. He had the magic right hand that could negate anything under the sun, and the Shounen willpower to meet most challenges head on. It would also mean tying herself into his orbit, and all the problems that would come with it, but quite frankly her chances of survival seemed a whole lot better with Touma than without.

Speaking of…

5: SURVIVE.

That was a goal she truly doubted she'd be able to achieve. Still, it was nice to think about. But maybe when she did die, she'd—

….

Best not think about it.

6: Kill Gensei Kirihara.

That man was the root of many of the evils in Academy City. The world would be better off with him six feet under. Again, though, this goal was better said than done.

7: Make contact with Mikoto Misaka. Maybe befriend her?

Right, that. That, ah, well.

Kuroko tried to look at it logically. The Railgun was a useful ally to have, one of the strongest people in Academy City. Her friendship would be invaluable, and open many doors for her. Plus, it was through Kuroko Shirai that Mikoto met Uiharu and Saten. Without that link, those bonds of friendship would never be formed. And there was also the fact that not having that friend group established would cause so many butterflies and lead to so many unknowns that it hurt to think about.

But that would also mean needing to talk to Mikoto Misaka. Getting to know her, and gaining her trust enough to force herself into being her roommate, as Kuroko Shirai originally had. And that, well.

….

8: STAY AWAY FROM MISAKI SHOKUHOU! RUN AWAY THE MOMENT YOU SEE A BLONDE HAIR.

Kuroko narrowed her eyes at that last goal, tapping her pen against her notebook.

As far as she was aware, Misaki Shokuhou was THE most dangerous person in this school for her. Kuroko had no idea what the Queen of Tokiwadai would do if she read her mind and found out about her secret, and she most certainly did not want to find out. Furthermore, she did not like the thought of her mind being messed with in any way or form. So, while part of her intellectually knew that Misaki was actually a mostly good person who genuinely cared about her friends, it was also hard to ignore the way she had oh so casually wiped the memories of Kuroko Shirai during the Daihasei Festival.

…But maybe Misaki could also—

No. Kuroko ruthlessly squashed that thought before it had a chance to fully manifest. Too dangerous, too many unknowns, and the fewer people who knew she was living inside of a dead girl, the better.

Still. Misaki, apparently, wanted to see her in the near future. Most likely, Misaki wants to claim one of Academy City's best teleporters for her own little clique. And since Kuroko had not yet become friends with the Railgun, she did not necessarily have any beef or bad blood with the present Shokuhou. So that left her with one question:

How was she going to deal with her?

Author's Note:

I'll be honest, I have no idea what is happening right now. This is literally the fastest and most I've written in a single day in well over a year. I haven't been this inspired in a LONG time. So, we have the next chapter done already. Will the third be finished as quickly? I doubt it, but hey, I'm on a roll so far!

Also, this Kuroko has the same knowledge of the Raildex verse that I did when I started writing this, which is really coming back to bite her right about now. Thought that would be far more interesting than giving her near omniscient knowledge of the series.

Thanks for the positive feedback, I do appreciate it. Stay tuned for more, hopefully.