Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter One Hundred Ten: The Sushestvovanie Island Incident - End Phase
As Ruiko flew into the airspace over where the plane they had flown to the Baltic in had landed, she found no sign of the aircraft. Instead, all she saw was an empty patch of sea filled with all kinds of wreckage from said plane.
Most would have panicked at the sign that the plane that contained her girlfriend and best friend had been destroyed and they were missing. However, Ruiko was not like most people. So squashing the frantic concern that she was feeling and allowing herself only a frown, she instead expanded her sensory powers to scan the surrounding area for any signs of Frenda-chan and Kazari.
However, just as she got the first set of outputs from her sensory probe, the water under her suddenly exploded. And out of the geyser shot out a massively oversized bobbit worm with a long iridescent, segmented body with its five antennae lashing out at her like whips and its scissors-like mandibles snapping at her.
The fact that she was being attacked by a unnaturally large creature that was likely only made possible by the biotinkering that characterized the B.O.W.s (Bio Organic Weapons) that LeBeau was famous for dealing in and that a doppelgänger of her was riding on the head of the monstrous polychaete were all the clues she needed to realize that she was facing one of the lecherous arms dealer's products.
That alone would have infuriated her but her anger was stoked to even greater heights by what said doppelgänger was wearing. Why? Because the doppelgänger was dressed, seemingly like all of LeBeau's custom clones, in lingerie. An outfit that consisted of an elegant, ivory babydoll accentuated by a satin ribbon sash secured with a bow shaped brooch and a matching g-string panty. Oh! And with a dog collar complete with a name tag wrapped around her neck.
"Greetings, my progenitor." The doppelgänger said as she pulled on the hem of the babydoll she was wearing and offered her a curtsy all whilst somehow effortlessly keeping her balance atop the abominable worm as it tried to cut Ruiko in half with its antennae and mandibles. "It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Koemi."
"Where are Frenda-chan and Kazari?" Ruiko demanded from the clone as she flew through the air in complex evasive patterns as she avoided the mutated worm's attempts to kill her.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about them, my progenitor. They're safe." The clone replied, her image flickering and revealing that her presence there was simply a hologram being projected by an emitter embedded into the worm's head.
"Where are they!?" Ruiko demanded as her patience ran out and she activated her Angel Mode.
Using the expansion of her powers that this granted to her, she used a massive application of Telekinesis to freeze the giant bobbit worm in place. It, of course, resisted with all its might against Ruiko's hold but despite the massive strength that its sheer size granted it, the monster could do nothing. It could not move even one of its many legs and its attempts to do so only served to damage itself, as its desperate thrashings caused its carapace to crack open and its blood to squirt out of the wounds in copious quantities.
"Did you honestly need to ask, my progenitor?" Her clone said with a smirk through her flickering holographic projection. "They have been taken to Master of course."
Ruiko nodded. "If they are missing a hair on their head when I rescue them, you and your master will suffer a fate worse than death."
"I would like to see you try." The infuriating clone retorted with a chuckle.
The [AIM Sovereign] did not deign to give a verbal response. Instead, she simply glared at the mutated worm and with a pained screech, its body began to freeze from within thanks to a little emulated Thermal Hand. Within less than a minute, its entire massive body was completely turned into a grotesque ice sculpture. One that with a burst of Telekinesis, shattered into chunky fragments that sank into the sea.
With that piece of trash dealt with, Ruiko turned to face LeBeau's castle and began flying towards it at top speed, murderous rage bubbling in her veins. When she got her hands on that piece of crap, she would make him wish that he was dead.
Shortly after Rui-chan had flown off to check on Frenda-chan and Kazari-chan, Naru teleported herself and Mikoto-senpai in front of the barbican of Sushestvovanie Castle.
"I'm not sensing any enemies or a trap. What about you? Anything?" Naru asked both Senpai and Kurama as they looked around them warily as they made their way through the castle's fortified gateway.
Nope. I'm not picking up anything.
"No, no sign of an ambush." Mikoto-senpai said with a frown. "I'm betting that LeBeau thinks he's being smart, subverting our expectations like this by not setting up some kind of obstacle for us at his front gates."
"Lulling us into a false sense of security, huh?"
"That's my guess at least." Senpai said with a shrug as they exited the barbican and entered into the castle's courtyard beyond.
"When do you think the ball's gonna drop, Senpai?"
Now it seems. Kurama said in reply to Naru's rhetorical question. I'm sensing a whole bunch of bestial minds converging on us.
"Incoming!" Mikoto-senpai warned a second before Naru herself could. "I'm detecting a huge bunch of electromagnetic signatures moving towards us."
"Yeah. Kurama just warned me." Naru informed her as she tensed for the fight to come.
Suddenly, the various doors leading into the courtyard burst open and a horde of cordyceps zombies rushed out of them and charged at them. The poor twisted remains of what had once been people were still wearing the tattered remains of the clothes they had been wearing when they'd been infected. Clothes that matched the styles that the intel pictures suggested the Sushestvovanie Island natives favored and thus identified them as probably formerly being the locals. Locals that had been reduced to slavering monsters by the zombifying fungi in a process that caused them to experience hair loss; discolored their skin; caused lesions to form all over their bodies; and turned their eyes bloodshot. Some could even be seen with significant fungal growths around their eyes and shoulders, skin peeling from the face, and in some cases were missing their noses as the fungus began to break open their skulls.
Bastard! Not only did he steal their island but he even went ahead to steal their humanity! Naru cursed as she breathed a spread of fireballs at the incoming zombie horde.
He's a villain. What else did you expect? Kurama offered with a shrug.
"Naru! There are too many of them! Stick close! We can't afford to be separated! We'll be overwhelmed if we do!" Mikoto-senpai shouted urgently as she fired off a rapid fire series of static bursts at the horde.
Did she-
Yup. She just jinxed us. Kurama confirmed with an exasperated sigh.
As per expectations, Mikoto-senpai had just finished speaking her damning statement when a physically imposing zombie began pushing their way through the horde. It was covered in thick, bioluminescent fungal growths that formed large patches of scale-like tissue. Growths that were so thick that they effectively acted as armor plates. This monstrous zombie let out a roar and in a display of superhuman physical ability it leapt into the air in a trajectory that would have seen it squash Naru and Senpai when it landed.
In response, Naru naturally teleported away to safety. Mikoto-senpai likewise evaded by using some Electromastery assisted gymnastics to leap away from the impact zone. That was fine. But what wasn't fine was that their evasions separated them just like Mikoto-senpai warned them to avoid!
"Senpai! Regroup!" Naru shouted urgently even as she killed the giant zombie by stamping on the ground with a foot and impaling it, and dozens of other zombies, on earthen pikes that lifted them off the ground before she set them aflame with a series of fireballs she spat at them.
"I'm trying! They're too many of them, I'm too hard pressed." Mikoto-senpai shouted back as she used a combination of various iron sand constructs and electric bolts to fend off the hundreds of zombies swarming her position. "Teleport to me!"
Naru was about to do that but just as she was, she suddenly came under attack by a barrage of fungal pods thrown her way. Reacting on instinct at this new threat, Naru teleported away. However, not to Mikoto-senpai's side like she planned but instead to the nearest safe spot.
Shit! We're even further from Senpai now! Naru griped as she watched the pods explode violently upon impacting the ground, releasing clouds of spores in the process.
Now, they had all taken vaccines against all the potential pathogens that LeBeau were known to deal with before this mission, and a whole host more besides, including one against the zombifying cordyceps but Naru still shuddered at the slim chance of becoming a zombie if she let those spores infect her.
I really hope that Canopy's work holds up.
The vaccines had been produced by the group that was run by the Incarnation of Beelzebub and which had taken over Parasol's remnants. And Naru trusted Adelise Canopy and her group not at all.
Worry about that later! Focus on defeating the zombie horde first! Kurama urged as the zombies surged towards Naru, led by another of the giant zombies. A monster that was responsible for the fungal pods thrown her way earlier as seen by the new set of them that the giant had ripped off its body and was preparing to toss at her.
In response, Naru spat a massive white hot fireball at the giant zombie and its fellows surrounding it, and which acted almost as if they were escorting it. With no counter to her flames, the zombies were quickly reduced to ash. This cleared Naru's immediate surroundings of hostiles and gave her a chance to glance back towards where she'd last seen Mikoto-senpai and saw to her dismay that her upperclassman was no longer there.
Where-
Based on my empathy, it seems like she was forced into one of the buildings surrounding the courtyard. Kurama informed her. Now focus on the zombies! There's still plenty of them around to deal with!
Right! Naru said, setting aside her worries for her senpai for now. The Number 5 could take care of herself. She was a Level 5 too after all.
Even if she was a jinxing idiot of a senpai.
Turning her attention back towards the zombie horde that surrounded her and practically filled up the entire castle courtyard where they were fighting, Naru narrowed her eyes and drawing up a large amount of chakra, she proceeded to begin breathing out a torrent of white hot flames. Flames that she combined with carefully controlled winds to create a massive firestorm that proceeded to incinerate every single one of the zombies attacking her.
That should do it.
Indeed. Kurama agreed as Naru smothered the flames around her by using some wind manipulation to suck the oxygen fueling it away from the conflagration. It wouldn't do to let it spread and consume the whole castle. Not whilst she and her friends were still in it. I'm still detecting plenty of zombies with my empathy but they're staying away. I think their controller decided they are better used against someone else.
By that, you mean, someone like Mikoto-senpai?
They are moving towards where I'm detecting her.
Alright! Then let's go help her out! Naru thought as she began calculating the computations she needed for the series of teleports she'd need to catch up to Mikoto-senpai.
You might want to put a pin on that. Kurama countered. We have company.
Naru sighed. She didn't want to deal with it to be honest. She'd have preferred to just catch up with Senpai. But by the same logic that had justified her and her team staying to deal with the Tyrants that had ambushed them earlier, she couldn't. Not without risking whatever new threat that Kurama had detected attacking them in the rear later. It wouldn't be a problem if she knew for sure what that threat might be but without knowing whatever sick B.O.W.s LeBeau was sending against her this time, it was too much of a risk to not eliminate them now instead of letting them join up with whatever future enemy they might face later and make that fight even harder.
"Okay, let's do this." Naru said with another tired sigh as she turned to view the latest monstrosities that the lecherous arms dealer they were here to deal with had sent against her.
Monsters that were a pack of creatures that were a mix of recognizably human and wolf traits. Like canines, they walked in a quadrupedal gait with hind legs that were awkwardly balanced, causing their knees to brush close to the ground as they walked on their heels. Their hands and feet remained human-like but their fingers were elongated and twisted to the point that they resembled claws. An unusually large jaw full of sharp teeth tore across their skull, and their body was coated in thick gray hair, which covered their spine and scalp prominently.
"Oh cool! Now we've got werewolves." Naru said with an unimpressed scoff. "Not!"
Seemingly taking offense to her judgment that they were lackluster, the lycanthrope-like B.O.W.s let out angry growls and furious howls as they charged at her with the closest leaping at her whilst the others ran.
"I'm not linking up with Mikoto-senpai to deal with this? Really!?" Naru asked rhetorically with a snort as she stamped on the ground, causing hundreds of earthen pikes to shoot out of the ground to impale the lead werewolves.
This however did not deter the rest of the monsters and they simply ignored their impaled brethren and ran through the gaps in the field of pikes that Naru had conjured. She was mildly surprised by this indifference to the fate of their fellows but quickly took it in stride and simply stamped her foot once more. In response, even more pikes shot out of the ground. This impaled a few of the surviving werewolves but less this time, it seemed that the creatures were smart enough to adapt to the pikes. However, Naru had foreseen this possibility and so had also manipulated the ground in between the pikes so that it turned into quicksand at the same time as she conjured the former. Quicksand that trapped the vast majority of the werewolves. Monsters that she quickly finished off by conjuring fresh pikes to skewer the trapped abominations.
This though left a trio of particularly wily werewolves that upon sensing the ground changing in consistency below their feet, had immediately leapt to safety by clinging to the very pikes that Naru had used to impale their fellows. Pikes from which they began to swing in between like a set of twisted monkeys as they rapidly continued closing the distance with Naru.
"Huh? Some of you guys might actually be a threat." Naru thought, eyeing the surviving werewolves with a bloodthirsty smirk. "Well, let's see how big of one you are shall we?"
With that thought in mind, Naru swept her arm in front of her. A gesture that she used to channel her chakra into the air in front of her and conjure a brace of vacuum blades that she shot towards the trio of surviving lycanthropic B.O.W.s. The werewolves leapt out of the way in desperate evasions but despite their efforts, only one of them managed to get out of the way of the attack. Unfortunately, it seemed like the monsters had a previously unseen ally in this fight as just before the vacuum blades found their mark they were intercepted by a salvo of plasma lances that flew at them from somewhere atop the castle wall which overlooked the courtyard.
This might have saved the werewolves from Naru's vacuum blades, but that did not save them from her wrath. As the moment that she'd seen the plasma lances headed towards her blades, she reacted by pointing an arm towards the source of the plasma constructs and shot a bolt of conjured lightning in its direction. At the same time, she took in a deep breath before breathing it out as three streams of flames. The former elicited a squeal of surprise from atop the wall whilst the latter quickly consumed the trio of werewolves even as they almost finished closing the distance and leapt at her.
Seeing the lupine B.O.W.s dealt with, Naru turned towards the wall. She was just in time to catch a glimpse of a blonde dressed in lingerie that was wearing her hair in twintails like Naru did running off and disappearing into a door that led into the interior of the castle.
Is that-
Probably your doppelgänger.
Like hell she is! I'm taking her down. Naru thought with a growl. You have a bead on her?
Yes. But what about your senpai?
Senpai can take care of herself. There's no way that I'm going to get a chance to beat the crap out of that living sex doll version of me and not take it! Naru said as she teleported onto the wall where she had last seen her clone.
Isn't that victim blaming? I mean that doppelgänger of yours didn't exactly get a choice in being created nor in being used the way she is.
I don't care! Naru shot back as she ran after her clone.
After being separated from Naru by the zombie hordes, Mikoto was forced into one of the buildings that surrounded the castle courtyard from which the desecrated remains of the former residents of Sushestvovanie Island had first shown themselves. There were, of course, more zombies inside the building but compared to the tide of twisted fungal infested flesh outside there were only a few stragglers inside. It seems LeBeau had emptied his reserves of zombies in his initial attack.
He mustn't have many of them. Mikoto mused as she ran through the corridors of the building. Or she might be in part of the castle itself by this point. According to the castle's layout she'd memorized before they landed, they were all interconnected so it was hard to keep track.
Shooting a lightning bolt behind her to fry the lead element of the zombies chasing her, Mikoto simultaneously used a mini cyclone of iron sand to shred a single zombie hiding behind a cabinet a little bit down the corridor and waiting to ambush her. As she did, she continued musing on the scale of threat that LeBeau actually posed.
Compared to the seemingly endless cordyceps zombie hordes I saw in the Colony, LeBeau's hundreds strong horde is honestly a little underwhelming.
So much so that she was tempted to just collapse the building around her to destroy all the zombies that were chasing her and waiting to ambush her. It would likely destroy a good chunk of LeBeau's zombie forces. Combined with whatever Naru would surely do to cull their numbers back in the courtyard, they might even destroy all of them.
That said, she probably missed her chance to significantly reduce the zombie's numbers. If she was in the open, she might've been able to do it by going all out with a railgun or by calling down a particularly powerful lightning bolt. But now that she was indoors? Doing that would bring the building down on her and she wasn't confident she could do so without injuring herself. As Hamazura proved during the Battle Royale Incident when he defeated Mugino, trapping a Level 5 Electromaster inside a collapsing building could take them down.
Maybe I can blast my way back out into the open? Mikoto mused as she fried another trio of the zombies pursuing her and using an iron sand cyclone shredded a pair of zombies that tried to jump scare her by leaping out of the door of an adjoining room that she'd evaded by using some Electromastery assisted gymnastics.
Gymnastics that thanks to some help from her Power Development team she was getting better at. Apparently they had compared notes with the team of another Electromaster, whose name she'd not asked for. - An oversight that I should see about rectifying. I need to thank whoever it was after all. - Specifically one who specialized in manipulating her own bioelectricity to emulate biokinesis. Techniques that Mikoto were now using to enhance her own physical abilities - like her gymnastics - in battle. A necessity now that she'd acquired Worochi-no-Aramasa (蛇之麁正, Rough and True Blade of the Serpent) and could be expected to use it in close-quarters combat. It was for similar reasons that she had started taking proper lessons in swordplay. If she was going to get a magic sword then by Science was she going to use it to the best of her abilities!
Nah. She concluded in regards to her plan to blast her way back into the open. If my memory of the castle's layout from Ruiko's intel report is right, I'm making good time towards its throne room. Considering how haughty LeBeau is, he'll surely be waiting for us there. Taking a detour would just give that bastard even more time before he faces his just punishment for his crimes. Better to just get there and wait for Naru and Ruiko to catch up with me.
She had just made that decision when suddenly a large pair of double doors ahead of her, that based on Mikoto's recollection of Sushestvovanie Castle's layout, had originally been a dining hall, slammed open and allowed a large group of fresh zombies to pour out.
"Seriously!? Did LeBeau convert all of the over nine hundred residents of Sushestvovanie into zombies!?" Mikoto complained as she pulled together iron sand into a barrage of bullets that she shot at the new pack of zombies and destroyed them.
Racing past the freshly defeated zombies, she continued fleeing from the pack of zombies chasing after her. A mob that she realized wasn't shrinking in size despite the dozens of them that she'd taken down since this little pursuit began. They seemed to be constantly reinforced as they pursued her.
Damn! I really wish I brought Worochi-no-Aramasa with me. She thought angrily. Its power would be really useful right now!
Even before she finished the thought, she realized how illogical she was being. She wasn't familiar enough with the magic sword yet to use it in the field. Considering how badly she handled it at the moment, it would just be deadweight that she wouldn't use at best. At worst, she might attempt using it and lose control and cause some friendly fire.
Bah! Enough wasting time on stray thoughts. Mikoto thought as she checked against the mental map she was using to track her progress through the castle and realized that she had almost reached the throne room. Guess it's time to get rid of my hangers on.
Chuckling darkly at her description of her zombie pursuers, Mikoto turned back to the monsters trailing behind her.
"Time to put you guys to rest." Mikoto said as she pulled out one of the Dark Matter coins that Ruiko provided to her and flipped it into the invisible electromagnetic rails that she'd crafted with her Electromastery, sending it flying into the zombies' ranks with a carefully modulated railgun.
The railgun shot blasted its way through the entire pack of zombies, taking out most of them. However, despite that, the damage they suffered from the shot was insufficient to put them all down. Some of them were just lucky enough to have not been damaged by the shot or its wake anywhere vital enough to put them out of their misery. Seeing this, Mikoto followed up her railgun with a twister of iron sand that proceeded to shred them, finishing them off.
"Rest in peace." Mikoto said, offering the zombies - or more accurately the former people that they were - a bow as a sign of condolence for their untimely passing at LeBeau's hands.
With this one last show of respect for this batch of the perverted bastard's victims done, Mikoto turned and quickly finished making her way to the castle's throne room.
It took her a few minutes but she finally made it to Sushestvovanie Castle's throne room and upon pushing the room's wooden double doors open, she entered it. As she did, she was greeted by the sight of a glowering Ruiko in her Angel Mode standing on one side next to a massive hole in the wall while glaring at her doppelgänger.
A clone who was holding Kazari-san hostage by levitating an iron sand knife to her neck while at the same time having her tail - Because of course she had a tail! That pervert LeBeau just had to make all his sex dolls into furries, didn't he!? - wrapped around a battered looking Frenda-san's neck, and was pushing a pair of pistols, one in each hand, against both her and Kazari-san's heads.
"Welcome, Misaka Mikoto." LeBeau said in his native French from the throne that dominated the room.
Turning to him, sparks already arcing off her body in preparation to fry him, Mikoto froze as she saw that lying to his side was an unconscious Kuroko and looming over her was her doppelgänger pointing a glowing finger to her roommate's head even as she pressed a pistol into her back. Mikoto froze at the sight as she realized the wordless threat to their lives that was being leveled at her friends.
"I see you realize what is at stake, Misaka Mikoto." LeBeau said smugly. "Like I told your friend, Saten Ruiko, if you try anything your friends will die. Don't even think about teleporting them to safety. Teleporting isn't really instantaneous after all. Not unless you want to test out your speed at that against my girls' ability to kill your friends. And if they sense even the slightest distortion of air or the electromagnetic fields that accompany a teleport, that's exactly what they'll do. You'll literally be racing a bullet."
He finished his smug little rant with a chuckle. A laugh that made her really want to punch him in the face.
No, thinking that way isn't helpful. In a situation like this, I need to keep a clear head. Mikoto thought to herself as she took a deep breath and as she calmed herself, she finally properly took in the full scene in the throne room.
Seated on the throne at the center of the room was LeBeau as she previously noted and at the foot of the dias that held up the throne were her three unconscious, captured friends being held hostage by two of LeBeau's sex doll clones. They were hardly the only hostiles in the room however as spread out in a defensive formation around the throne were also a dozen robots equipped with heavy weapons, a dozen minigun toting Tyrants, as well the rest of the clones except for Naru's doppelgänger.
And much to Mikoto's anger, all the clones were dressed in lingerie and dog collars. Among them, Marie and Eveline were both wearing chemises with deep v-necks. Marie was sporting a white version with a floral mesh cut-out that showed off a erotic glimpse at her impressive cleavage. In contrast, Eveline was wearing a more conservative but still excessively sexy pink chemise with floral accouterments.
If there's any relief to be had in a situation like this, at least LeBeau didn't end up cloning Kazari-san too. Mikoto thought as she glared at the tableau before her. It seemed that for whatever reason, the scumbag had at least that level of decency. Either that or something about the Level 1's DNA Map clashed with her own, the latter of which clearly, despite appearances, still was a significant part of all the other clones of her friends she'd seen so far. At least if their Esper abilities were anything to go by.
Or he didn't find her attractive enough for his sick tastes and creating a clone of her thus wasn't worth the effort. Mikoto thought, her anger spiking at the mere idea. He certainly seems the type to not appreciate a plain Jane.
As much as she hated to say it, most people seemed to think that Kazari-san was in fact the plainest of their group of friends. Even the computer whiz would often admit as much. Personally, Mikoto thought that was more a conscious decision on Kazari-san's part. Strange as it sounded, her friend liked being a wallflower and not attracting too much attention towards herself. She liked being low profile. Hence, she tended to not pay much attention to looking her best. After all, Mikoto knew from experience that if she tried, Kazari-san could look as pretty as the best of them.
"Get back here, you fake!" Mikoto heard Naru's familiar voice shout suddenly in Japanese.
Glancing towards the direction it came from, Mikoto was just in time to see a door slam open and a doppelgänger of Naru run into the room, screaming out fearfully. "No! You'll just kill Mikan!"
"You deserve it, you cheap imitation!" Naru shouted as she chased after the scantily clad clone dressed in a translucent pink robe, nighty and dog collar as the latter sprinted to get behind the defensive formation LeBeau's minions had formed around the throne.
The sex doll clone had just made it inside the relative safety behind the Tyrants and robots when Naru finally made it into the room. As she did, she promptly froze as she took in the stalemate before them.
And at her arrival, LeBeau broke out into a smug laugh and continued addressing them condescendingly in French. "Ah~! I finally have the Trinity right where I want them."
"Oh, shut up, you two-bit B-Movie villain." Naru shot back in Japanese, clearly unwilling to entertain LeBeau's linguistic power play, with a crimson eyed glare. "What do you want?"
"Why freshly extracted copies of your and Mademoiselle Saten's full DNA Maps of course." LeBeau said with a smirk, still in French. Clearly he was unperturbed by Naru's angry retort. "The copies I've managed to acquire so far have sadly been unable to allow me to properly duplicate your Esper abilities, just your appearances. I've had great success with Misaka Mikoto's DNA, but it's time I diversified."
"Do you honestly expect Academy City will let you get away with creating your own Espers outside their purview?" Naru shot back.
LeBeau chuckled. "I'd have you know that I already have authorization from the City. The Board of Directors were so impressed with Marie and Eveline-" At this, he reached over and squeezed both of the aforementioned clones' butts, earning happy squeals from both of them. "-that they hired me to help with the creation of enhanced versions of the Sisters for the City's military."
"The Third Season Sisters!" Mikoto hissed angrily in Japanese like Naru, as she realized that he must've been involved with the creation of the new series of Sisters, one of which Ruiko had mentioned fighting and reluctantly killing in Russia during World War 3.
"Ah! So you're familiar with my work, Misaka Mikoto?"
"Unfortunately." Mikoto admitted with a glare, though that quickly turned into a grin as suddenly Frenda-san, Kazari-san and Kuroko were teleported to Ruiko's feet even as bullets and a particle beam flew at the spaces the hostages had previously occupied.
"I've had enough of your blathering, LeBeau!" Ruiko said, also in Japanese like the rest of them, her wings spreading to wrap around their three unconscious friends at her feet protectively, even as hundreds of beams shot out from her feathers and arced through the air at unnatural angles to lance towards LeBeau and his minions. "Time for you to die!"
"That's impossible!" LeBeau shouted indignantly as the throne room transformed into a battlefield around him as Ruiko's opening attack felled a full half of his Tyrants and robots before they could so much as raise a weapon. "The files said that neither Mademoiselle Saten nor Mademoiselle Namikaze could pull off a teleport fast enough to beat a bullet much less Shiro's particle beam!"
"It seems your intel is incomplete." Ruiko retorted as the remaining Tyrants charged at her, their guns blazing away as they tried to bury her under a hail of lead. "Your estimate about my teleportation ability might have been accurate if your grandstanding didn't give me so much time to complete additional computations to augment it."
"Looks like someone screwed you over and gave you faulty intel!" Naru said with a chuckle as she clapped her hands together to create a shockwave that she used some Aero Hand-style air manipulation to send shooting towards LeBeau. "And you were too arrogant to corroborate! Ha! You idiot!"
However, before Naru's attack could hit, Ruiko's doppelgänger started literally began vomiting iron sand from both her mouth and under her skirt, earning disgusted reactions from the entire Trinity, that she proceeded to shape into a wall that shielded against Naru's attack at the cost of dispersing the iron sand that made it up.
"Seriously!? She stores iron sand inside her vagina?" Mikoto asked in disbelief as she used her Electromastery to launch a series of lightning bolts to brick LeBeau's remaining robots.
"Why not? It's an empty space in our body. Why not make use of it?" Eveline shot back, thankfully in Japanese, as she suddenly appeared in front of her, her tail lashing out at her like a scorpion's sting. Heck, it was even grotesquely transforming from its original feline shape into a disgusting emulation of an actual scorpion's. Well, that was if a scorpion's stinger arced with electricity.
"Don't you have any shame!?" Mikoto spat back as she leapt back as Marie, also in her feline form like Eveline, leapt at her from the side whilst she had been distracted with evading from the younger looking clone's opening attack. Her latest evasion narrowly allowed her to avoid being cut up by the older looking clone's electricity wreathed claws. It did not, however, help her evade the gun mounted on a robot arm that had been grafted onto Marie's back that she must be controlling with her technopathy and which was previously hidden by not showing her back to her until now. A gun that Mikoto couldn't brick like she had the robots without likely paralyzing the woman, something that she was unwilling to do.
Not that she was particularly worried about having to do that as she easily deflected the bullet away from her with a little Electromastery. Instead, she glared disbelieving at the oldest of LeBeau's clones. "Are there seriously no limits to what you are willing to do to your bodies to serve that pervert!?"
""We'd do anything for him!"" Marie and Eveline said in unison as they both launched into a determined attack. Eveline lashed out with her stinger whilst Marie leapt at her whilst attempting to slash at her with her electrified claws and took shots at her with the gun mounted to the robotic arm she'd grafted to her back.
Mikoto could only shake her head in reply to that response. How pathetic were they? Being willing to do anything for a guy? She just couldn't imagine going that far for anyone! Much less a guy!
She would have told them that if she thought it would do any good but she knew it was pointless. The clones were thoroughly indoctrinated into being LeBeau's devotedly loyal sex slaves. So she saved her breath and instead moved to take them out.
Pulling out a pair of Dark Matter auto syringes that she had Ruiko prepare for her specially for this occasion, she shot both of them at her two clones with low yield railguns. Even a projectile fired by a low yield railgun still traveled at an absurd speed and thus despite Marie and Eveline's desperate attempts to evade, the syringes easily found their marks. Yes, they blew chunks of their bodies away too, but that was fine. The wounds were non-lethal and they had regeneration anyways, plus the injuries allowed the syringes to plant themselves deeper into the clones' bodies than they normally would have too. And as they did, the syringes began automatically dispensing the specially tailored knockout drug they contained into their bodies and caused them to collapse into unconsciousness in seconds.
Well, that's done. Mikoto thought as she surveyed the two defeated clones. I wonder how the others are doing.
"Do you really think the two of you can defeat me?" Ruiko asked her doppelgänger and Kuroko-san's as she effortlessly weathered the iron sand projectiles that the former was pelting the barrier she was shielding herself and her still unconscious friends with. A shield that was also easily withstanding the repeated low yield Particle-Function Waveform High Speed Cannons that Kuroko-san's doppelgänger were shooting at her. Oh! And her shield was also being peppered with gunfire from the heavy weapons used by the surviving Tyrants and bullets from the clones' pistols.
"Even if it is futile, we will not stand down! We will not let you hurt Master!" Her doppelgänger shouted defiantly in French as dropping her empty pistols, she waved her hands around her like an orchestral conductor as part of her efforts to better manipulate the iron sand she controlled into yet another wave of projectiles that she proceeded to hurl at Ruiko.
"We would rather die!" Kuroko-san's doppelgänger added in Japanese as she likewise discarded her empty pistol and unleashed another storm of low yield Particle-Function Waveform High Speed Cannons at the Number 3.
Ruiko sighed. She hated dealing with fanatics. She could understand dedication to a cause but fighting to the last was just stupid! If faced with an insurmountable foe, wouldn't it better to just retreat or surrender for now, take the opportunity that offered to regroup and counterattack when there was a more realistic chance of victory? True, there were some things that she would be willing to die for but she doubted she would ever do so with anything except resignation, not the unreasonable confidence that the pair of fanatic clones in front of her seemed to be overflowing with.
"There is no talking to fanatics like you." Ruiko said with a disgusted shake of her head as she simply spread her wings, using the movement as a catalyst to unleash a wave of raw AIM energy that proceeded to literally disintegrate the Tyrants whilst knocking out the two clones that had been futile trying to fight her.
Honestly, a large part of her wanted to kill them for being perversions of her and her friend but sadly the rational side of her recognized that they were naught but victims. Created by a pervert to be sex slaves and his personal enforcers, they knew nothing else. They were simply acting in accordance with the only way they knew. Because of that, she intellectually knew they didn't deserve to die. Especially not just for existing.
If she was still the [Army Slayer], or even if she was just the person that she was when the Trinity had first been formed, she'd have killed them regardless. However, she wasn't. Not anymore. She was trying to be a better person now, to set a better example for her daughters if for no other reason. Thus, she spared them.
Letting out another sigh, Ruiko turned away from the unconscious clones to see how Naru-chan and Senpai were dealing with things. And saw with delight that they both, her blonde teammate in particular, had things well in hand.
"For someone who was running scared away from me just now, you sure are brave to stand up to me now." Naru told her doppelgänger as the other girl shot a brace of plasma arrows at her. Arrows that she blocked by pulling up an earthen barrier with a tap of her right foot.
"I-If i-it's for Remy, M-Mikan's willing to f-fight anyone! Even you! No matter how scary you are!" Her clone shouted defiantly in Japanese as she gathered plasma together into a single massive plasma javelin that she promptly threw at Naru.
Or more accurately, at where Naru used to be. Why? Because the moment that her doppelgänger hurled her javelin at her, Naru had simply teleported behind the other girl.
"That would be heartwarming to hear if you weren't saying that about a perverted asshole." Naru said as she put a hand on top of her clone's head and proceeded to pour her chakra into the other girl's body.
Argh! I totally agree with you there.
She considered asking Kurama to use some genjutsu from his homeworld to knock the clone out but she knew it wouldn't work. Not only was her clone an Electromaster and thus could easily counter any manipulation of her mind. It wasn't like how most genjutsu was countered back in his homeworld but according to Kurama it was close enough to be equally effective. But more importantly, she doubted she'd even be able to make it work in the first place. Even when she was just channeling Kurama casting it, she struggled to make genjutsu work. There was a reason that the few times she attempted it, usually only during experiments, she had to use extensive support equipment. So instead, borrowing a trick from Vento of the Front during her invasion of the City, she simply used her chakra to leech the oxygen out of her body, leaving the minimum necessary amount as to not hinder brain and organ functions, forcing her clone's body to go into a state like an animal's hibernation period in order to preserve survival.
"Well, that's done." Naru said with a smirk of satisfaction as she turned away from the collapsed body of her clone and surveyed the room.
A survey that revealed the idiot of a B-Villian attempting to escape. A sight that caused Naru to scoff.
With a teleport, she appeared next to Remy LeBeau and hit him with a sliding tackle. He fell and landed face first, that pretty face of his meeting the ground with a satisfying cracking sound. As he cried out in pain, Naru stood up and pressed her shoe against his back, forcing him down as he attempted to get back to his feet.
"Really? How cliche can you get? Did you really think a secret escape route was going to save you? I could feel it using my geokinesis, so one, it wasn't so secret. Two, did you really think you could escape me?" She asked with a guttural growl, her canines elongated into fangs and her pupils transformed into slits amidst the blood red orbs that her eyes had become.
"A-Ah, shit." LeBeau sputtered as he looked over his shoulder, revealing his crooked, freshly broken nose that was weeping blood. Switching to Japanese, he continued. "How a-about a deal?"
Naru felt disbelief fill her, her eyes turning back to her natural oceanic blue as she blinked down at him. "You made a sex clone of me to openly boast you would fuck it to torment my beloved senpai and now you want to make a deal? Really!? Based on sheer principle, I wouldn't make a deal with you."
LeBeau had a crazed look in his eyes, like he was at the end of his rope. Which he technically was.
I cannot believe you are even going to entertain this.
I'm not. I'm just shocked he would even try! Naru replied, her mental voice radiating indignation that she would even consider a deal with this lowlife.
Could you blame her? Like, even the most amoral scientists didn't try to bargain with her when she had her claws in them and death awaited them. Talk about a lack of dignity from LeBeau! It really showed how much of a loser he was in the end.
"I-I can make clones of, pah, of all your friends for you! I mean," He struggled, spitting out some of the blood filling his mouth. "I know how perverse you are. I understand you much better than your friends ever could! Why if things were different, we could have worked together. I-If only we met sooner!"
"I- For real?!" Naru looked at him in disgust. Revulsion filled her until it boiled over. "Do you only think with your tiny dick?! Sweet Science, if I didn't have to take you alive for you to die later? I'd kill you as painfully as I could right now!"
"C-Come on! We can b-be friends here, just let m-me go! I can tell yo-you who helped me out in t-the City!" He offered, like a rat desperately looking for an escape route on a sinking ship.
"Oh?" Naru asked, leaning in as she dug her heel into his spine, making the man wince with an agonized look. "Do tell. It may give you a few precious minutes."
She was lying of course, but hey? This guy clearly loved the sound of his own voice.
"I-It was-"
"Kihara Yuiitsu. At the behest of the Board of Directors," Rui-chan answered for him as she floated over in her Angel Mode. "My mother is a Director now, she pulled up the archived documents and found that at the request of a number of former Directors, she was sent to congratulate you on your impressive work with manipulating the Sisters' DNA Map to create your custom clones and to get your techniques, which they used to create their Third Season clones, in exchange for their official sanction."
"Wait! This guy was backed by the City?" Mikoto-senpai asked as she came over, looking annoyed at what Rui-chan was revealing.
"Formerly. His backers on the Board are either dead or deposed. He just didn't realize it because he never bothered to keep track of it and he was too much of a small fry for the City to let him know they'd cut him loose."
"T-That-"
"I'm more curious about how you suddenly know this to be honest, Rui-chan." Naru asked, looking at her best friend curiously.
"Kaasan just called. She detected our plane's destruction so she called to let me know that she's sending a outfit to pick us up. She told me the rest since she had me on the line. The new Board is very interested in asking LeBeau some questions, particularly about its former members that used to back him."
"Geez, looks like this whole other mess those idiots made." Naru mused as she scratched the back of her head with annoyance, stomping on Remy some more. For the fun of it.
"Wait, so we're handing him over to the Board?"
"Only for a little bit. Kaasan doubts he knows much that they'll find worthwhile. He's too small a fish. But they want to be sure anyway. After that though… Well, the Reformatory awaits."
"And then, slick!" Naru ran her thumb over her throat as she leered down at the disgusting excuse for a human being.
LeBeau flinched.
"You're right to be scared, little man." Mikoto-senpai said with a sadistic smirk. "There's someone eagerly waiting to meet you when you show up at the Reformatory."
"W-Who?"
"Like we're going to tell you," Naru scoffed. "Waiting to find out is half the torture and we definitely want to see you squirm."
Much to Naru's satisfaction, LeBeau paled and shuddered. That was exactly the reaction she wanted from the sad sack of filth. He deserved every terrible thing that was about to happen to him. Every last one.
"So, Sensei, how are the LeBeau clones?" Naru asked Heaven Canceler as they sat in the doctor's office in his hospital. The superhuman physician having taken over the care of the clones after the Trinity had handed them over to him upon their return to the City.
She was expecting good news, Heaven Canceler was literally the best doctor in the world after all. So she was surprised when the frog-faced doctor replied to her question with a frown. "I, unfortunately, cannot tell you. They were taken out of my custody shortly after they entered my care."
"What!? What does Crowley want with them!?" Naru asked indignantly. There was no one other than Crowley who could force Heaven Canceler to hand over his patients like this. No one else had the clout to do so.
The doctor shrugged. "You know how unfathomable his motives are. I didn't even bother asking."
"Well, then I will." Naru said as she leapt to her feet and moved to leave Heaven Canceler's office. She knew trying to get answers from or complain to Aleister would get her nowhere so all she could do was go shout at him and vent. A fact that just made her even more angry! But damned if she didn't at least try!
Naru, don't be rash. Kurama warned.
Caught up in her righteous indignation, Naru ignored her partner and speed walked towards the office door. Even in her anger, she was still too polite to just teleport out of Heaven Canceler's office. He was far too nice for her to do that.
Fortunately for her, just as she was about to open the door and step out, the office's owner called out to her. "Before you go, Namikaze-san, there is something I need to warn you about the LeBeau clones."
"What is it?" Naru asked, looking at the physician over her shoulder.
"During their brief time as my patients, I managed to look them over and though I did not get the chance to run them through the full battery of tests I wanted, I noticed something. Something that I verified by cross-checking with Remy LeBeau's medical report."
Intrigued enough to set aside her anger for now, Naru turned back to Heaven Canceler.
Phew! That doctor really can work miracles. Kurama muttered.
Naru didn't understand what he was talking about so she ignored him. Instead, she focused on what Heaven Canceler had to tell her.
"What did you notice?"
"I can confirm two things and I have a hypothesis about how they are related." The doctor explained. "Firstly, all the clones are pregnant with a cloned fetus of Remy LeBeau. Clones that were modified in their own way. Pregnancies that thanks to the mothers being modified to allow for it make use of biochemical functions copied from mammals with the ability to remain in stasis inside their wombs."
"Clones of LeBeau?" Naru asked in confusion. "Why would they be pregnant with those?"
"I imagine it is related to the second thing that I have confirmed from Remy LeBeau's medical reports."
"And what's that?"
"According to the reports by the Reformatory doctors, he has a strange growth surgically attached to his brainstem. A growth that I suspect is essentially a Level Upper transmitter."
"Level Upper? Why would he want that? He's not even an Esper." Naru asked with a frown, a sinking feeling churning in her gut.
"Perhaps it will make sense if I inform you that one of the modifications made to the fetal clones of him is that they all have a growth that acts as a biological Level Upper receiver."
Naru shot him a startled look. "You don't mean…"
Heaven Canceler just nodded grimly. "Yes, I'm afraid so. It is my hypothesis that LeBeau plans to use the clones in his lovers' wombs as a failsafe to allow the continuity of his consciousness even if he dies. The fact that one of the modifications to the clones is modifications to them that allow them to support an AIM field independent of their undeveloped brains, a field that can, at least temporarily, support his consciousness further supports this theory."
With a horrified shudder, Naru asked, "So what? Are we going to fight an evil baby version of him next time?"
The elderly man chuckled, shaking his head in exasperation. "LeBeau took that into account it seems. His clones have been modified so that they will mature rapidly once they are released from the stasis that they are kept in. They will be born in a month at most by my calculations and their growth will only accelerate exponentially from there. He'd be an adult again in two, perhaps three months."
He paused in thought and tilted his head, eyes closed. "That said, that won't be a problem if LeBeau remains stuck in his cell within the Reformatory."
"That won't last." Naru said with a shake of her head. "Accelerator is paying him a visit about now. There's no way he'll leave without another body added to his kill count."
The doctor sighed. "Can you stop him?"
Naru replied with a deadpan look. "Do you honestly think anyone could after what LeBeau did to his girlfriends?"
Heaven Canceler just sighed again, rubbing his eyes. "Considering LeBeau can escape by just killing himself, Accelerator would want to teach him a lesson regardless."
"Exactly." Naru nodded. "He's that kinda person."
Heaven Canceler and Naru shared a resigned sigh at the Number 1's expense.
At roughly the same time that Naru was meeting with Heaven Canceler to discuss the fate of the LeBeau clones, Accelerator walked out of a cell in the Reformatory. A cell that belonged to Remy LeBeau.
"I got sloppy." He commented with a frown as he wiped at a bloodstain on his shirt. "I should've deactivated my choker and dropped my Redirection after I got out of the cell. I must've stepped on a puddle or something."
"Well, you do tend to get sloppy when you're really angry." Ruiko told him from where she and Frenda were waiting for him at the end of the corridor as he made his way towards his two girlfriends.
Accelerator just nodded in agreement.
"So is Remy LeBeau dead?" Frenda asked, looking between Accelerator and the cell he exited meaningfully.
"No one messes with my women." He said in lieu of a straightforward answer.
Ruiko and Frenda both blushed and nodded at him saying that. Something that honestly confused him a little. Surely, what he said wasn't a surprise.
It must be a girl thing. He thought to himself as he reached where they were and they immediately reached out and wrapped their arms around his.
Smirking at this, Accelerator led them out of the Reformatory whilst arm in arm with his girlfriends.
Several days after her return from Sushestvovanie Island, Mikoto was alone in her dorm room relaxing by reading a shoujo light novel. She was just getting into the book's story when suddenly her room's intercom buzzed. Not expecting anything, she groaned.
"What did Kuroko buy this time!?" Mikoto complained as she slid a bookmark into her book and, putting it aside, stood up and walked over to the intercom.
Activating the camera for the intercom, Mikoto saw that like she expected it was a mail courier.
Yup. It's another delivery for Kuroko. The [Railgun] thought with a tired sigh. Kuroko was always buying useless stuff online and getting her purchases delivered.
Pressing the talk button for the intercom panel built next to her dorm room door, Mikoto addressed the mail courier. "Hello?"
"Hello. Am I speaking to Misaka Mikoto-san?" The courier said as he looked into the camera.
"Uh, yes? The mail is for me?" Mikoto asked, surprised that the delivery was for her and not Kuroko.
"Yes, Misaka-san." The man said with a smile and nod. "There's a registered letter for you."
"Okay. Give me a moment and I'll be there to sign for it."
"Certainly, Misaka-san. I'll be waiting."
It took her a moment to make her way from her room to the Tokiwadai External Dorm's reception area and finish signing for the mail addressed to her. Mail that turned out to be a simple letter.
"Wonder who this is from." Mikoto said as she examined the letter and found no return address to clue her in on who it might be from. "Well, I guess I have no choice but to open it."
Walking back to her room, Mikoto carelessly ripped the top of the envelope open and pulled out the only thing inside.
"A photo?" Mikoto muttered with a confused frown as she found herself holding a photo which, thanks to how she'd removed it from the envelope, was such that its blank side was facing her. "Who would send me a pho-
Turning the photo around so she could see it properly, Mikoto froze. It was a shot of one of her clones, Marie LeBeau, holding a baby that bore a disconcerting resemblance to Remy LeBeau who was being looked at adoringly by the rest of the LeBeau clones. A sight that brought to mind a horrific hypothesis that Heaven Canceler had shared with Naru and by extension the rest of their team shortly after the LeBeaus were captured and brought back from Sushestvovanie.
T-This can't be happening! The bastard did not cheat death!
As much as the Number 5 wanted that to be true… The proof that she was wrong was staring her in the face.
"Damnit!" She cursed as she crumpled the photo and stalked back to her room.
You might have escaped your just desserts again this time Remy LeBeau, but you won't always be this lucky. You'll get what's coming to you sooner or later. I'll make sure of that!
Omake: Canon's Thoughts - Part 2
(Not Canon to Trinity of Tokiwadai)
"Me and Accelerator!? And Frenda!? For real?" Ruiko couldn't help but say in disbelief as the latest installment of the glimpse into the insane alternate reality where she was a Level 5 made a fade to black on the massive screen in the strange limbo-like place that she and her friends found themselves in. "Okay, I can see myself and Frenda… if she didn't ghost me after saving me from that sniper girl and then getting herself killed by her psycho boss… But why, by Science, am I a mother at twelve!?"
"At least you're getting some action, Ruiko-san." Mikoto-san said, looking downright depressed. "Seriously! Why is everyone hooking up in that world and yet I'm still single!? And dammit I want Bust Upper! And why the hell is everyone wanting to hook up with that Naru girl!? Is this City full of lolicons!?"
They all ignored her. By this point, Mikoto-san lamenting her lack of a romantic partner in that alternate universe had become a common enough refrain that they had all started automatically tuning her out the moment that she started ranting about it.
"Oh~! Ruiko-san!" Kazari said, grabbing hold of Ruiko's hands and pulling her from the horrifying idea of being a barely teenage mother. "You look good as an ojou-sama! You should dress up like that sometime!"
Knowing both from experience and what she'd seen in the videos of that other world just how deep her best friend's obsessive love for all things ojou-sama ran, Ruiko responded to her enthusiasm with a nervous gulp as she replied. "Uh… Maybe sometime?"
"Oh! It'll be wonderful." Kazari crowed, taking Ruiko's noncommittal reply as full throated agreement. "I'll pick out some options for you to wear!"
Intimidated by Kazari's fanaticism, Ruiko turned to the only sane member of their group for help. "Kuroko-san! What do you think about the latest developments in that other world?"
The Teleporter didn't seem to pick up on Ruiko's desperation, not if the casual tone with which she replied was any indication. Though at least she replied and in so doing caught Kazari's attention and had her ease off on Ruiko.
"Mostly I'm concerned by the kind of enemies our analogues are fighting." Kuroko-san said. "Zombies!? Cloned sex slaves!? What by Science is wrong with that universe!? And here I thought our enemies were bad… And I want my own clone of Onee-sama… ah, so many Onee-samas…. Hehehehe~"
A static burst zapping Kuroko-san and cutting off her perverted giggles was a sign that Mikoto-san had returned to the land of the sane. Hopefully. The more of that other world that she and her friends watched, the more Ruiko was getting worried that she was the last inhabitant of that rarefied realm. It was like its madness was infecting them!
"Stop lusting after my sisters, Kuroko." Mikoto scolded her twitching roommate with an exasperated shake of her head.
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And so,the day is saved! For now from Remy LeBeau. But who knows what happens next. At least the fucker got his real body axed for being the wretched monster he is. Accel for the win! Or a bloody explosion of chunky salsa.
Nameless: Whelp! Remy LeBeau both got his comeuppance and escaped it all in one chapter! Damn! We really made him a slimy snake, didn't we? Then again, he wouldn't be half as interesting an antagonist if he wasn't like that. At least, we think he's interesting. Do you agree? Please let us know.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!