Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Eighty Five: Battle Royale - Ready? Fight~!
Leaning against a pillar outside the lobby of Heaven Canceler's Hospital, Ruiko waited for Accel to leave his meeting with Heaven Canceler to obtain the schematics for the choker that granted him access to the Misaka Network and that made up for the brain damage he'd suffered as a result for the Amai Ao Incident, so that he could upgrade the device and extend the duration that it could support full use of his powers. That being her boyfriend's first stop since he came back from leading the City's attack on Avignon.
She understood that after being forced to become a member of GROUP and an agent of the City after the Invasion Incident, he would be tasked to take on missions and she didn't need to know the details on every operation that his outfit carried out. She was, for example, fine with him not keeping her in the loop about the destruction of that Skill-Out gang which had made plans to target high Level Espers.
Even if she would have appreciated it if he had at least told her about it in hindsight. Considering that said operation almost led to the attempted assassination of Mikoto-senpai's mother at the hands of the remnants of said gang after their lack of funds following the attack by GROUP forced them to accept a contract offered by the City targeting Misuzu-san. The woman having made herself a target by becoming the representative of the Recovery Movement, a social movement which in the face of its looming war with the Catholic Church and the various nations allied to it sought to question the safety of the City's children and even, among some of its more radical members, demand the return of their children, thus threatening the City's power brokers' access to their pool of test subjects. And despite knowing that had foolishly entered the City without so much as informing Mikoto-senpai or otherwise arranging protection for herself! Thankfully, Kamijou-san had thwarted the attempt, stepping in before Ruiko had been able to do so, and somehow in the process restoring Misuzu-san's faith in Academy City being a safe place for Mikoto-senpai thus eliminating the possibility of her withdrawing Senpai from the City.
Knowing what Accel had got up to would've allowed her to better be able to chart the potential consequences of his actions and prepare for them. But she could overlook the stuff that GROUP got up to in the City. Her information network kept her abreast of most of it anyway and she could act accordingly, even without the full information. That said… Accel could've at least told her when he was being deployed halfway around the damned world!
Just the thought of him gallivanting all the way over to France without so much as a text to her, had her vision turning prismatic and she was fairly sure she was about to have another of her blackouts as her consciousness once more got lost in her own AIM field.
No! No, calm down! If you have a blackout, you might miss Accel! Ruiko thought furiously as she desperately tried to calm down, taking deep breaths as she did.
It took her a few minutes but soon her vision returned to normal and she regained her focus on her physical body.
I have to distract myself. Can't let myself get worked up again. Ruiko decided as she fished out her phone and pulled up her news aggregator app to scroll through the latest world news to provide her with the distraction that she so desperately needed.
Hmm… Ruiko hummed to herself as she finished reading the half dozen or so articles she had pulled up about the attack on Avignon and its aftermath. So despite the supposed destruction of the Document of C and the loss of its ability 'to make whatever the Pope says seem to be the absolute truth' in the attack, protests against Academy City have continued unabated and have even grown in intensity supposedly in reaction to the City's unprovoked aggression in Avignon.
Based on that, it's possible that the Document of C in Avignon was a fake and the real one is being used against the City. Or is the City's actions really egregious enough to foster the massive ill will that has swept the globe? Ruiko thought as she scrolled through an album full of photos of protests from diverse cities across the world, that included but was not limited to Paris, Washington, D.C., Moscow, Singapore, New Delhi, and Nairobi. Either way, it seems that we failed to achieve the primary objective of the attack on Avignon: suppressing foreign anger against the City.
In fact, things had seemed to have backfired, with the world seeming to be rallying against Academy City. With both NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), despite opposition from the United Kingdom, and the European Union both declaring that they would not tolerate any further aggression from the City alongside threats for retaliation if their warning was ignored. A threat emphasized by the United States Navy sailing one of its carrier groups into the seas off Tokyo Bay.
At best, they had secured a minor success at least if the rumors that Terra of the Left of God's Right Seat was killed in the aftermath of the battle in Avignon was correct. Though even that could not truly be attributed to the City's efforts, not when it had been confirmed that he had survived the battle unscathed. If the rumors were to be believed, he had died as a result of some kind of argument with Acqua of the Back. Details were scarce however so she has been unable to confirm anything.
I should really look into it more. Confirming if Terra of the Left is dead is a big deal.
If he was, significant resources could be moved to preparing defenses against other threats. If not, they needed to strengthen their defenses against him. Either way, whether he was dead or not would significantly affect the balance of power in the as yet undeclared but well underway World War Three.
But as the door to Heaven Canceler's Hospital lobby opened and Accel stepped out, Ruiko pushed those thoughts aside.
"Accel!" Ruiko said as she pushed off the pillar that she was leaning against and stalked over to confront him.
"Ruiko," Accel returned, eyeing her warily. "What are you doing here?"
"I want to know why you think it's okay running halfway across the world and getting into a massive battle without telling anyone anything!" Ruiko demanded, poking a finger sharply into her boyfriend's chest. "Don't you know how worried I was? How the girls were? How frustrating it was for us to find out you were leading the attack on Avignon via the news!?"
For a moment, Accel looked like a kicked puppy but he quickly steeled his expression, adopting a defiant one instead.
"I was doing my job as an agent of the City and making sure that it doesn't have a reason to hurt you and our daughters." He replied, pushing Ruiko's hand away from himself.
Ruiko blushed, touched by his admission. But despite that she was also frustrated.
"Accel, I can take care of myself." Ruiko reminded him. "And we should be looking after the girls together."
Accel just huffed and walked around Ruiko, beginning to take his leave. "That's not going to stop me from doing what needs to be done to take care of all of you. I've failed to do that in the past, but I'm not going to fail again!"
Men! Ruiko wanted to scream in frustration but stifled it in a bid to continue to reason with him.
"Accel, wait!" Ruiko shouted after the pseudo albino. "You came here to get the schematics for your choker so you can improve it, right? Let me help you with that!"
"Don't need it!" Accel shouted back, without so much as turning to face her but flashing a thumb drive that presumably contained the schematics he had come to the hospital to obtain. "It's my problem. I'll settle it on my own."
"Accel! Let me help you!" Ruiko demanded, sprinting after him.
"No," Accel said, turning around and putting his hands on her shoulders, stopping her in her tracks. "Look, Ruiko. I need to do this on my own. I'm your man. I need to protect you. Protect our family."
Damn Accel and his machismo!
"Accel-" Ruiko began, hoping she could still somehow reason with him, only to be silenced by Accel kissing her.
"Trust me, Ruiko." Accel said as he pulled away and offered her a smile as he called on his powers to manipulate the wind to begin carrying him up into the air. "I will take care of you and the girls."
Without waiting for her to reply, Accel shot off into the air.
"Accel…" Ruiko called out helplessly.
She wanted to follow him. To continue trying to talk sense into him. But she knew her boyfriend. He was stubborn. He wasn't ready to listen. And until something made him change his mind, he wouldn't be receptive to anything she had to say on the matter. Because of that…
All she could do was watch him fly off whilst feeling useless.
"Oyafune-sama had just stepped onto the stage to begin her speech when the sniper fired. Febrie-chan immediately detected Accelerator's AIM field with her AIM sense and ran off to try and find him. Order-chan and Janie-chan followed. The crowd was panicking by that point, so thankfully, Nunotaba-san and I managed to stop them before they got too far." Ruiko heard Kazari inform her over the phone a few days later. "They insisted we look for him after everything had calmed down but as expected, he was long gone by then."
"He would be." Ruiko agreed with a sigh. "And they are alright?"
"Yes, Ruiko-san. Order-chan, Janie-chan and Febrie-chan are fine." Her best friend reassured her. "By the way, I know Accelerator managed to stop the sniper from getting a killshot but they still got a shot in. So, um, is Oyafune-sama alright? "
"She's fine," Ruiko assured her friend. "I need to go now. Thanks for helping Shinobu-san look after the girls and telling me what happened at the event."
"No need to thank me, Ruiko-san. What are friends for? Anyways, catch up with you later. But before I hang up, just one more thing."
"Thank you anyway, Kazari. And what is it?"
"Are you okay? You've been looking stressed lately."
"I'm fine." Ruiko said, trying to be as convincing as she could.
"If you say so." Kazari replied, sounding unconvinced. "But if you have anything you want to talk about, I'm here."
"I know." Ruiko said honestly. She knew full well that her friends were there for her. She just wasn't ready to talk yet. So she deflected instead. "I've really gotta go."
"Okay. Sorry to keep you. Bye, Ruiko-san."
"Bye, Kazari." Ruiko said with a smile as she hung up her phone. Though that smile soon faded as she pocketed her phone and turned to the bedridden Oyafune-sama inside the VIP room in Heaven Canceler's Hospital where she'd found her backer after rushing over to check in on her after hearing she'd been shot whilst speaking at an event.
"So some of your family was at the event where I was shot?" The old woman asked, looking at her curiously. "Considering it was Uiharu-chan calling you to let you know they were safe and not Kiyama-sensei, it was your daughters, correct?"
Ruiko nodded. "And people wonder how you managed to become a Director."
The kindly old woman just offered Ruiko a mischievous grin. "All the better to get them to lower their guard, no?"
[Multi-Skill] just giggled.
Oyafune-sama smiled at her for that, though the look soon faded into worry. "I'm glad you can still laugh, Ruiko-chan. But are you really sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine." Ruiko said automatically. The question or some variant thereof had been posed to her often enough in recent days that her response to it had become rote.
Oyafune-sama narrowed her eyes at her response. "Just from the tone of that answer I can tell you're not fine. And based on what I've heard Accelerator has been up to, neither is he. You are both letting yourselves become pawns of the City in the name of keeping the other safe. You should be working together, but aren't."
"I tried." Ruiko said with a tired sigh, shoulders slumping. "I tried talking to Accel. To get him to talk to me, to work with me. He wouldn't listen though. He says he needs to do this because he's the man of the family or some such nonsense."
"Men and their pride." Oyafune-sama said with a sigh.
"Tell me about it."
"Though I have to ask. Is he really the only one who is trying to shoulder your shared burdens alone?"
"W-What do you mean?"
"Machismo or not, I doubt your boyfriend would completely refuse to listen to you if you pushed hard enough. You have him too whipped for that." Oyafune-sama said, pointing out the glaring flaw in Ruiko's excuses that she had been trying desperately to avoid but which the older woman's incredible insight had spotted.
"I don't know what you mean." Ruiko said evasively. She hadn't been halfhearted in her attempts to get Accel to work with her. She hadn't!
Oyafune-sama clearly didn't agree with her. Not if her frustrated sigh was any indication.
"So~! The attempt on your life," Ruiko said hurriedly before the elderly woman could push the conversation in an uncomfortable direction once more. "It was likely just a distraction. One designed to make the City shift resources away from protecting your attacker's true target."
Oyafune-sama frowned at her changing of the topic but accepted it with grace.
"Yes, I agree. If my attacker truly wanted me dead, they would have tried harder. Do you have any idea what the actual target might be?"
"Not conclusively." Ruiko informed her. "My team is still narrowing down the possibilities."
"So how's Oyafune-sama?" Naru asked her bestie as she took a seat in the Trinity's Combat Information Center (CIC) under Rui-chan's house. "Is she okay?"
"She's fine. The shot didn't hit anything vital. Heaven Canceler has already worked his miracle on her. She'll be discharged in perfect health tomorrow morning after a night of mandatory observation." Rui-chan replied with a shrug.
"The frog-faced doctor always keeps his warded patients overnight 'for observation' whether they need it or not." Mikoto-senpai complained.
"Can you blame him?" Kurozuma-san said with a shrug. "I mean, better safe than sorry, right? Besides, he's a miracle worker. There's almost no injury he can't fix and in record time too. What's one overnight stay compared to months of recovery?"
"Minion-chan has a point, Senpai." Naru said teasingly.
"Argh! I don't care! I just hate staying overnight at the hospital when I don't need to, alright! Logic can go stuff itself! My feelings trump it!"
"And you call yourself a Level 5?" Naru needled with a trickster's grin.
Setting her Senpai off was just such fun!
Sadly, her fun was cut short by Rui-chan clapping her hands to get their attention.
That's such an ojou-sama thing to do… I can hardly believe she was the [Robot] just a few months ago.
What's not to believe, Kurama? I mean, we've been her friends the whole time. We've seen her change firsthand.
Yeah, I know. It's still a little surprising when I think back on it though.
Hmm… You've got me there.
"Naru-chan," Rui-chan hissed, shooting her a look. "Could I have your attention?"
"Sorry." Naru said, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment at having been caught letting her attention wander. Not that anyone else there understood what Rui-chan was upset about. Her bestie being the only one observant enough to the split second of distraction caused by Naru's telepathic conversation with her partner. "Sure. Go ahead, please."
Rui-chan nodded in satisfaction and ignoring the confused looks that Mikoto-senpai and Kurozuma-san were shooting at the both of them, she began the briefing for the mission that the Trinity had been assigned.
"Ok, first off, let me outline the situation and our mission objective." Rui-chan said as she used some emulated electromastery to manipulate the large screens that dominated one whole wall of the futuristic looking command center so that a number of live feeds covered most of them, displacing the myriad of data streams that had been running across them previously. "It seems that a number of major Dark Side outfits have gone rogue and are on the move. Our mission is to assist other loyalist outfits in suppressing the rogues."
"Whose gone rogue?" Naru asked, her eyes narrowed.
"I'll get there, Naru-chan. Be patient." Rui-chan admonished.
"Sorry, please continue." Naru replied contritely even as Mikoto-senpai snickered at her expense.
Rui-chan, the meanie, ignored how their Senpai was laughing at her and using some electromastery had one of the live feeds fill up the whole video wall.
"It seems elements aligned with BLOCK have hacked into the Virus Isolation Center," the Number 3 continued as she gestured at the feed of the facility located in School District 5 where computer viruses made in the city were analyzed and antivirus software was developed. "It appears that they are trying to flood the internet with the advanced computer viruses developed in the City. All the External Connection Terminals have been shut down to prevent leakage, with the exception of one; the west terminal in School District 13."
At that, the live feed turned to the aforementioned External Connection Terminal. One of the facilities that connected the City to the internet and kept the global network safe from the far more advanced malware and other nasties that were abound in the City's networks whilst simultaneously keeping unwanted spyware from beyond its walls out.
"The majority of GROUP is en route to District 13 to shut the Terminal down." Rui-chan continued as the feed once more shifted to that of a recognizable Dark Side transport disguised as a camper driving down one of the city's motorways. "This is the least concerning target. Kurozuma-san, I want you to mobilize Big Spider to go support GROUP."
"Not Maniple?" The former Skill-Out asked with a frown.
"No," Rui-chan said with a shake of her head. "We don't want to alarm the public. So far everyone, on both sides of this, are keeping things covert. We will not be the ones to escalate things by deploying our paramilitary assets."
"Gotcha," the redhead nodded in understanding. "Guess, that's why Ylva-san ain't here, huh? No worries! Me and my guys will handle it."
"I'll go with them just in case they need some extra firepower." Mikoto-senpai piped up. "Besides, if all else fails, I can use my electromastery to shut down the Terminal."
Rui-chan nodded even as the feed of GROUP's transport minimized itself and was replaced by the second feed, which showed a large satellite dish.
"This is the satellite control center belonging to an aerospace engineering laboratory in School District 23. It controls the Hikoboshi II, a satellite with a large caliber ground-attack laser." She explained, her tone becoming more and more grim with every word. "Like with the Virus Isolation Center, BLOCK has hacked into its system and has seized control of both. And based on how the satellite is repositioning, they plan to use the laser to destroy the kindergartens and elementary schools in School District 13."
Everyone made some expression of disgusted shock at this revelation, except Rui-chan herself who just continued.
"Accel is headed there."
There's a reason behind that. Kurama mused knowingly.
Yeah! And I can guess what it is.
"Are Janie-chan and Febrie-chan in school?" Naru asked, her eyes narrowed.
"I've asked Shinobu-chan to take them home early." Rui-chan replied. "I've also spoken to Nunnally-san at their school and explained what I could of the situation. She'll make sure the other students are evacuated as well."
"Good. Damn terrorists." Senpai spat out with a frown. "What about the other schools though?"
"Oyafune-sama is working on it." Rui-chan said with a frown. "The Board is less resistant than she expected, apparently even they aren't going to do nothing when little kids are about to be massacred en masse, and they'll be declaring an evacuation of the District under some excuse or other. It'll take time to complete though. Time we might not have."
"I presume you'll want to handle this one?" Mikoto-senpai asked, stating the obvious. With her twins' lives on the line and her boyfriend already on the case, that Rui-chan would take charge of this crisis was a given.
"Ah, I see, I see." Naru nodded sagely. "Try not to get too distracted by looking at Accel's butt, Rui-chan. This is an op after all."
"N-Naru-chan!" Rui-chan exclaimed, face pink and looking scandalized. "I'm always professional!"
"Sure, sure." Naru hopped to her feet, bouncing on her soles. "I'll go back up ITEM. Someone has to make sure Laserbeam Barbie doesn't go overboard or something."
"Naru-chan, look after Frenda, okay?" Rui-chan asked in an official tone, but with a sly smile.
"Of course, I'll look after her. Blondes stick together and all."
The Norwegian girl may not be as weak as Takisubo in a fight, but that was only because it was an unfair comparison. [AIM Stalker] wasn't a fighter and usually kept herself far away from combat, which made Frenda the weakest fighter in ITEM due to not having an Esper ability. She'd be in big trouble if she faced off against any heavy hitters.
"Wait! ITEM is involved with this?" Mikoto-senpai asked, sounding confused.
Rui-chan nodded and using her electromastery, minimized the feed from the satellite control center, replacing it with the last feed. A feed that showed ITEM's transport as it sped down one of the City's roads, a vehicle that Naru had recognized the moment that her bestie had first brought up the feeds.
"They alongside elements of MEMBER are headed to a particle engineering laboratory associated with Kirigaoka Girls' Academy in School District 18. It is currently under attack by SCHOOL."
"So Kakine is finally making his move to get his hands on the Tweezers, huh?"
"The what?" Mikoto-senpai asked, sounding lost.
"They're something called an 'attachment-type manipulator for microscopic object interference'," Kurozuma-san, of all people, explained, much to Senpai's surprise. "Word on the street is that it can allow people access to the Superintendent's nanomachine based spy system."
"Wait, people not in the know are aware of UNDER_LINE?" The [Railgun] gasped.
Naru couldn't help it. She facepalmed.
Was Senpai always this slow?
No, I think she's just got a lot on her mind lately. Or did you forget about everything that happened with her mother just the other day.
Oh, yeah…Guess I don't understand that kind of thing.
Kurama sent her an image of him rolling his eyes. Tell me that the next time one of your friends get hurt and you start acting stupid.
Naru blinked in surprise. Kurama had a point…
"That's not what Kurozuma-san meant, Senpai." Rui-chan said with a sigh, continuing the conversation whilst Naru chatted with her partner. "What he means is that people suspect UNDER_LINE's existence and its nature. And that because of the latter, there are also suspicions that the Tweezers can allow access to it. But there is a world of difference between having suspicions and knowing something to be true."
"Oh," Senpai said, blushing in embarrassment. "Uh, got it. Sorry, Kurozuma-san. Ignore me."
The former Skill-Out gang leader graciously waved the apology away.
"Oh, Kurozuma-san's been reading up, huh?" Naru said, allowing her pleasant surprise to show in her tone. "As expected of our number one minion."
"It's a lot of dry material though." The redhead confessed with a weak grin. "But a leader's got to know his stuff. And since I'm leading Big Spider again, that means I need to be current on the kinds of things we might end up having to deal with."
All three members of the Trinity nodded in agreement. That was a good way to approach leadership.
"Okay, we've split up our targets." Rui-chan said, bringing things back on track. "Any questions?"
All of them shook their heads.
"Good. Then let's move out. It's time to save the City. Again!"
Even as Academy City's leading Dark Side outfits prepared for what was certain to be a battle royale, in a darkened lab in one of its numerous deliberately forgotten corners, Marie and Eveline LeBeau, the custom clones of Mikoto created by the bioweapons arms dealer Remy LeBeau stood before a video wall similar to the one in the Trinity's CIC and reviewed much of the same data that our heroines had.
"Mummy, it's time to act! With everyone on the move like this, there'll be no one to stop us when we-"
"Evie, be patient." Marie chided her daughter. "The City might be in disarray at the moment, but there are still powerful forces at its disposal, forces too powerful for us to handle. Those need to be tied down before we can act."
Evie growled in frustration before angrily gesturing to the lab behind them. A lab filled with rows upon rows of large figures hidden in the shadows. "If we're just going to cower even when the opportunity to act presents itself, then what was the point of all our work upgrading ourselves and creating our army!?"
Marie shot the younger and less mentally and physically mature clone an annoyed look. "Tell me, Evie, do you want to get us killed for nothing?"
"Wha-"
"Because that's what you're suggesting we do by acting now." The older appearing clone said sternly. "Or do you think that even with our current capabilities that we are a match for the Trinity or even just Accelerator? Because those are the City's forces on the move at the moment."
Faced with a scolding, Evie reverted to her programming and started acting like the little girl she resembled. "No, Mummy. Sorry, Mummy. It's just that I miss Daddy."
And in the face of her daughter's behavior, Marie found herself reverting to her own programming. Something that she enjoyed immensely. She was made to be Evie's mother, among other things, and she relished serving that role.
"I know, sweetie." The motherly clone said as she pulled her daughter into a comforting hug. "I miss Daddy too, but we need to be patient. The way things are developing, all the big players will be preoccupied soon enough. Then we can strike, okay?"
Evie nodded.
"I'll be patient." The younger looking clone promised.
"Good girl."
As Ruiko finished the series of teleports to the satellite control center in School District 23 that controlled the Hikoboshi II, she found herself confused to find Accel being confronted by [Kill Point] from MEMBER.
Why in the world is MEMBER trying to waylay Accel? Ruiko thought as she teleported behind Saraku-san, startling the Teleporter as she put a hand on his shoulder and using her emulated electromastery shocked him into unconsciousness.
"Accel, why did it look like you were about to pick a fight with MEMBER!?" She demanded of her boyfriend. "We're on the same side here!"
Was she a hypocrite for calling Accel out after just knocking [Kill Point] out? Definitely. But she didn't care! No matter the circumstances, there was no way she'd stand by and do nothing when her loved ones were in a fight.
"He was getting in my way of destroying this place," Accel replied as he gestured at the satellite dishes that was at the heart of the facility they were in, all whilst his Redirection barrier casually deflected the hail of bullets being shot their way by the Anti-Skill guarding the place.
"Destroy? What are you talking about? We just need to secure the center's systems." Ruiko shouted even as she followed after her boyfriend as he marched towards the satellite dishes, heedless of the ever increasing gunfire directed their way. Understandably so, since his Redirection was more than enough to keep them both safe.
"And would doing that guarantee the hackers don't just take over the whole damned thing again a little while later?" Accel countered as he fired precisely calculated air bullets at the Anti-Skill guards that packed just enough of a punch to knock them unconscious but not enough to actually injure them.
"We can put in safety measures against that-"
"And would that be safer than just wrecking this place and forcing the linked satellites into standby mode like they are programmed to?" Accel snapped as he continued disabling the guards and they continued their walk towards the facility's satellite dishes. "Are you willing to gamble the girls' lives on being able to put up defenses that can prevent another takeover? We're talking about an orbital ground attack laser here!"
"Don't you think I know that!" Ruiko countered. "But don't you see that's probably exactly what the enemy wants us to do!? The Hikoboshi II isn't just equipped with a laser! It's also the City's primary orbital surveillance platform! If we destroy those dishes and cut off communication to it, we will cripple the City's surveillance capabilities and leave it vulnerable!"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take." Accel insisted as he conjured a twister that he sent spinning towards the satellite dishes. "It's a smaller threat than that damned laser. If any riff raff thinks they can make use of the opening created to cause trouble, I'll just remind them why I'm the Number 1."
He has a point… Ruiko reluctantly conceded as she used Clairvoyance to locate the personnel in the path of Accel's tornado and teleported them to safety with Move Point.
"Fine!" She said with a huff of irritation. "But you better take responsibility for this recklessness!"
"I will." He assured her. "Trust me."
Ruiko did. Which was the only reason she hadn't tried to stop him even though she was sure what he was doing was a terrible idea.
I guess what they say is true, 'love makes fools of us all'.
"Hey! Kinuhata-san! Did I miss the fighting already?" Naru asked as she looked over the battlefield that the area around the Kirigaoka Girls' Academy particle engineering laboratory had become. With the lack of Mugino and Kakine around, the fighting, if it was still going on, must have moved on.
The petite Level 4 noticed her arrival - Naru saw her glancing in her direction when she teleported in. - but was too into beating the shit out of a group of gunmen to even reply. Boring.
Naru! Go to the alley at your one o'clock and hurry!
Huh? Why? Naru asked as she obeyed and teleported to the roof of a building overlooking the alley Kurama had indicated.
Because the Saten girl's side-piece is practically shitting herself with fear!
And Naru could see why. As below her, she saw a badly wounded Frenda cowering against the alley's deadend from [Measure Heart] as the girl wearing a dress and jewelry more suited to a hostess club than a Dark Side op advanced on her with a gun leveled at her head. A sight that made Naru furious
Her mood turning dark and serious, Naru blurred in front of the girl in the dress in a burst of raw, superhuman speed. "Oi, the fuck do you think your doing to my friend there?"
Gokusai Kaibi, the infamous [Measure Heart], turned her head sharply to face her, her light colored bleached wavy hair swaying with the rapid movement and her eyes widened in shock. Though that quickly faded as she took on a sly look, smiling coyly. "Hello there, Naru-chan~"
She cooed, as if flirting almost, and suddenly Naru felt like she was reuniting with a long lost friend. It felt like she was in Rui-chan's presence.
Naru, she's-
I know.
Using Move Point, Naru closed the remaining distance with [Measure Heart] and backhanded her into a wall. "Are you an idiot?"
The dumbass coughed up blood from the blow, shakily trying to sit up.
"W-What the-?! No, wait!" The girl in the dress cried out and suddenly Naru's feelings changed from the warm happy feelings of being with Rui-chan to the casual yet dependable camaraderie she shared with Mikoto-senpai. "Hey, that hurt you know!"
Naru snapped out a punch, sending the pretentious bitch flying. She landed in a rough tumble along the ground, her dress tearing and her body becoming littered with cuts. Confused and dazed, the SCHOOL agent staggered to her feet and began rambling. "How is this possible? D-Did you develop an immunity to my power? I knew you were a freak, but that's a little much!"
The twin tailed blonde scoffed, flipping a pigtail over her shoulder. "No. I'm just okay with attacking my friends too if they're being dumbasses. Like you."
Realizing she had no hope of beating her, [Measure Heart] started to flee but not before shouting over her shoulder at Naru. "Y-You're a heartless monster!"
Naru's response was to shoot several fireballs at her that exploded around her, eliciting a pleasantly terrified scream from the bitch, burning her and sending her into the dirt.
"Ya lil whiny bitch, can't you take a spanking!?" Naru shouted back, shaking her fist at the bratty diva, who despite her frail appearance powered through her injuries and quickly pushed herself to her feet before continuing her run to safety at a more hobbling pace.
As [Measure Heart] disappeared from sight, Naru whispered to herself. "By the way, you bitch, I could still hit you because I know that unlike you, my friends can take a beating."
"N-Naru-sama, t-thanks for the save." Frenda managed as she tried to stagger towards Natu only to topple forward after only a few steps.
"Woah, there! I've got you. You okay?" Naru asked as she caught the injured Level 0.
"I-I think I-I need t-to see a doctor." Frenda tried to joke.
"Okay! Gotcha. I'll get you to one ASAP." The Level 5 assured her as she picked her up in a fireman's carry. She'd have gone for a princess carry but Rui-chan would probably sabotage her lunch for a whole school week if she did that. Her bestie was a possessive bitch when it came to the things she considered hers.
"Thank you."
"No problem there, girl. Blondes stick together, ya know? Though, it seems you took a beating huh? Geez, Rui-chan is going to flip out."
"Muuu, tell me a-about it." Frenda managed before suddenly going limp.
"Frenda, are you still with me? Frenda!?"
Relax, Naru. She's just unconscious. Kurama reassured her.
Naru breathed a sigh of relief at that. If Frenda had died on her watch, then Rui-chan would've lost it. And they so didn't need her to lose her cool right now. Or ever again really.
"Alright, let's get you back to our base and checked over." Naru told the unconscious Frenda as she began the teleports that would take her to the Trinity's base where the other blonde could get looked over. She would've preferred taking her straight to Heaven's Canceler but with the apparent battle royale going on right now, it was safer to take her to somewhere more secure at least for now.
When Frenda is better, we've gotta ask her who hurt her so badly.
Because whoever it was, they were going to pay.
No one hurt one of the Trinity's friends and got away with it. No one!
Mikoto's raid on the External Connection Terminal in School District 13 was mostly uneventful. She'd gone there, found that she, Kurozuma-san and Big Spider couldn't do anything about preventing the viruses from the Virus Isolation Center leaking out onto the global internet and so she'd ended up frying the place with her Electromastery. The only really interesting thing was that they'd ended up picking up the siscon Tsuchimikado Motoharu and the flasher teleporter Musujime Awaki from GROUP whilst they were there.
And now all four of them were piling out of the transport that Kurozuma-san had been driving after it came to a stop near the outer wall of District 11, where in the distance they could hear the sounds of a fight. It was pretty intense too if the incessant sound of gunfire and explosions was anything to do by. It reminded Mikoto of her and her sisters' fight with Hound Dog during the Invasion Incident but on a much larger scale.
"What the hell is going on there?" Mikoto asked as she glared in the direction of the latest explosion in the mid distance, Kurozuma-san having stopped their vehicle far enough away from the fighting where they could get their bearings before they joined in.
"It's BLOCK." Ruiko explained as she teleported next to Mikoto with Accelerator, startling Tsuchimikado. The others either being used to her sudden appearances or in Musujime's case likely sensed her approach through the upper dimensions that Teleporters like her moved through with their ability. "They're using the break in the surveillance coverage thanks to the loss of communication with the Hikoboshi II-" At this she shot an irritated glare at her boyfriend before continuing. "-to hide an assault on the City's walls by a large group of mercenaries they've hired. They've breached it and are pouring into the City in large numbers. The Black Knights and Accel's teammate, Etzali, are holding them off."
"Why isn't the rest of the City responding?" Musujime hissed with a frown. "If the Black Knights have had time to mobilize then they definitely can too. Where are the whole squadrons of HsAFH-11 unmanned attack helicopters assigned to perimeter defense?"
Mikoto blinked in confusion. The City had unmanned attack helicopters for perimeter defense!? Trust the girl who had once sought to overthrow the City to know its defenses.
In reply to [Move Point]'s question, Ruiko just pointed in the direction of a trio of helicopters flying in to join the fight. They looked similar to the famous AH-64 Apache and had one "wing" on either side of the craft with guns, equipment and even a rocket engine mounted on them. The latter of which they used to scream into the battlespace before the rockets cut off and their wings split into three, each portion of which had joints that granted the range of motion similar to human arms, allowing them to maneuver their weapons in difficult angles as they began strafing what Mikoto presumed were BLOCK's mercenaries.
The HsAFH-11's were probably reaping a deadly toll on their targets. Sadly, said enemies had apparently come prepared for them. As within seconds of them entering the engagement zone, all three machines were summarily shot out of the sky by particle beams. Beams that Mikoto traced back to a set of specialized truck mounted particle cannons.
"The mercenaries came prepared with a counter." Ruiko summarized with a shrug even as she shot a salvo of her own particle beams at the enemy's particle cannons, destroying them. "And sadly, we've arrived too late. Most of the City's HsAFH-11 squadrons are already down."
"Where did they get those particle cannons anyway? BLOCK got them for their flunkies?" Accel asked as he sent a twister into the fight as they advanced towards the fighting, Mikoto supplementing his attack with lightning bolts of her own.
"No, those were American models. Not as good as ours, hence needing to be mounted on trucks, but still plenty usable." Ruiko explained as she fired off more particle beams at the enemy. "I'm thinking the Americans 'lent' them to BLOCK's mercenaries to get them field tested."
"Okay, before I go to bash in some heads, anything else besides a truck sized particle cannon I need to look out for in that melee, Miss Information Broker?" Musujime asked, handily explaining why she hadn't just teleported into the fray already.
"They have a few American model laser rifles too." Ruiko warned. "Other than that? Nothing that a standard paramilitary wouldn't have."
"Gotcha." The scantily dressed Teleporter nodded before with a wave of the flashlight she used as a focus and a slight delay, she teleported into the heart of the fray.
"What about us, Stoic Jouchan? You got a battle plan for us?" Kurozuma-san, having donned his Powered Suit with its built-in Power Fist gauntlets whilst the rest of them had been advancing on the fight, asked as he jogged back up to join them.
"Kurozuma-san, you hang back and take care of anyone that slips through our barrage. The rest of us will rain fire at the enemy from a distance as we advance. Our creeping barrage should serve quite nicely as the anvil to the Black Knights' hammer." Ruiko said as she added yet more particle beams to the lightning and twisters that Mikoto and Accel were already shooting at the enemy.
"I think you're butchering the phrase there, Saten-san." Tsuchimikado said with a frown just as he finished muttering some incantation under his breath and tossed a black origami sculpture in the direction of the enemy. The obvious spell caused a sphere of water a meter across to condense around the piece of folded paper which proceeded to hurtle forward as a projectile-like attack. A spell that led to blood trickling down from the Magician-Esper hybrid's nose.
Damn. Even the smallest spell hurts him, huh?
Ignoring his injury, Ruiko replied. "Perhaps. But can you honestly say that between us and the Black Knights that we'd be considered anything less than the anvil?"
Tsuchimikado chuckled. "I suppose not."
By now they had reached the rear of the Black Knights' lines in the area. It was made out of dozens of men and women in the group's iconic black uniforms and armed with an assortment of weapons hunkering behind cover and exchanging fire with equally well armed mercenaries across a shattered road intersection.
"And I would agree with Saten-san." Lamperouge-san - No, he was in costume right now, so he was Zero-san at the moment. - said as he ducked out from his cover behind the corner of a nearby building and began walking towards them.
His pace was unhurried and made him a tempting target as unlike Mikoto's group which were shielded by Accelerator's Redirection, he was completely in the open. Which was why Mikoto was not surprised in the slightest when no less than four different mercenaries turned their sights towards him. Mikoto panicked and was about to intervene, but before she could a burst of water shot out from the cover where Zero had emerged and shaped itself into a wall that easily deflected the shots and which followed him as he closed the distance with Mikoto's group.
"No matter the circumstances, my Black Knights and I can only be described as a hammer when compared to the anvil that is three Level 5s." Zero-san nonchalantly continued, as if his wife hadn't just had to use her Hydro Hand to stop him from being shot to pieces.
His courage wasn't as easily ignored by Mikoto's companions though and Kurozuma-san whistled in appreciation whilst Accelerator and Tsuchimikado gave him a nod in respect. For her part Mikoto just frowned at what in her opinion was nothing more than pure foolishness.
"Zero-san, what news do you bring?" Ruiko asked, as she, Mikoto, Accelerator and Tsuchimikado continued their bombardment on the enemy as supported by its suppressive fire, they and the Black Knights around them began advancing, intent on carrying out [Multi-Skill]'s hammer and anvil battle plan. "You wouldn't cross no-man's land like you did if you didn't have something important to tell us."
Zero-san nodded. "We should really work on unifying our communications protocols. I tried to raise you on my radio but couldn't get through."
"Sorry about that." Ruiko said with an apologetic shrug. "We upgraded our comms security since we became official. Oyafune-sama insisted. I'll get someone to sit down with you to work something out when we're done with this Incident. For now, what did you want to tell us?"
"That is acceptable. As for my news, it is that, this-" Zero-san said, gesturing to the fighting around them, which included Mikoto noticed with a glance in the distance as she lobbed more lightning at the enemy that face stealing Magician, Etzali, shooting his disintegrating magic laser at the enemy. "-is nothing more than a distraction. Whilst my men and I mobilized quickly, we were not quick enough to fully catch all of BLOCK's mercenaries before they made it into the City. As we speak a large contingent of them are making their way to the Reformatory."
"The Reformatory? What the hell do they want to do there? A jailbreak?" Accelerator asked with a frown as having grown tired of using twisters, he started kicking around random debris that he used his vector control to turn into supersonic projectiles.
"Of a fashion," Zero said with a shake of his helmeted head. "It appears that BLOCK's plan is to take certain people being held there in the Reformatory's special cells hostage to force Musujime-san to work with them to sneak a bomb into the Windowless Building."
"And how exactly did you figure this out?" Mikoto asked as she stepped aside to allow Kurozuma-san to rush past her and deal with the crazed mercenary - the guy was foaming at the mouth - who had somehow survived their bombardment and snuck close enough to charge at her whilst armed with nothing but a knife.
"It was easy to figure out once you have all the pieces." Zero-san said airily. "More importantly, Misaka-sama, will you and Saten-sama, and perhaps Accelerator-sama as well, be willing to leave things here to us and go deal with the situation at the Reformatory?"
Mikoto exchanged a look with Ruiko and received a nod in return.
"We're in." She told the leader of the Black Knights. "Accelerator?"
"If Ruiko's going, then so am I. Tsuchimikado?"
"GROUP will join you as a team." The Hawaiian shirt loving siscon said with a cocky grin. "Give me a minute or two to collect the others. I'll meet back up with you guys in a bit."
Without waiting for a reply, the Magician-Esper Hybrid slipped away to presumably do as he said.
"Thank you," Zero-san said, sounding genuinely relieved as he pointed to the other side of the battlefield from where they were. "We have a transport over there waiting for you. The driver is tracking the route that BLOCK has taken-"
"And will be able to allow us to follow in their footsteps, as it were, taking out any blocking forces they leave behind, hopefully before they can cause trouble, and redirect us if BLOCK isn't going after the Reformatory after all." Mikoto surmised. She and Ruiko, well mainly Ruiko, could do all that too so they could just head back and use their own transport, but hey! If Zero-san was offering, why look a gift horse in the mouth, right?
"Exactly." Zero-san said with a pleased nod. "Now just give me a moment to clear the way for you."
Mikoto detected a burst of outgoing radio waves from his helmet that must've been whatever orders he gave his men, because seconds later, she saw the familiar figure of Alice-san and the Black Knight's two new teammates that she'd read about in one of Ruiko's intel briefs suddenly surge out of the fighting opposite from where Mikoto was and begin clearing a path through the BLOCK mercenaries' ranks straight across the battlefield.
Alice-san was using her gravity manipulating Esper ability to hurl debris around her at the mercenaries at high speed, which wasn't anything new. Mikoto saw Accelerator do that all the time, and she herself did the same with her own Electromastery at times too. So Mikoto naturally turned her attention to Alice-san's teammates, Inoue Takina and Nishikigi Chisato, instead.
Unlike the rest of the Black Knights, the duo weren't dressed in the group's stylish yet functional uniform. Instead they had their own custom combat outfit that consisted of a black and white pantsuit complimented with a black tie and an armored trench coat. Looks that they completed with guns, with the long black haired and purple eyed Inoue-san armed with a pistol and Nishikigi-san armed with a compact submachine gun.
The outfits, so different from the other Black Knights, made them stand out a little. But what really caught Mikoto's attention was what the two of them were saying as they fought.
"Oh! Nice headshot, Takina!" Nishikigi-san praised her pistol-wielding teammate as the latter put a electroshock bullet right between the eyes of one of the mercenaries' officers from what Mikoto was sure was well outside her pistol's range. "I think that's worth fifteen points."
"Ten more and I can get you to rim me." Inoue-san said in a deadpan that was totally at odds with what she was saying even as she sniped another mercenary officier from a ridiculous range.
"Oh~! Another nice one! Twenty points!" Nishikigi-san said as she casually avoided a hail of bullets shot her way from a direction she wasn't even looking at and retaliated by spraying her attacker with a burst of electroshock bullets from her submachine gun that knocked him unconscious. "Guess, I'll have to practice my analingus skills after all!"
Mikoto had read their profiles from the initial brief on them, but seeing someone snipe targets with a damned pistol of all things at ranges actual sniper rifles would have trouble with was mind boggling. And that Genki Girl, Nishikigi-san! She was seriously just waltzing through every single shot fired her way!
Damn Precognition really is one of the more scary powers in combat.
"Yup, you will." Inoue-san said in what seemed to be her usual monotone as she spun around and pulled her lover into a kiss. Right in the middle of the fighting!
Oi! Be a bit more considerate to the single ladies here, thank you! Mikoto glowered in her head as she flicked bolts of electricity against their enemies.
"I think it's cute." Ruiko commented idly from beside her as she fired particle beams at the thickest clusters of mercenaries and Nishikigi-san and Inoue-son continued their kiss, the former using her Precognition as a guide to shuffle them out of the path of the bullets shot their way from a burst of automatic gunfire courtesy of one of BLOCK's mercenaries. A man that had the misfortune of taking a electroshock bullet to the face as Inoue-san shot him over her blonde lover's shoulder, without once even glancing in his direction!
Damn! Inoue-san's Perfect Lock is impressive too.
A variant of Clairvoyance that allowed the user to maintain awareness of any given target even through physical barriers and over significant distances? Combined with Inoue-san's insane accuracy with a gun?
That's an insanely deadly combination in a fight!
"Can the two of you not flirt in the middle of a fight!?" Alice-san shouted at her teammates in what Mikoto imagined was a mix of embarrassment, jealousy and exasperation. "Some of us find that distracting!"
The couple pulled apart at the scolding with Nishikigi-san blushing at the rebuke but Inoue-san looking wholly unrepentant.
"Well, it's not our fault that you don't have the guts to just confess to Nunnally-san already and make out with her!" Nishikigi-san shot back with a giggle. "I mean, it's not like it's a secret to anyone that the two of you want to."
"T-Tha-That's-" Alice-san sputtered, unable to formulate a rebuttal. Which was understandable. Nishikigi-san was absolutely right. Mikoto herself barely knew them but even she knew that Alice-san and Zero-san's sister were in love with each other.
Nishikigi-san getting distracted with her comeback to Alice-san's scolding was not without consequences however and she was slow to react to an incoming burst of fire. She almost got shot and had to be pulled out of the way by Inoue-san even as the black haired sniper casually took out the attacker in retaliation. Though this time, she didn't stop with just hitting him with an electroshock bullet.
Even as the man convulsed from the tens of thousands of volts pumping through his body from the bullet in his shoulder, Inoue-san charged towards him, smoothly switching the magazine of her gun as she did and firing another two shots. These were lethal bullets that proceeded to shatter the man's kneecaps, dropping him to his knees and leaving him in the perfect position for her to kick his assault rifle out of his hands and force him onto his back. He was thus helpless as she pressed her gun to his head and began grinding her foot into one of his shattered knees.
"No one hurts my Chisato." The girl said in a murderous yet monotone voice, eyes narrowed in rage.
The man screamed in pain. Pain that Inoue-san seemed bent on dragging out if the lack of a finishing move on her part was anything to go by. Thankfully, his suffering was brief as an electroshock bullet shot his way by Nishikigi-san quickly sent him into unconsciousness.
"Takina! No need to threaten him. He's done." The blonde told her girlfriend with a sigh.
Alice-san looked so frustrated by her teammate's antics that she was ready to pull at her pigtails as she yelled at her. "Takina-san! Please stop acting all yandere for your girlfriend and focus on the fight!"
"Meh! I'd have done worse to anyone who hurt a hair on Ruiko's head." Accelerator said with an unimpressed snort. "Just look at what's left of Kihara Amata."
Ruiko blushed at that.
They really are a pair of murderous lovebirds. Mikoto thought with a sigh. At least Naru has a normalish relationship. And a lot less murder foreplay.
Ignorant of the reactions of her audience, Inoue-san snapped back at Alice-san's chiding. "Shut up! You're the one who got Chisato distracted in the first place!"
The speedy blonde looked ready to argue the point, but Nishikigi-san raised a finger.
"Actually, Takina is right, Alice-chi."
Mikoto shot Ruiko a look, the question clear on her face.
"Apparently, they are Alice-san's new teammates."
"That's not what I wanted to know at all and you know that! I read the updated intel on the BK you know?"
Ruiko, the total jerk of a teammate, just smirked at her. No doubt she just wanted to tease her. The double jerk! "Yes, based on what intel I know about them, they are always like that."
Mikoto let out a sigh, she felt like an old lady from how often she'd been doing it. "Why can't Dark Side outfits be normal?"
"You're one to talk, Misaka-san." Tsuchimikado said with a roll of his eyes as he pointed to her and Ruiko. "You two are just as bad. We're in a bloody full-scale battle and you're both treating it like it's a walk in the park."
"This is supposed to be hard?" Mikoto asked in genuine confusion. This felt routine to her by now.
The Magician-Esper hybrid just pointed at his upper lip which was covered in dried blood from the many nosebleeds he'd endured due to his multiple uses of magic.
"It is for some of us!"
"I've gotta agree with Mister Badly Dressed." Musujime said with a nod as Etzali, still wearing the appearance of Unabara Mitsuki-san, nodded his own agreement. "You Level 5s are just overpowered."
"Nah. You lot are just weak." Accelerator said in a teasing tone that Mikoto had previously only ever heard him use when speaking with Ruiko or their daughters. "So you got them here. Good job, Tsuchimikado."
"And just in time too." Zero-san commented as he gestured to the arguing Alice-san, Inoue-san and Nishikigi-san as they walked up to them. "It seems our path has been cleared. Alice!"
"Yes!?" Alice-san asked, turning away from her argument with her teammates, even as she casually impaled a mercenary with a piece of metal debris with her ability.
"I want you and your team to accompany the Trinity and GROUP to the Reformatory. Since we're all working together, sending them some backup is only appropriate."
"Must we be the ones to go?" Alice-san whined as Nishikigi-san pulled Inoue-san into a damn tango of all things and danced around their position, staying just outside the range of Accelerator's Redirection barrier. Not that lacking its protection was much of a detriment to them as they easily evaded the enemy fire directed their way and took out their attackers at the same time.
Okay… Now, that's just showing off.
She was the only one who seemed to think so though if the amused looks from everyone else there and bothered to pay attention to the oddball couple was anything to go by. Then again, even if the two were the most over the top about it, they weren't the only ones making it look like dealing with their enemies was trivial, what with Ruiko, Accelerator, and yes, Mikoto herself, just casually tossing out ranged attacks at the mercenaries that took dozens of them out a time.
"Alice, it's an order." Zero-san said firmly. "It is only right to send our best to support our allies and that means your team."
"Okay, fine~! But I want you to know I'm doing this under protest. I don't like working with the Trinity!"
"Your objection is noted. Now go." The paramilitary leader ordered with a tired sigh. Mikoto could feel him. Commanding family could be so trying at times. Trying to get her sisters to follow a battle plan in a fight was like herding cats!
"If it's any consolation, Zero-san, I've contacted Ylva-san. Maniple should be here to reinforce you shortly." Ruiko informed the masked man, even as Alice-san turned to round up her teammates. "Kurozuma-san can stay behind to serve as an intermediary between you two."
"Will you two stop playing around! We've gotta go!" The twintailed gravity manipulator shouted in exasperation as the couple spun to a stop in front of her, with Nishikigi-san in a low dip that allowed a bullet to fly over her lowered body and get deflected off a piece of rubble that Alice-san shot at it.
"Just waiting for you to finish arguing with Zero-sama, Leader~!" Nishikigi-san teased as she straightened herself and her girlfriend nodded.
Mikoto shot Ruiko with another questioning look.
"They supposedly get along very well and you can't deny how well they work together."
Mikoto and Accelerator's team all nodded, some a little more skeptically than others. No one voiced their misgivings though and they all followed after the strange Black Knights trio as they guided them across the battlefield to the waiting transport that would take them in pursuit of the escaped mercenaries.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Man, this was only one half of the original chapter! It was getting so action packed we had to cut it in half! We got Ruiko dealing with issues and Accel trying to play off as a macho man.
Nameless: Yeah, we knew it was a possibility but even then the way the chapter ballooned still caught us off guard. Hope you guys liked where we split the chapter and that it's not too inorganic.
And so the fighting begins as most of the Level 5s are getting into it now. It's big! It's loud! It's messy! And it's only going to get more wild from here on! We of course have some new characters in the mix because the both of us had fallen for Lycoris Recoil. How could we not want more badass schoolgirls with guns?
Nameless: We, me especially, love the show. So I floated the idea of inserting expies of Chisato and Takina into the fic and E4E agreed. Things just developed from there. Hope you guys liked how we wove them into TOT.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!