Some peace with "friends"

[ASCRS: Memories of Younger Days]

Junko watched as Misaka chatted with some of the other members of the clique. Her queen had told her that her mind would be changed in a few ways.

First, she'd not have any urge to leave. Any memories that might cause her to leave would have been suppressed and she would feel a tug towards the group. That was a fairly minor thing though, it was up to them to keep her from leaving.

The second thing would be that she'd find it natural to think of the rest of the clique as friends. Not close ones though, the kind of friends you nod and wave to. As far as Misaka was aware, this was just something like a meet up that she'd been invited to during the festival.

The third were a set of commands that only Junko had been told and that Misaka would only obey if she spoke them.

They were all meant to keep Misaka out of trouble in one way or another.

Time passed and as Misaka went to events, Junko ensured that she or another few members of the clique went with her.

Just before one such event, she spoke with Misaka herself and discovered the girl liked gekota too. They even made a bet about it.

"If you give your all in today's events, I could give you it." Junko promised. By it she was refering to a rare piece of gekota merch that she had aquired a spare of.

Misaka got excited and promised and Junko gave her a smile in reply.

After that event, they regrouped at the park. She smiled when she saw another of Misaka's friends had joined her, Miss Kongou, another girl from Tokiwadai. She was currently talking to Miss Shirai and her friends were nearby too.

Junko walked over calmly, she had to make sure that no one did anything drastic.

"Hello."

The two of them turned to look at her as she spoke.

"Hello, it's Hokaze, right?" Kongou greeted and Junko nodded.

"It is, thank you for remembering."

The girl nodded and glanced back and Shirai. Junko gave a slight tilt of her head "Are the two of you talking about Miss Misaka."

Shirai froze but Kongou nodded, a firm look on her face "We were actually, I was wondering if this is really in her best interests?"

"The queen said it was so-" Junko shrugged "I doubt she would want to harm Misaka, even with their rivalry."

Kongou gave a small "Hmm." and nodded before continuing "Can we help watch out for her as well?"

By "we" she meant herself and her two friends. Junko didn't see why not so she allowed her to stay too.

"Just don't tell Misaka about it." she said "She doesn't need to know."

Kongou raised an eyebrow and replied "I barely know what's happening. Kuroko didn't explain it that well."

"She couldn't." Junko agreed "But my queen was afraid she'd break her promise not to tell."

"So she was outright forbidden for her to explain?" Kongou looked upset by that, as did Shirai as it happened.

Either way, Junko nodded and they had soon joined in the coversations about homework, studies and gossip.

As it turned out, Misaka actually had a lot of all three to talk about so she was enjoying herself. Telling some stories about the adventures she'd been on over the last few months. Not all of them though, Junko had heard Rumours about adventures she wasn't telling but she wasn't going to press her. If she didn't want to talk about her sisters then she wasn't going to force her too.

She was telling the story of the AIM burst right now. Due to how Tokiwadai gathered students, there wasn't anyone in the clique that was below level 2. Even then, there had been members of the clique that had used the level upper.

The queen had generally healed them herself though when the rest of them had noticed something wrong. What this meant was that none of the clique had been part of the network when the burst formed.

Regardless they listened enraptured as she told the story. The scientist who would do anything for her students and the monster that she had unintentionally created.

As Misaka got to the climax she mimed the action of using her railgun as she described the shot that took out the core. After that she went in to the wrap up and made a note that they did me the scientist later.

"Is she still in the city?" Someone asked and Misaka nodded.

"She is, at least I think so. She's acting as her student's caretaker now until they finish their education."

"So she did manage to save them?"

Misaka smiled and got started on the second story, the Poltergeist incident.

As she told it, Junko noticed that Shirai was looking upset. She walked over to see what was wrong.

The teleporter glanced over at her as she approached and sighed.

"What is it lady?"

She didn't even want to learn her name? Kongou had said it earlier though. Regarldess, to answer her question;

"You looked upset when Misaka was telling the stories."

The teleporter glanced at her friend who was talking about how the poltergesting had happened.

"It feels off, these were the stories we went through. It isn't like she's just reading a story from a book. These feel personal."

Junko raised an eyebrow "Do you want to ask her to stop?"

She shook her head "Not really? It just feels odd for these stories to be told. Misaka doesn't boast."

"So this is boasting?" Junko asked "Her telling the stories?"

Shirai shrugged "Sort of? Was that another change made by your 'queen'. She wants Misaka to boast now? To make her just a prideful?"

Junko wanted to deny that the queen was prideful but stopped when she realised she couldn't say that with confidence, instead she changed the subject.

"In your mind, does Misaka deserve recognition for what she's done?"

"Of course." Shirai replied "But I don't want her to..." she trailed off like she didn't really know how to finish that sentence.

Changing the track again, Junko began "My queen may be prideful but she deserves it for what she's done for all of us. I think Misaka might be similar."

"So you think she should be stuck up?" Shirai asked with a bit of venom. Junko shrugged though.

"Being humble is a virtue, it's not my place to force my opinions on others."

"It's your queens."

"If that's what you think of her," Junko noted "then you don't really understand her. As I said earlier, our queen deserves the loyalty we chose to show to her. She's never forced someone into the clique."

"Not counting Misaka."

Junko sighed "Are you just trying to get in the last word? Regardless, that doesn't count. Misaka is staying with us, she has not joined the clique. If she wants to keep in contact with some of us after she's free again then that's entirely up to her."

Shirai sighed and nodded. She didn't say anything else as they listened to Misaka talk about the raid on the lab with the children inside.

"Miss Junko?" The voice of one of the telepathic members of the clique spoke to her quietly "Someone we don't know is coming this way. Do you mind...?"

She nodded and glanced and Shirai "I need to check on something for a moment."

The teleporter just shrugged and Junko headed towards the edge of the park where the telepath said someone was coming towards them from.

It was a young man in a sweater vest. When he saw her, he smiled.

"Hello, you haven't seen a girl with brown hair come this way have you? Brown eyes? Same sort of uniform as you?"

"I may have." Junko said slowly "But I know a few people with that sort of description, who exactly are you looking for?"

"A Miss Misaka Mikoto I think." The man said calmly.

End of chapter.

The first of a short section of "With the clique" chapters.