The Depths

[ACSRS: Invader]

The proxy offered a sigh.

"Well, it doesn't matter that much I hope."

Misaka nodded "Is this what you told the people at the lab?"

Kuriba nodded slightly "Yes I did, but they were so caught up in the success that they ignored any possible negative consequences."

"None at all?" GV frowned "Is that how the robot escaped so easily?"

"Well... maybe?" Kuriba turned away slightly "We put in basic measures. A self-preservation drive notably, it should have stopped the doppelganger from... well... doing what it did tonight from what Miss Misaka has told me."

"Jumping from the building?"

The young scientist nodded "It understood it wasn't human, so knew there wasn't as much risk. It's sturdy and would not have been damaged too badly by the fall."

"But if there is something that would damage it, it would hold off like a human would?" The proxy asked.

Again, Kuriba confirmed it with a nod.

"There are other things too, a tracker, a remote way to disable it from range, but those could have been broken intentionally when it fell."

Misaka was thoughtful "How much of that would you say you worked on?"

"The self-preservation system, the artificial muscles that extend and contract in response to certain chemicals, immunosuppressant agents that reduce the body's rejection of implants... I worked on quite a lot of its tech."

Still nodding, Misaka asked "And the reason you spread Indian Poker... is that related to the doppelganger too?"

With a small intake of breath, Kuriba asked "What would make you think that?"

"Because the time you learned about its existance overlaps with when those cards started going around. It's easy to assume the two are connected."

"Well..." Kuriba sighed "You're not wrong. Those cards allow someone to gain anothers experiences and skills through their dreams, and we advance as a society by sharing experiences with each other. So by creating a streamlined avenue with which to do so it should inspire quicker growth. While I might not have the answers to the doppelganger situation, someone interacting with my ideas through that card might. Add on that fad to boost the number of collaborators, it becomes a matter of probability and time. You might think it's kind of an indirect way of fixing things, but since I had to do it alone, it was the best option I could come up with. I don't care how it looks to anyone else."

"Well, you didn't come up with the idea on your own did you?" The proxy asked.

Kuriba shrugged as she turned away "I found some old research on the subject. I just replicated the results to create the cards. Not that it matters much."

She took a step away "Now excuse me but I have to go. You all interupted me while I was working on this anyway. I'll make sure to do something about the doppelganger, you don't need to get involved."

"Just don't get stupid." GV noted as she left "And pay attention to what you've learned here."

She didn't offer any response as she left the park.

"Do you think she'll really listen?" Shokuhou asked as she stepped out from behind the tree.

GV shrugged and Misaka frowned. Shokuhou raised an eyebrow at those reactions and after telling the proxy she could go home, she faced the two lightning-users again.

"Misaka, you don't seem to like her that much, do you have some thought about her?"

Misaka sighed.

"I don't know for sure. I get that she's just a victim in this, and as a third party I don't have enough insight to try my hand at fixing this whole mess. But the idea that she could rope in so many uninvolved people just because it was too much for her to handle on her own rubs me the wrong way."

"It's like the level upper network." GV noted "Miss Kiyama's specifically."

Misaka nodded at him "Yeah, like that! Its the same in a way, altering the minds of others to ensure you had an answer for any given problem. An answer you couldn't find on your own."

There was a pause for a moment and Shokuhou coughed. Maybe she felt that the previous comment had been needling her in some way.

"Right yes... but everyone does have their own reasons."

She revealed a remote she'd palmed.

"Now, let me tell you the full story."

She hit a button on the remote and staggered for a moment before standing up straight a moment later. She was silent for a few moments before nodding.

It looked like Shokuhou's lips were mouthing words silently until she nodded, but when she did, it was like she'd never stumbled.

"Where to start?"

And so Shokuhou began to tell the story of Kuriba Ryouko.

How she'd been hurt as a child and how her mother had given her one of her mother's own lungs as a transplant.

How her already frail mother had survived, but become truly poorly, her health barely hanging on.

How she had gone to Academy City to research Cybernetics to help her mother.

How her mother had taken a turn for the worse and put Kuriba on a clock.

How the only way for her to get the data required to save her mother in time was to suggest the doppelganger experiment.

How she swore to save her mother at any cost as she began the experiment on herself.

"And that..." Shokuhou nodded "would be the gist of it. At least as far as I investigated."

Misaka was shaken. GV looked away, sadness and pity writen across his face.

"I don't get why she wouldn't tell us about all that." Misaka admitted, a slight note of worry in her voice.

GV tilted his head back the other way "She probably didn't think it was relevant to us."

Shokuhou agreed "We're just a few strangers who lied to her in order to get her attention. I'd say it was quite smart of her really."

"I get that but-"

"It's likely a feeling of personal responsability." Shokuhou observed "She feels that the doppelganger is her fault and her problem to fix. I mean, it was the direct result of her search for a way to treat her mother so it isn't hard to understand it. So she wants to take care of it herself."

A slightly cruel smile pulled at the edge of the telepath's mouth as she continued talking to Misaka "And if I'm not mistaken that's not a feeling you're entirely unfamiliar with."

Misaka jerked back slightly.

Shokuhou's smile dropped instantly and she quickly changed the subject "Incidentally, by Kuriba's calculations, if Indian Poker keeps spreading as far and wide as it had been, then statistically speaking it will only take two more months to find a method of destroying the robot's soul- though that requires her ideas to have been right which..."

"They might well not be." GV nodded.

"So she was planning to keep this to herself..." Misaka gripped her hat tightly.

Shokuhou finished her though "For two more months, with the robot already on the loose."

Misaka tilted her head down. Then she made a call. She told her room mate that she'd try to make it back before midnight, but that she would have to stay out a bit longer than she'd planned.

As Misaka pulled her hat back on, she looked between GV and Shokuhou "You two can head home. I'll help sort this all out tonight."

GV watched her run off and Shokuhou laughed softly.

"This must be quite the ordeal for you Misaka."

Misaka didn't answer. She was involved now.

That left the two powerful psychics alone in the park again.

Shokuhou was the first to speak. She yawned loudly.

"Well, I'm going to bed."

"Are you actually?" GV asked "Or are you going to stay out and keep helping?"

Shokuhou had been walking away, but she stopped at his question.

"Well, naturally I need my beauty sleep."

...

"But..." Shokuhou admitted "I could probably stay out... until midnight."

"Right."

GV sighed

"After that story you told... I at least want to see this end without sorrow, if possible. I might as well stick around too."

End of chapter.

And now we get this arc's strange team up. GV and Shokuhou gathering information.