Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter One Hundred Thirteen: Ichihanaransai - The Festival Battles Begins
"Sleepy~" Accelerator heard his eldest daughter drawl out tiredly as he carried her on his back as they participated in the search for the missing Fremea. "Misaka Misaka mutters as she fights to stay awake."
"Of course you are." Accelerator told her with a snort. "You've been running around for hours."
"Misaka wants to search for Fremea. Misaka Misaka insists."
"You could've left the search to us." Accelerator said with a roll of her eyes. "Between Yoshikawa, your mamas, myself and everyone else we got to join us in the search, there's more than enough people looking for her. We would've found her soon enough."
"You know he's right, Order-chan." Yoshikawa told her sternly from where she was walking beside them.
"Misaka knows. Misaka Misaka admits. But Fremea is Misaka's friend, Misaka has to help find her too. Misaka Misaka says determinedly."
This brat… Accelerator thought with a fond, exasperated sigh. It's a good thing that we've already found the blonde rascal.
"Well, you'd be glad to know, we've found her." Accelerator told her as they turned a corner and reached the small park where Ruiko had informed him that Hamazura and Takitsubo had found Fremea. Spotting the three of them, he lifted his shoulder to nudge the brat."See for yourself."
"Mmhmm…" Order-chan murmured, as she raised her head and began wiping at her eyes sleepily. Tiredness that completely disappeared the moment she saw a tired looking Fremea being carried by Hamazura and being carefully examined by Takitsubo. "Fremea-chan! Misaka Misaka shouts in relief at seeing her friend."
Even as his suddenly wide awake daughter jumped off his back and raced towards her friend, Accelerator found himself letting out a sigh of relief that the blonde rascal was safe and sound. One that he hid with an exasperated huff at Last Order's sudden burst of energy.
That said, were all children able to shake off their exhaustion and become irrepressible bundles of energy at the drop of a hat? Because the moment that Fremea heard Order-chan's voice, she immediately shook off her own sleepiness and pushed off Hamazura's back and greeted his daughter with the same hyperactive eagerness.
"Accelerator-sama, Yoshikawa-san." Hamazura greeted with a nod as his perpetually tired girlfriend offered them a distracted nod of her own, most of her attention focused on the two little girls that were happily catching up with each other.
"Hamazura." Accelerator returned with a nod of his own. "So you found the rascal?"
"Yeah. We did." Hamazura said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "We are sorry for losing her in the first place."
"Yes, our apologies." Takitsubo echoed.
"Don't mention it." Accelerator-sama told them with a shrug. "Ruiko reviewed things and we know it wasn't your fault. If anything, it was the rascal's. We'll be sure to scold her for it."
"I'm sure Frenda will." Takitsubo agreed with a knowing nod. Considering she had been his blonde girlfriend's teammate for years, she would have an understanding of how she'd react, wouldn't she?
Accelerator nodded and turned to the two little girls as they happily and enthusiastically shared with each other what they had been doing since they last met. Somehow despite only having been separated by a few hours at most, they seemed to have tons to share. The Number 1 didn't get it but the sheer joy they radiated as they talked was still enough to pull a reluctant smile from him. Hamazura and Takitsubo were far less reserved and smiled freely at the girls' antics.
However, the girls' happy reunion was soon cut short.
"Last Order run!" A desperate voice cried from nearby as its source, a woman who was almost two meters tall with unkempt lavender hair that was long enough to reach her ankles and which obscured her face and was wearing a two-piece transparent dress that revealed her pink underwear, suddenly lunged towards Last Order with teeth bared.
"What? Misaka Misaka gasped in surprise."
"Fräulein Kreutune?"
Even as the two little girls reacted in surprise, their guardians did so much more sensibly. Standing closest to the strange woman - whom Accelerator recalled Ruiko had previously told him was an inhuman entity, though he saw no sign indicating she was anything but human -, Hamazura moved to intercept the lunging woman. However, in her first display of anything inhuman, the exhibitionist shoved Hamazura lightly and that somehow sent the former Skill-Out flying.
"Shiage!" "Shiage-nii!" The blonde punk's girlfriend and Fremea cried out in alarm as he crash landed.
Accelerator wasn't worried though. He'd seen Hamazura shifting his posture so that he rolled with the landing and though it would hurt, it wouldn't actually injure him and he would soon be able to get to his feet. Not that the Number 1 cared all that much about that. More important to him was that the former Skill-Out's actions had bought him the time to slip in front of Last Order and lash out at the strange woman with a vector manipulation enhanced kick.
Demonstrating further evidence of her superhuman, if not outright inhuman,nature, Fräulein Kreutune reacted to the kick by rotating her body three times. In so doing she bled off the force of the kick and thus avoided being blown away, instead staying exactly where she was.
"Last Order run!" Fräulein Kreutune shouted as she reached out towards Accelerator's eldest. "I don't want to eat you but I can't stop my body!"
Feeling a surge of anger at hearing what the strange woman intended for his daughter, Accelerator was about to attempt another attack to force her back. A much more forceful and harder to counter one this time. However, before he could, the ground that the strange woman was standing on was ripped out from under her and with her on it, was tossed into the distance.
"Papa, Mama, don't hurt, Fräulein Kreutune! Misaka Misaka urges." Last Order shouted pleadingly even as the civilians, which had been out in force due to the Ichihanaransai, began running away. It seems at least they had common sense. "She's my friend. Misaka Misaka explains. She is being controlled. Misaka Misaka adds."
"We'll try our best." Ruiko said as she teleported in as they watched the strange woman gracefully jump off the chunk of ground that the Number 3 had used to toss her into the sky and landed a good distance away. She was still far too close for Accelerator's comfort though. "Accel, the opponent is Fräulein Kreutune. Like I previously explained, she is an anomalous entity that defies easy classification. She was released just yesterday from containment in the Windowless Building by Kamijou Touma and a Gremlin Magician going by Thor."
The Hero let this thing loose!? And now it is targeting my daughter!? Accelerator thought with an angry hiss even as he and Ruiko tossed a combination of wind hammers and particle beams to try to keep Fräulein Kreutune back but the strange woman easily invaded their barrage and kept closing. "Seriously! What was the Hero thinking!?"
Ruiko shrugged as she intensified the particle beam barrage, prompting him to do the same with his own wind hammers. An effort that was sadly still largely ineffective. At the same time, Ruiko continued explaining to him just who they were facing. "She's an infovore. It appears that she is currently targeting Last Order so she can eat her brain as doing so will allow her to consume the Misaka Network and the immense information it contains."
"Last Order! Run! I can't resist my body's desire to eat you!" Fräulein Kreutune shouted desperately as although slowed by needing to evade the barrage sent at her, she annoyingly continued advancing towards them. "Your parents cannot stop me!"
"And how do you know this?" Accelerator asked. Yes, Ruiko was the best information dealer in the City however if this woman had been imprisoned in the Windowless Building then any and all information about her must be considered a state secret and something his girlfriend must've struggled, at best, to obtain.
"Crowley sent me a message just now when he realized that Order-chan was being targeted."
A gunshot rang out and Accelerator glanced to the side to see that Hamazura had drawn his pistol and used it to join the defense against the out of control Fräulein Kreutune. Not that his shots did much good, as the strange woman evaded them just as easily as Accelerator and Ruiko's own barrage. His girlfriend pulling out a submachine gun from the tote bag she carried around as a purse didn't help either as it just ended in the same frustrating outcome.
"We've called in our team." Takitsubo added. "Mugino and Saiai will be here soon to help us out too."
"Thank you, Takitsubo-san, Hamazura-san." Ruiko said even as she once again tried to toss Fräulein Kreutune by ripping out the ground under her feet but seemingly having spotted the trick, the strange woman just raced forward and outpaced Ruiko's attempts to do so. Accelerator tried to prevent that by shooting bolts of compressed air at her but despite her having to weave left and right in a bid to avoid them, she didn't even slow down!
Unfazed by the failure of their efforts, Ruiko just adapted her methods. Seeing how her efforts to rip the ground from under her was failing to do more than slow Fräulein Kreutune, she simply broke the torn up asphalt and concrete into small chunks that she proceeded to pelt at the infovore.
That was just as effective to stop the woman, that is to say, not at all. But Accelerator tried to add to her efforts nonetheless as he added braces of vacuum blades to her barrage. Oh, they were injuring her. The woman wasn't teleporting and she was no speedster like that blonde Fennete girl so as agile and fast as she was, they scored the occasional glancing hit but she just kept regenerating from her injuries as quickly as they were causing them. They were barely even slowing her down.
"Argh! Fighting her is worse than fighting Naru-chan!"
"So she's as much of a pain to fight?" Accelerator asked with a cocked eyebrow.
"Indeed." Ruiko said with a nod just as what looked like a tank shell slammed into the closing Fräulein Kreutune out of nowhere and sent her flying. "And it looks like we have company."
""Fräulein Kreutune!"" Last Order and Fremea both cried out in concern.
Ignoring them, Accelerator looked in the direction from where the shell was fired from and saw a swarm of giant things in the shape of Japanese Rhinoceros Beetles. They were fifteen meters long and eight meters with white chitin with a smooth luster like that of a new car and glowing green eyes. And about a hundred of these things had surrounded them.
Opening up the chitin on their backs, they revealed large and thin wings folded underneath just like actual Rhinoceros Beetles. Wings that began to vibrate to vocalize in the unpleasantly unfamiliar voice of Kakine Teitoku. "Accelerator~! Saten Ruiko~! Do you remember me?"
"Huh? Who are you?" The Number 1 lied. "I only bother remembering people worth the effort."
"Is that so? Then I suppose I will just have to remind you who I am, won't I?"
"Stop this nonsense, Kakine Teitoku!" Ruiko said, shooting the swarm of beetles a glare. "Can't you see that Accel is busy protecting our daughter? He has no time for your petty games!"
In the distance, Fräulein Kreutune had gotten up from being sent flying by what in hindsight must've been a Dark Matter shell and was once more charging towards Last Order. Of course, this meant the brat had the bright idea of fighting off Yoshikawa's attempts to restrain her and running towards the exhibitionist. Probably to see if her friend was okay or some such nonsense. Did she forget the strange woman was trying to literally eat her brain?
Sighing, Accelerator stopped her by grabbing her by her arm as she ran past him and lifted the squirming girl and held her firmly against his hip. Hamazura emulated the same maneuver with Fremea, who was mimicking the brat, Seriously!? What was wrong with these munchkins!? Do they not have a sense of self-preservation!?
"Papa, let me down! Misaka Misaka protests."
"No." Accelerator told his brat of a daughter firmly. "Now, hold still or I'll drop you."
"Ha!" The seemingly resurrected Number 4 scoffed from an entirely new direction even as he had a portion of his swarm of Dark Matter beetles descend on the ever closing Fräulein Kreutune like a plague of monstrous sized locusts. "Accelerator can act like a good father all he wants! I know the truth! It is nothing more than a pretense!"
Turning to the new source of his fellow Level 5s' voice, Accelerator couldn't resist cocking an eyebrow in surprise as he laid eyes on multiple iterations of the guy. Each of them looked like he had been when they last fought but with ghostly white skin, eyes with equally white irises and pitch black sclera, and with a mouth whose depths had a deep darkness whilst still wearing his usual dark maroon colored suit with a white collared shirt, both unbuttoned, revealing a red v-neck under them. It seemed the bastard had learned how to not only create drones with his Dark Matter in the form of his beetles but even spare bodies for himself.
It must've been how he survived being vaporized during the Battle Royale Incident.
"Hahahaha~! I can see your surprise, Accelerator!" Kakine laughed arrogantly, like surprising him was some great feat. Considering how often he was surprised by his girls, both his girlfriends and his daughters, it wasn't exactly all that great an achievement. "You see, I am able to reproduce my own organs, even my own brain."
Gesturing at his beetles, he continued. "I can also create bioroids with my Dark Matter too. With this application of my ability, my strength will level up infinitely. An infinitely growing strength that I will use to crush you, Accelerator, and prove that I am the strongest Esper!"
This guy… He really is a broken record isn't he? Is being the strongest all he cares about? Accelerator thought with a tired sigh. Sure, he'd been like the Number 4 once upon a time too, but he'd grown past the obsession with being the best. There were far more important things to life than something as petty as strength. But he doesn't get it. He's basically a chūnibyō desperately wanting to stand out by being the strongest. And like every chūni, he's not gonna stop trying to prove his delusions are true. And with the actual power that he possesses…
"All of you!" He shouted as he tossed Last Order in Ruiko's direction just as he launched himself towards Kakine Teitoku's humanoid bodies and simultaneously enhanced the same for the vectors of force created by his leap. The latter causing the ground underneath where he'd been standing to collapse, opening a hole into the subway tunnel below. "I'll deal with things here! Use that tunnel and get out of here!"
Even as the ground collapsed under them as Accel created their escape route to the City's subway tunnels for them, Ruiko reached out with her emulated Telekinesis and caught hold of her eldest daughter that her aforementioned boyfriend tossed her way.
"Understood, Accel. I'll leave it to you." She assured him as she secured Last Order in her arms and began floating down into the tunnels, turning as she did to address her present allies. "Fremea-chan, Yoshikwawa-san, Hamazura-san, Takitsubo-san, we're leaving."
"Not that I don't think that's a good idea." Hamazura-san said as Ruiko grabbed the four of them in her telekinetic hold and floated them down to join her and Last Order's descent. "But why aren't you staying to fight?"
"Simple. We would have been able to fight Kakine Teitoku or Fräulein Kreutune but battling both at the same time is foolhardy. Particularly with Last Order and Fremea in the equation." Ruiko explained.
"Yeah, I can see how staying around when a fight like that is going on would be dangerous. We could easily get squished in the crossfire. If we want to support Accelerator-sama we at least need a plan."
"Is that so, Hamazura-kun? Then are you saying that you would help Accelerator if you had a plan?" Yoshikawa-san asked, shooting the former Skill-Out a pointed look. A look that Hamazura-san could only turn away from shamefully.
"Now's not the time to discuss that." Ruiko cut in as they finally safely landed on the tracks of the subway tunnel. They had no time for an argument within their own ranks at the moment. "Not when we are being pursued."
Everyone looked up at her words and spotted that sure enough, a tide of white Dark Matter chitin had flown down the hole they'd just descended in pursuit of them. Only Takitsubo who thanks to her AIM Stalker had sensed the AIM Fields animating Kakine Teitoku's beetles had like her known all along that were followed, so most of them were surprised, or at least resigned, by learning they had yet to make good their escape.
"Shit!" Hamazura shouted as he and Takitsubo raised their guns to shoot at the descending insect horde.
"Oh! Put those peashooters away, Hamazura, Takitsubo! It's not going to do anything!" Naru-chan's familiar voice shouted as she breathed a tongue of white hot flames through the insects' ranks as she and Mikoto-senpai teleported to the edge of the hole they'd all just fled down.
"Naru-chan! Senpai! Could you cover our retreat?" Ruiko asked even as Mikoto-senpai fired a volley of low yield railguns, a trick she'd picked up from Dolly-san, and thinned Kakine's insect swarm even further.
"Sure, Ruiko! But you better explain what, by Science, is going on here!"
"Catch up to us after you're done and I'll tell you everything, Senpai." Ruiko assured her upperclassman as she gestured for her allies in the tunnel to follow her as she began racing away from the fight. They thankfully followed without question. Unfortunately, so did a large chunk of Kakine's blasted beetles. Though that was dealt with when Naru-chan teleported between them and used some geokinesis to raise a wall of earth that sealed the tunnel behind them before presumably engaging them to prevent them from blasting their way through her impromptu barrier.
"Saten-sama, why are we running?" Takitsubo-san asked as despite her infamous lethargy, she kept pace with them without so much as breathing hard like Yoshikawa-san. "Why don't you teleport us to safety?"
"I can't safely teleport all of us at the same time. Not without time we don't have to brute force it with additional computations. My weight limit for teleportation only allows me to transport one or two other people at a time under normal circumstances and that means that with us being actively pursued, it would leave whoever I am not currently teleporting in danger. That is unacceptable. I am not leaving anyone behind."
"Okay, then you sure the rest of the Trinity can catch up with us?" Hamazura-san asked, glancing behind them. "I mean, I know they can take care of themselves so you're not worried about them but how are they gonna know where we'll be?"
"It'll be fine. Naru-chan is a remarkable tracker."
"Saten-sama! Dead ahead!" Takitsubo-san shouted in warning seconds before Ruiko's own AIM senses picked up on the rapidly increasing AIM signatures ahead of them. It seemed Kakine was acting smart and was using smaller, easier to miss avatars to move into ambush positions and using them as buds from which to germinate more proper forces when they got within attack range.
"Wha-" Fremea-chan began, only to cut herself off as dozens of Kakine's beetles suddenly flew out of a side tunnel ahead and began zeroing in on their position.
"Kakine Teitoku, you are really being a pain." Ruiko said as she glared and with a burst of computations and concentration, she used her AIM Sovereign to disrupt the AIM Network that Kakine was using to control his creations.
As a fellow Level 5, any attempts by her to disrupt his AIM Field was always going to be difficult. But she had always been up to the task. The network of linked AIM Fields that Kakine had used to control his Dark Matter automatons - although she'd never seen him use them as extensively as he did today, she, unlike Accelerator, had been aware beforehand of his ability to use them - had always been especially vulnerable to her disrupting it. However, it seemed that being aware of this vulnerability, Kakine had taken measures to harden his AIM Network against such attacks. Measures that left her struggling to effectively disrupt it like she intended.
That was not to say that her power was wholly ineffective. Combining unexpectedly with Fremea's still developing AIM Field that permeated the entire area around them like a thick haze, it caused one of the beetles to malfunction, causing it to spasm and crash, and its eye color to fluctuate between green and red.
What kind of reaction is that? Ruiko though idly as realizing that she could not just shut down their link to Kakine's AIM Network and render them inert, she switched gears and began preparing more conventional offensive measures. How did Fremea-chan's developing and currently still nascent Esper ability combine with my own to result in this?
Whatever it was, it was certainly unlike any ability she's cataloged. None of those she had filed away in her mind would have led to something like this, not even other AIM related abilities like Takitsubo-san's AIM Stalker or Febrie-chan's AIM Disruptor.
It was her curiosity of the unusual phenomenon afflicting it that saved the crashed, malfunctioning beetle from the storm of particle beams that Ruiko unleashed against the incoming swarm. Downed and twitching as it was, it was an easy target that she could've easily vaporized if she so chose. But she spared it for now and excluded it from the same fate as the dozen or so lead beetles that she disintegrated.
A curiosity that only grew as the malfunctioning beetle began querying its compatriots through its mouth, proving that Kakine using his beetles' wings to communicate earlier was just him being a grandstanding jerk as always. "Recheck parameters of order: Destroy any and all elements that obstruct our mission. What is the mission?"
""Mission parameters are as follows: Parameter 1: to defeat Fräulein Kreutune and eliminate the objective behind her actions-"" The other beetles replied as one without the slightest hint of distraction as they continued charging straight into Ruiko's beam storm and died by their dozens.
Hmm… I suppose Kakine must be the other asset that Crowley mentioned he would be deploying to deal with Fräulein Kreutune. If that's the case, he, or whoever is in charge of Kakine in the City's upper echelons must have helped him regenerate too. Considering he got completely disintegrated the last time we fought, he would've needed it no matter how good he is at using his Dark Matter to replace his body parts.
""Parameter 2: eliminate anyone who would obstruct the battle between Accelerator and Kakine Teitoku, secure the battlefield, eliminate the recent continuing threat to the City by defeating all dangerous elements."" The majority of the beetles continued as some of them landed and leveling their horns at them like they were cannon barrels, proceeded to fire Dark Matter shells from openings at their horns' tips at them.
Rounds that Ruiko blocked with a series of barriers. She had fortunately used a diverse variety of barriers as thanks to their nature as shells conjured by Dark Matter, they possessed properties that let them easily pierce through some of her barriers with ease. It was only the fact that Kakine could not account for the many different types of shields she'd raised that didn't allow him to come up with a shell that could pierce through all of them.
Of course, this just meant that the beetles that were firing the shells had to be dealt with before they could adapt and come up with a shell which could penetrate her defenses. Kakine probably hoped this meant she would be forced to shift the fire of her beams onto them thus allowing his still airborne beetles to close the distance whilst she was preoccupied. However, she instead responded by simply increasing the number of beams she was shooting at the enemy to the point that she was destroying both the airborne and landed beetles with the same brutal efficiency.
""Parameter 3: to protect the residents of the City from all anticipated dangerous elements."" The few surviving, non-malfunctioning beetles said, continuing their recitation of their mission parameters, only to freeze. The currently airborne beetles even froze mid-wing beat and thus began crashing to the ground.
This should've allowed Ruiko to wipe the beetles out in one fell swoop. She certainly tried to. However, it seemed Kakine had adapted to her choice of particle beam and had changed the composition of the Dark Matter that made up his beetles' bodies. As a result, where her beams previously easily disintegrated the beetles, they now just singed their carapace.
Well, it was good whilst it lasted. Guess, I'll need to change the composition of my particle beams? Maybe use neutrons instead of electrons?
Ruiko was saved the trouble however, when the frozen beetles suddenly regained their mobility and began attacking each other whilst declaring. ""Kakine Teitoku is also a dangerous element to Academy City's residents and thus his elimination is in accordance with the mission parameters.""
"That's convenient for us." Yoshikawa-san mused as they watched Kakine's beetles annihilate themselves via internecine conflict.
"Indeed." Ruiko agreed. "And the best part is that the conclusion that led up to this isn't incorrect. Kakine Teitoku is a threat to Academy City and all its residents."
Just then there was a particularly large explosion within the free for all that the swarm of Kakine's beetles had devolved into. It seems one or more of the beetles had started using explosive shells. Regardless of what caused the blast, its most immediate consequence was that it sent the initially malfunctioning beetle in a trajectory that caused it to land next to Ruiko and Order-chan.
Scrambling to its feet, it began to lower its horn in preparation to attack them, prompting Ruiko to gather together a mass of charged neutrons in preparation to disintegrate it. However, it suddenly abruptly froze.
"Mama, wait! Misaka Misaka urges. It's not attacking! Misaka Misaka explained."
"You are not a threat." The malfunctioning beetle suddenly declared, its body twitching violently. "Beetle 05 will save you in order to protect my order list from suffering a fatal contradiction."
Its twitching stilling, the now named Beetle 05's eyes abruptly turn from green to red, indicating, as Ruiko could sense with her AIM Sovereign, that he had indeed been lost from the will of the original. Oh, its AIM Field was still that of Kakine Teitoku and it was still linked to the original but his dominating presence no longer permeated the entirety of the beetle's field. Instead, it was now its own being. Just like how a Sister was their own person even if they were still part of the greater whole that was the Misaka Network.
Ruiko couldn't help it, she blinked in surprise at this development. She wasn't the only one shocked by this unexpected heel-face turn by one of Kakine Teitoku's killer beetles, as almost everyone just stood there looking at the malfunctioning bioroid in thunderstruck silence.
"That is good and all." Yoshikawa-san spoke up, breaking the stunned silence. "But we should keep going."
Shaking off her shock, Ruiko nodded. "Yes, we need to get as far away from Fräulein Kreutune as possible."
"Yes, please do." Beetle 05 said with a nod of his insectoid head and turned to look at the other beetles which were still busy killing each other. "My brethren will likely resolve their differences before long and when they do, they will begin pursuing you again. To that effect, I will stay behind and hold them off for as long as my strength allows it."
"Beetle 05-san, that's-" Fremea-chan began, only to be cut off when a volley of shells fired from the feuding beetles flew their way and had to be blocked by one of Ruiko's barriers. Shots that worryingly had been aimed at Order-chan.
"Eek! Misaka Misaka cries out in alarm. Why are they all targeting Misaka!? Misaka Misaka laments."
"It seems they have determined the quickest method in depriving Fräulein Kreutune of the reason for her rampage and eliminating the threat she poses is killing you, Last Order-san." Beetle 05 explained.
"That some of them have started to prioritize the mission over settling their disagreements over its parameters…" Takitsubo-san said, trailing off meaningfully as she hefted her submachine gun warily.
"It suggests our little reprieve is almost at an end." Ruiko finished for the Level 4. "That means it is time for us to make our move."
Even as she made that statement, Ruiko used her Telekinesis and picked up every single of Kakine's beetles other than Beetle 05 and violently shoved them to either side of the subway tunnel, pinning them to the walls with their horns firmly pointed towards said walls.
"Now! Run past them whilst I hold them in place!" Ruiko shouted as she put action to her own words and ran past the beetles she'd trapped in her telekinetic hold and the others followed. All except for one of them. "You too, Beetle 05. You can save your noble sacrifice for later. Right now, you're more useful escorting us."
"Yes, I suppose you are correct, Saten-san." The rogue Dark Matter bioroid concluded as he took flight, quickly catching up to them. "But let us take steps to slow down pursuit, shall we?"
"What do you have in mind?" Ruiko asked the beetle curiously as they began gaining distance from the others of his ilk.
The giant insect answered by landing, aiming his horn at the roof of the subway tunnel just past where she still had his fellows trapped and fired a shell from his horn. A shot that collapsed the tunnel and sealed them off.
"That should hold them off for a while at least. It will take them some time to dig their way out of all that rubble and start pursuing us again."
"Yes, I suppose it will." Ruiko replied with a wince as she thought of just how big of a bill this Incident was chalking up for Kaa-san already.
I'll just have to deal with it later. She concluded, shaking away her worries. What's important right now is making sure that Order-chan and everyone else gets out of this safely.
With her goal set, Ruiko continued leading their run through the subway tunnels with renewed determination.
About fifteen minutes of running after escaping the ambush by the Number 4's killer giant beetles with the help of one such defecting giant insect, Shiage and the others found themselves before a locked door. A door pointed out to them by the Beetle 05, the aforementioned defecting killer insect.
"Quickly! Through there!" Beetle 05 shouted urgently as it stood to the rear of their little group and fired a shell from his horn cannon at the swarm of his fellows that had almost caught up to them after digging their way out of the tunnel collapse he'd buried them under earlier.
Ruiko-sama didn't even hesitate, the moment that the Dark Matter construct pointed it out she used her Telekinesis to rip the heavy metal door out of its frame and tossed it at one of the pursuing enemy beetles. It hit the oversized bug like a fly swapper, squishing it flat.
"Go! Get in!" She ordered, even as she turned to Beetle 05. "You won't fit through this."
"I know. That means the others won't either." The rogue beetle waited until all of them had entered through the ruined door frame before replying in a voice without a hint of regret. "It is time for, as you described it Saten-san, my noble sacrifice. I have no intention of defeating the other beetles."
At that, he pressed himself into the egress, blocking it with his body.
"What are you going!?" Shiage shouted in alarm.
"Making my last stand." Beetle 05 told him bluntly. "Since I have left Kakine Teitoku's control, I can no longer renew the Dark Matter that makes up my body, and will break apart over time. My lifespan is limited. In comparison, my brethren can regenerate infinitely. In the face of that, the best way to buy you time to escape is to block their path."
"No! I refuse to accept this! We aren't leaving you behind! Come with us!"
"I am afraid I cannot do that Hamazura-san." Beetle 05 declared with firm determination as he blasted away at the ever closing swarm of his fellows.
"Shiage-nii, can't we do anything?" Fremea-chan asked, looking at him helplessly.
"Mama, do something! Misaka Misaka pleads."
Shiage didn't know what to do. What could he do in a situation like this!? With Beetle 05 determined to act as a wall against the other beetles for them, was there anything they could do?
Thankfully for his conscience, Hamazura wasn't there alone.
"Hamazura-san, take Takitsubo, Yoshikawa-san and the children and go. My team and I will back up Beetle 05." Saten-sama said as she put her daughter down and firmly made sure one of the girl's hands was being held by Yoshikawa-san.
"Your team?" Yoshikawa-san asked, just as Namikaze-sama teleported in with Misaka-sama.
Shiage breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the fully assembled Trinity. Now that they were all here, he was sure they could deal with anything.
"Yo! Rui-chan, sorry for being late." The [Elemental Empress] said in greeting. "What's up?"
Holding up one hand to her teammates to signal to them to wait a moment, Saten-sama shot Shiage a firm look. "Hamazura-san! Do not make me repeat myself again. Take Takitsubo, Yoshikawa-san and the children and go."
"R-Right!" Shiage said with a nod as he put Fremea-chan down. The girl pouted at this but a firm look on his part stymied any protests she might have. Drawing his pistol, he grabbed one of her hands with his own free hand and began pulling her along. "Come on Rikou, Yoshikawa-san, let's go."
"Lead the way." Yoshikawa-san replied as she pulled Last Order-chan along whilst Rikou just nodded and shifted her submachine gun into a ready position.
Ever since becoming a researcher on the Level 6 Shift Project, Yoshikawa Kikyou had become quite used to being in absurd situations. Being involved in an experiment that required the deaths of thousands of innocent clones just on the hypothetical possibility of creating a Level 6 tended to do that. However, that had been small potatoes, as the Americans put it, to the kinds of situations she found herself in after becoming the de facto nanny for Accelerator and Last Order. Oh! The Number 1 would deny to his dying breath that he was her responsibility but the fact that she did his laundry and cooked a good chunk of his meals would put paid to any objections he might have. At least it did in her book. Also, the legal documents saying she was one of his guardians didn't lie.
What she was trying to say was that taking into account all the insanity she'd been involved in recently, she should've been used to the madness of being associated with a Level 5. Of being dragged into an Incident. However, even as she ran through the maintenance passages and rail tunnels of the City's subway network alongside her younger ward and half of ITEM and Fremea Seivelun, she couldn't help but feel exasperated. And oddly enough, wistful.
I really should've listened to Kaa-san and became a model. Kikyou mused to herself.
Although she had an average bust, she had, her lovers in the past could attest, legs that went on for miles. Pair that with a fairly attractive face and exotic, but not overly so, naturally dark purple hair that was almost black and she could have made a living as a model. Perhaps she'd never been able to truly break out, but she could have at least survived in the industry. In fact, she knew she could. She had, after all, done a few modeling gigs back when she was in university and made a healthy amount of money out of it.
Enough that her mother had encouraged her to pursue it full-time. She'd shot the idea down however. She had little to no interest in fashion, which was why she wore the same thing inside the house as she did when she went out, and had only taken on those gigs for the money and because her mother nagged her into it. She knew her mother had wanted to be a model but hadn't had the looks to make a living out of it and her advice to her regarding the matter was just her vicariously trying to live her dream through her. These two factors and her deep passion for science was what ultimately led her into becoming a researcher.
And look where that got me now? A glorified nanny that occasionally has to lead her charges through life threatening situations and try to make sure nobody dies. Kikyou lamented. Seriously! Where did my life go wrong!? Right! The Level 6 Shift.
Everything looped back to that damned experiment didn't it? It was the project that ended her career as a scientist. No normal employer would hire anyone tainted with even the faintest association with it and no Dark Side employer, should she even entertain the idea of approaching them, would even consider her. Not after what she did to Amai Ao. They couldn't afford to hire someone with an actual conscience.
Not that everything that happened as a result of the Level 6 Shift was a bad thing…
Not only had it allowed her to reawaken her conscience, it had also brought Last Order and Accelerator into her life. And as trying as they were to deal with at times, she loved them dearly.
"Order-chan, are you okay? We've been running for a while, do you need a rest?" Kikyou asked as she turned to look behind where her ward should have been.
Emphasis on "should" because she wasn't there!
"Order-chan!?" She cried out in alarm, looking around desperately.
"Shit! Fremea-chan isn't here either!" Hamazura-san said, as he came to a stop and looked around and failed to spot either of the two little girls which should have been there with them. "We should never have let go of their hands, no matter how much they whined or how difficult it was to keep it up and keep a good pace."
"That's not important now!" Kikyou told the high schooler sternly and turned to his girlfriend. "Takitsubo-san, can you track them?"
The poor girl was practically bent over as she clutched the wall for support as she caught her breath. Although the rumors about her said she'd started properly engaging in weapons and physical training lately, they were also accompanied with whispers that she was utterly useless in both areas until very recently. Kikyou was thus not surprised that all their running had exhausted her. An exhaustion which in turn probably explained why despite her AIM Stalker, she'd missed the two girls slipping away.
"G-Give m-me a m-minute to ca-catch m-my b-breath."
"Here, Rikou, drink some water." Hamazura-san said as he took the girl's gun from her and offered her a bottle of water he fished out of the fanny pack he was wearing. "It'll help."
"T-Thank you." The Level 4 said, offering her boyfriend a tired but affectionate smile.
"Take you time, Takitsubo-san." Kikyou told the girl.
It was a lie. She wanted the girl to get over her exhaustion now and immediately start leading the way to Last Order but Kikyou was an adult and that meant keeping herself under control. Pushing the girl would do no good.
That said, adult or not, Kikyou's ward had just disappeared and worry was gnawing at her soul. So she couldn't help but do something she hadn't done in ages. She prayed.
Whatever gods that might exist and are listening, I pray that you look after Last Order and allow her to make it home to me safe and sound.
"Remember! These damned things can infinitely regenerate with Dark Matter so they need to be destroyed utterly or they won't stay down!" Naru reminded her teammates as she teleported into the fight between the rogue Dark Matter beetle construct and his peers, already clad in her Jager Demon Frame. Considering she was coming into a fight hot, she felt it best to join the skirmish as armored up as possible. Plus it also allowed her to immediately blitz into the enemy's ranks and into the attack.
"Got it, Naru!" Mikoto-senpai shouted back as Rui-chan teleported her and herself slightly further back to provide some ranged support, something that the [Railgun] began immediately providing in the form of a volley of low yield railguns that tore through many of Kakine's bug drones.
Senpai's really taken the lessons she'd learned from Dolly-chan to heart, huh? Naru thought as she cut a beetle in the half and flooded the bisected construct with her caustic chakra to disintegrate its remains.
Looks like it but her shots are a little too low in terms of offensive firepower to properly put the beetles down. Kurama told her as they cut down another beetle and Naru saw that her partner was right, the beetles that Mikoto-senpai had shot were already regenerating.
You forgot that Senpai isn't fighting alone. Naru sent back to the demon fox sealed inside her soul alongside the mental image of a smirk as they both watched as Rui-chan helped Mikoto-senpai finish off the beetles she'd disabled by consuming them in white hot pyres.
"Trinity! What are you doing here!? You should be defending Last Order-san and Fremea-san!" The rogue beetle - Beetle 05. - shouted at them angrily as he fired a shell from his horn cannon at the ever dwindling numbers of the other beetles still under Kakine's control.
Said rogue Dark Matter construct was looking battle-scarred which was understandable since unlike his opponents, it had not been able to move to evade fire directed his way. In fact, that he was still alive was frankly super impressive!
This guy is a true badass!
I have to agree. Kurama replied with an agreeing nod.
"We're here to prevent you from making the noble sacrifice that you're so keen on making." Rui-chan replied as she and Mikoto-senpai continued to work together to blast the enemy beetles apart with railgun shots and finish them white hot flames. "We won't let anyone die if we can help it."
"I have no idea what Ruiko means about this noble sacrifice but, yeah, we aren't going to let anyone die if we can help it. Even if they are a giant Dark Matter bug." Mikoto-senpai added as she and Rui-chan continued their joint assault against the thinning enemy horde of giant insects.
"Yeah! We are an equal opportunity life saver!" Naru concluded as she pirouetted into the midst of one of the largest groups of Kakine's beetles and continuing to spin on her heel with her a pair of her blades held out to her sides whilst in their midst, thus acting like a veritable blender as she cut the bugs around her into pieces.
"Ruiko, I have a question." Mikoto-senpai spoke up as she copied Naru's little idea and began shaping iron sand into twisters that she proceeded to send hurtling towards the enemy giant beetles, shredding them.
"Ask away, Senpai." Rui-chan replied as she began conjuring and shooting white hot fireballs at Kakine's beetles, incinerating those she targeted.
"Well, I'm just curious about why you didn't just disrupt Kakine's AIM Field with your AIM Sovereign, surely that's how he is controlling these beetles?"
"I tried it already. It wasn't very effective." Rui-chan said with a shrug that Naru saw as she glanced at her bestie as she finished acting as a blender and searched for her next set of targets. "All I got from my effort is Beetle 05 over here. No offense to you, Beetle 05 but I was hoping my disruption of your original's AIM Field would result in more dividends."
"None taken." The rogue giant beetle said as he blasted apart the head of one of his peers with a well placed shot from his horn cannon.
"That blasted Kakine! He must've developed some kind of counter to cover for his greatest weakness!" Naru shouted back, angry on her bestie's behalf, as she jumped on the headless, disorientated beetle that Beetle 05's headshot had created and finished it off with a flurry of swings of her sword, dicing it into pieces.
"Unfortunately." Rui-chan said, sounding surprisingly unconcerned. "Though frankly it was probably just a matter of time. Like you said, disrupting his AIM is Kakine's biggest weakness. The good thing is that as Beetle 05's existence proves, it's more of a resistance than a full-on counter. Besides, I'm already working on how to get around his resistance."
"Those are all just semantics, Rui-chan!" Naru shot back as she prepared to leap onto the last of Kakine's beetles in preparation to impale it on her sword.
However, before she could launch herself into the air, her target was sniped out from under her by Mikoto-senpai trapping it in a cloud of iron sand that she proceeded to use to shred it into mush.
"Naru-chan, I'm turning on the heat."
"Gotcha! Go ahead. I'll help you out." Naru said in response as Rui-chan set the entire area previously occupied by Kakine's beetles alight via a firestorm of white hot flames as part of an effort to make sure that every trace of the Dark Matter that the beetles had been made out of were dealt with and thus could not serve as a seed from which for them to regenerate. Something that Naru added to by flooding the same area with a smothering layer of caustic chakra.
"S-Such power…" Beetle 05 said in awe as he eyed the devastation that the Trinity had created.
"Very dramatic, Naru." Mikoto-senpai said with a roll of her eyes as Naru walked out of Rui-chan's flames like some kind of action hero. "More importantly, that kind of damage we've done to the subway tunnel is gonna cost a ton to repair."
"Yah! Not our problem." Naru said with a shrug as she dismissed her Demon Frame.
"Don't worry about it, Senpai. The Board has a fund to pay for repairs caused by Incidents that's managed by the new Oversight Committee." Rui-chan assured their upperclassman. "According to Kaa-san it's quite hefty. It should have more than enough to cover any collateral damage we cause. Though, she'll have to top it up to make up for the deductions needed to be made to pay for the repairs to the damages we caused today."
"Well, Kiyama-sensei is a Director. She would know." Senpai said with a shrug.
"Yeah. She would, wouldn't she?"
"Yes, she would, Naru-chan." Rui-chan said distractedly as she turned away from them and back towards Beetle 05 but she wasn't looking at the construct, but beyond him and into the room the entrance to which his body was jammed into.
"What is it, Ruiko?" Senpai asked, turning to look at what Rui-chan was looking at.
Argh! Little kids! Kurama said with an exasperated groan.
Huh? What's up?
See for yourself.
See what?
Kurama didn't reply, leaving Naru to exchange a confused look with Mikoto-senpai as the Number 3 teleported Beetle 05 with some Move Point and practically stomped through the door he had been blocking.
"I guess we follow?"
"I guess so, Senpai." Naru said with a nod as they trailed after a clearly angry Rui-chan.
"Last Order-san? Fremea-san? What are you doing here?" They heard Beetle 05 ask in surprise as they entered the previously blocked room. And true enough, at the far side of the room were the two little girls.
"Yes, Order-chan, Fremea-chan, what are you doing here?" Rui-chan asked the two guilty looking girls with her arms crossed over her chest and shooting them a stern glare. "I told you to leave."
"Sorry, Ruiko-nee, but-" Fremea-chan began only to trail off and quail as Rui-chan turned her disapproving attention towards her.
"Sorry, Mama, but we couldn't just leave Beetle 05 alone when he was being so heroic, Misaka Misaka said determinedly." Order-chan said bravely even as she gulped nervously as her mother turned her look towards her.
"Y-Yeah." Fremea-chan nervously as she pulled out a permanent marker from the fanny marker she was wearing and walked over to Beetle 05 where she proceeded to scribble some kind of mark onto his white chitin. "With this, for your heroic actions, I declare you, Beetle 05, as a member of the Hamazura Brigade!"
"I-I am flattered."
Any further conversation was cut off when they suddenly heard the sound of skittering and the buzzing of wings from the tunnel they had just cleared.
"Argh! It looks like that damned Kakine has spawned a new wave of beetles." Naru noted, shooting an annoyed look towards the wrecked door frame that led to said tunnel.
Echoing Naru's own groan with one of her own, Mikoto-senpai added her own frustrated two cents. "Is there no end to his giant bugs?"
"I'm afraid not." Rui-chan said with a shake of her head. "We should get out of here. If we stay, we run the risk of being overwhelmed by his endless numbers."
"Yes, it is best that we retreat from here." Beetle 05 agreed.
"There's too many of us to teleport, so we need to literally run. So let's go already."
"Indeed." Rui-chan said with a nod as she used Telekinesis to lift Order-chan and Fremea-chan into the air and carrying them in her telekinetic grip, she began running away from Kakine's incoming swarm.
"Come on, Senpai, Beetle 05, let's go!" Naru shouted as she followed after her bestie, her teammate and the rogue Dark Matter construct doing likewise.
Several hours of running through the subway tunnels evading the swarms of Kakine Teitoku's Dark Matter constructs later, Mikoto accompanied her team, Last Order-chan, Fremea-chan, and the freaky Beetle 05 as they made their way through the almost airlock like security door that separated a sealed station platform in School District 7 from the subway tunnels. A subway station that was practically crawling with Maniple forces.
"Why are you here?" Mikoto heard Ruiko demand of the on site Maniple commander as she finished exiting the airlock.
"As soon as Kiyama-sensei heard that Last Order-sama was being targeted, she mobilized all her available forces to help." The soldier explained. "However, the General Superintendent has prohibited deployment of troops within School District 1 where she most likely was and not even her authority as a Director of the City's Board could allow Kiyama-sensei to get around that, so all we could do was reinforce the cordon he's set up around the District to contain Fräulein Kreutune and hope we'd come across her."
"That's a stupid plan." Naru noted with a snort.
"Not as much as you might think actually." Ruiko refuted. "Kaa-san knew that I would find Last Order and get her to safety which would mean I'd get her out of District 1. Practically, that meant I'd either teleport her straight to safety outside of it or physically bring her out of the District. If the former, her troops can help to strengthen the cordon holding back Fräulein Kreutune."
"Maybe, but it's still full of plenty of presumptuous thinking." Mikoto commented.
Ruiko shrugged. "I'd rather think of it as Kaa-san having faith in me."
"Ruiko-nee!" "Mama! Misaka Misaka calls out urgently."
Turning to the cries from Order-chan and Fremea-chan, Mikoto saw the both of them looking pleadingly at Ruiko as they gestured to the oversized Beetle 05 who could not get through the security door. At fifteen meters long and eight meters in width, he could not fit through the door.
Sighing, Ruiko used Move Point to teleport him through the door to the cheers of the two little girls. Cheers that brought a small smile to their faces.
"Is letting that thing in here a good idea, Saten-sama?" The Maniple commander asked. "According to intelligence, those giant white beetles are attacking Accelerator-sama in District 1. Aren't they the enemy?"
"It's fine." Naru assured the man. "This one is different. He proved himself by trying to sacrifice himself to help us."
The commander was still unconvinced and turned to Mikoto, who nodded. Sighing at the confirmation, he conceded the matter.
"I'll leave things here to you and your men." Ruiko told the man as she began making her way out of the station. "Order-chan, Fremea-chan, come on, we're leaving."
""Yes."" The two little girls chirped dutifully.
The walk out from the station was uneventful. That changed however when they finished exiting the train station when a car suddenly screeched to a stop outside the entrance they were using. The moment that it was safe to do so, a door of the car was slammed open and Frenda-san rushed out whilst making a beeline towards Fremea-chan.
"Onee-sama?"
"Fremea-chan!" Frenda-san swept her sister up into a relieved hug. "Oh! Thank goodness that you're safe. I was so worried!"
"Onee-sama~!" Fremea-chan said as she flailed her arms in embarrassment whilst Frenda-chan hugged her tightly. "You're overreacting!"
"That's so touching." Mikoto couldn't help but whisper with a smile.
"I know right." Naru agreed with a grin of her own.
Even Order-chan and Ruiko shared the sentiment if their smiles and the way they hugged each other tightly were any indication.
This heartwarming moment was interrupted however when a thin white-skinned boy with a feminine look with blue eyes and waist length blond hair descended on a set of electric arcs exploding from the bottom of his feet that he seemed to use to fly. He was dressed in a primarily yellow and brown outfit that consisted of a tight-fitting shirt and pants as well as a dark stole around his shoulders. He also wore fingerless gloves and two belts that crossed each other with belt buckles that looked like two goat heads.
Everyone tensed at the boy's sudden, dramatic arrival. The Maniple troopers that were guarding the station leveled their guns at him and Ruiko and Frenda-san pushed Order-chan and Fremea-chan protectively behind them.
"Thor of Gremlin, what do you want from us?" Ruiko demanded as she conjured orbs of plasma in orbits around her in preparation for a fight.
Thor of Gremlin!? Wasn't he the one that the intel brief said was the one who manipulated Kamijou into helping him release Fräulein Kreutune and starting this mess?
"Yeah! What do you want, Magician!?" Naru demanded, her eyes glowing crimson.
"I'm not here to pick a fight." The Magician said as he put up his hands in a placating gesture, revealing the unusual markings that was probably something that had to do with his magic on the palms of his gloves.
"Then what are you here for?" Frenda-san asked, as she clutched at a handful of her triangular explosives in one hand, clearly just as ready for a fight as her girlfriend.
"I'm here to recruit some help. Specifically, I need Miko-chan's."
"What did you call me!?" Mikoto growled, sparks arcing off her body in response to her anger. How dare this Magician address her with such familiarity!? Not even her parents called her something like that!
Ignoring her anger, Thor raised his phone towards Mikoto and showed her footage of an injured Touma being tended by a blonde woman that she recognized as the Gremlin Magician from the Hawaii invasion, Cendrillon.
"Where is he!?"
"Thanks, Naru." Mikoto told her teammate as the Number 2 teleported her to where Thor had told her Kamijou and Cendrillon were. And just as the Magician said they would be, the female Magician was busy using what looked like random objects she'd gathered from the surrounding area to conduct first aid on the [Imagine Breaker]'s injuries.
"Get away from him, Magician!" Mikoto shouted angrily as shot a lightning bolt at Cendrillon.
Seeing the bolt coming, Kamijou struggled to raise his right hand in a bid to use his Imagine Breaker to negate it but was too injured to do so. Instead, it struck a barrier shaped like a wall of bricks that kept both [Imagine Breaker] and the Gremlin Magician safe as the electricity finished grounding itself in the earth.
"Senpai! What are you doing!?" Naru scolded, pointing at Kamijou. "Can't you see he's injured!? What would you have done if Cendrillon couldn't block your attack? Kamijou is clearly unable to defend himself against it!"
"I must agree with your teammate, [Railgun]." Cendrillon commented in French. "Are you a fool? What would you have done if your attack had hit? With Kamijou as injured as he is, your attack might've killed him."
"Oh! Shut up! I don't want to hear that from an enemy." Mikoto shot back defensively.
"Well, how about from me? 'Cos I think the same." Naru added with a glare.
Mikoto huffed. "Well, I was sure that Touma would use his Imagine Breaker to prevent herself from being hit."
"Uh, guys forget about that." Kamijou said, cutting into the conversation. "Misaka-san, Namikaze-san, since you can speak whatever language she's using, you can translate for me."
"French." Mikoto said, rolling her eyes at Kamijou's ignorance. "She's speaking French."
"More importantly, are you seriously telling us not to fight a Gremlin Magician?" Naru asked, shooting Cendrillon a glare.
"For now? Yes." Kamijou said with a tired sigh. "She helped me and the least I can do is hear her out."
Mikoto exchanged a look with Naru. Her blonde teammate shrugged and Mikoto frowned. She thought that they should do what Kamijou suggested? Really!?
Seeing her hesitation, Naru nodded at the attempts at first aid that Cendrillon was performing on Kamijou, wordlessly pointing out that the Magician was indeed helping the [Imagine Breaker] out.
Mikoto sighed and nodded. I guess she's right.
"Thank you." Kamijou said, offering them a smile before turning towards Cendrillon. "So-"
"Where's the last member of the Trinity? Waiting to ambush me?" The Magician asked, cutting Kamijou off.
"Nope. She's busy keeping watch over her daughter who is being targeted again." Naru answered in French.
Cendrillon offered them a disbelieving look but didn't press the issue. Instead, she turned to Kamijou and offered him a nod. "Ask your questions, Monsieur Kamijou."
"She's saying you can ask your question now." Mikoto said, elbowed Naru lightly in her side to signal she wanted to go first.
"Okay. So, um, ask her what she's even doing in Academy City?"
"He wants to know what you're doing here in the City?"
"I'm here to seek revenge against Gremlin for betraying me after the Invasion of Hawaii. Not only did they claim that I was never a member of their cabal but Marian Slingeneyer turned me into a table." Cendrillon said as she wrapped a piece of torn fabric around a nasty looking gash along Kamijou's left arm.
Even as Mikoto translated her response to Kamijou, Naru gasped. "They turned you into a table!?"
"Yes," Cendrillon said with a nod as she secured the impromptu bandage she's been applying to Kamijou's left arm with a knot.
"And how did you manage to get into the City?" Kamijou asked, looking unsurprised by what had happened to Cendrillon. Considering he had seen Gremlin turning their victims into inanimate objects during the Baggage City Incident according to the intel on the event, perhaps that was unsurprising.
"After being turned into a table and then returned into a human by a friendly Magician, I gained the ability to somehow separate myself into small parts and still remain alive. Using this, I split myself into ingredients and mailed them alongside the instructions and tools for my reconstruction into a package for Mugino Shizuri."
"Why [Meltdowner]?" Naru asked, looking confused by the suggestion.
"I was seeking to send myself to someone from the group who fought Gremlin in Hawaii who might not be immediately aware of what my ingredients actually are and most likely to follow the instructions to reconstruct me."
"And you thought Mugino-san would be that gullible?" Kamijou asked disbelievingly as Mikoto translated for him. A sense of disbelief that Mikoto shared. Surely the Number 6 wasn't that stupid!
Naru snorted. "Yeah, Mugino would be dumb enough to just recklessly follow the instructions mailed to her."
Cendrillon shrugged. "I have to agree as she did follow the instructions and helped reconstruct me. However, after she did so, she started radiating hostility, so I proceeded to leave to find someone more helpful."
Pausing in her translations, Mikoto rolled her eyes. "Can you blame her? Seeing someone 'reconstructing' themselves in front of them would foster some hostility, don't you think?"
"Senpai, are you seriously siding with Mugino?" Naru said, shooting her a betrayed look.
"Just pointing out the truth." Mugino said with a shrug before she returned to translating for Kamijou.
"Uh, just out of curiosity," Kamijou asked with a tone of deep interest. "Is something during her reconstruction the reason why Cendrillon is shorter and looks younger than she was in Hawaii?"
Cendrillon nodded. "There were some leftovers of my parts that weren't included in my current body."
Hearing that after Mikoto finished translating Cendrillon's response, Touma looks at her with deep intensity. "Can you remake those leftovers into whatever you want?"
"Yes, I can. Why do you ask?" Cendrillon replied in Japanese, proving that there was no need for translation in the first place.
Mikoto frowned at the Magician playing her for a fool and would have said something in complaint but Naru put a restraining hand on her arm. "Ssh! I think Kamijou has a plan. Let's not derail things until we hear him out."
Mikoto's frown deepened but she nevertheless nodded.
"Even a brain that would prevent Fräulein Kreutune from eating a person's brain?" Kamijou asked, looking outright eager.
"I could but I cannot help you with this." Cendrillon told him with a shake of her head, switching back to French. "My vengeance with Marian takes precedence. Beyond that, the leftovers, if lost, will mean that I will no longer be able to remake myself back to my normal self."
Kamijou looked at Mikoto pleadingly but she refused to help. Not when the Magician was just playing them for fools and did not need them to play translator when she could easily speak in Japanese. Mikoto planned to scold Cendrillon for this but Naru tightened her hand on her arm.
"Senpai! Kamijou just came up with a solution to our Fräulein Kreutune problem. Don't jinx it by pissing the source of said solution off." Naru whispered to Mikoto harshly.
Shit! She's right. Mikoto thought after nodding in reluctant understanding even as Naru picked up the translation.
"You don't need to worry about Marian. I defeated her in Baggage City."
Cendrillon was caught by surprise by Kamijou's confession, something that was something of a surprise to Mikoto. Didn't Cendrillon know that? Was she so out of the loop that she didn't know what happened during the Baggage City Incident? How could she plot revenge when she was so ill informed?
"So Marian is dead?" Cendrillon said with a smile. "Good. She deserved it."
The Magician was wrong of course. Marian Slingeneyer might've been defeated but she was very much alive, having escaped Baggage City following the foiling of Gremlin's plans during the Incident. Kamijou knew this from first-hand knowledge whilst Mikoto and Naru knew from the intel reports but none of them was inclined to correct her misconception. Mikoto couldn't speak for the others but she at least realized that they could leverage it to get Cendrillon to help them and so was unwilling to correct her misunderstanding.
"Then not only did you save my life Baggage City but freed me from my revenge, Monsieur Kamijou." Cendrillon said in Japanese. "It is lamentable that I have become indebted to you, you who should be my enemy."
Kamijou blushed at the idea that the Magician was indebted to him and Mikoto ground her teeth in anger. She knew for her fact that most of her many, many rivals for Kamijou's affections had become such because he had saved them from one unpleasant situation or the other and they had ended up indebted to him.
"Looks like you have a new competitor, Senpai~!" Naru teased in a whisper, prompting Mikoto to respond by jabbing her in the side hard to shut her up. She did, but not without giggling at her expense.
"Let it not be said that I do not pay my debts." Cendrillon said with a sigh. "What is it that you need me to do?"
Even as Mikoto-senpai and Naru-chan went to see what Kamijou was doing being treated for his injuries by Cendrillon of all people, Ruiko sat with Order-chan in her lap as they rode a transport that was driving as far away from the warzone in District 1 as possible. A transport that they shared with Frenda-chan, who was sitting on her right with her arm around Fremea-chan and keeping her close and Beetle 05, who sat across from them.
"It looks like breaking away from your creator's control is taking its toll." Ruiko told the rogue Dark Matter construct. A construct that was looking increasingly ragged. Not only had he been battle scarred by his earlier fight against his peers in the subway tunnels but beyond that, his body was now crisscrossed by cracks. "Do you want me to heal you?"
Beetle 05 considered this for a moment before nodding. "If you can provide me with material similar to this body using your emulated Dark Matter, I can-"
Without even waiting for the beetle to finish his request, Ruiko proceeded to use her emulated Dark Matter to repair the damage to Beetle 05's body.
"Thank you, Saten-san."
"Don't mention it."
"Mama is the best. Misaka Misaka declares proudly."
Rolling her eyes at her daughter's childish pride in something that she considered entirely trivial, Ruiko patted the girl's head soothingly. An action that caused Order-chan to preen and lean into her touch.
"So what is your plan now?" Beetle 05 asked, looking at the interaction with what Ruiko assumed was amusement. At least she hoped so. It was surprisingly hard to understand the body language of a giant bug.
"Right now, what we need is more information. We can't fight Fräulein Kreutune without knowing more about her strengths and weaknesses."
"And what about my creator and my fellow beetles? Are you discounting them in your plans?"
"No, I've taken them into account." Ruiko countered. "But whilst they are threats, we understand and can fight them readily enough. It is Fräulein Kreutune that I am worried about."
"But Ruiko-nee! Fräulein Kreutune is not a threat!" Fremea-chan cried out earnestly.
"Un. Un. Misaka murmurs in agreement. Fräulein Kreutune is our friend! Misaka Misaka insists."
"She is!" Fremea-chan said with a frantic, enthusiastic nod of agreement. "Essentially, we need to save her."
"Yes. Misaka Misaka agrees. We should save her, not fight her. Misaka Misaka argues."
"How did you two even manage to become friends with such a creature?" Frenda-chan asked, looking at the two little girls with amusement.
"We met her and asked her for directions when we were lost yesterday. Misaka Misaka explained."
"After that we wanted to exchange e-mail addresses with her, but seeing as she had no cellphone, I gave Kreutune the keychain panic button I was given. That way, if she pulls the string, it will send her current location to the cell phones registered with it. Essentially, allowing me to be notified of her whereabouts."
"Y-You gave away your panic button!?" Frenda-chan asked, shooting her sister a disbelieving look. "Are you serious!? Why would you do that!? Didn't we tell you never to give the panic button away!?"
"I-I-I…"
"Frenda-chan, enough." Ruiko said, putting a comforting and restraining hand on her irate girlfriend's shoulders. "We can scold and properly punish Fremea-chan when we return home after this Incident is wrapped up. For now, we should focus on the positive side of what she's done."
"Positive side? What kind of positive can we get from what Fremea has done? If you're thinking of using it to keep track of Fräulein Kreutune, it won't help. The panic button isn't an active tracker. It only broadcasts its location if it's triggered. That's what we agreed upon to respect Fremea's privacy, didn't we?"
"That would be the case normally. But in reality, the company that supports the panic button is constantly tracking their positions. And the company that supports the button just so happens to be-"
"Eden Corp!" Fremea-chan gasped. "And you're Eden Corp's ojou-sama! So you could track me whenever you wanted?"
"Yes, Fremea-chan, I could. But I would only do this if it was actually necessary." Ruiko reassured her.
"Don't worry, Fremea-chan. Misaka Misaka reassures her friend. Mama would never abuse her ability to track you. Misaka Misaka promises."
"Yes, Fremea-chan, don't worry about it." Frenda-chan told her sister with a reassuring squeeze of her shoulders. "More importantly, why would we want to track Fräulein Kreutune? To know where she is so we can avoid her?"
"Because if Order-chan and Fremea-chan could get friendly with her after just meeting her once, then that Fräulein Kreutune is suddenly tracking Order-chan down with the intent to eat her brain must be a result of some recent change."
"Uh. I don't see the relevance…" Frenda-chan admitted.
"It means that if we can identify what triggered the change, we might be able to reverse it." Ruiko explained. "Beetle 05, would you happen to know anything?"
"According to the knowledge that I inherited from my creator before I escaped his control, the City believed that some kind of unforeseen change was made to her body giving her the function to obtain other people's information by consuming their brain. An ability to their understanding that is the same as a basic biological imperative that she cannot resist, which forces her body to do everything in her power to eat the brain of a target who can provide her with a massive amount of information, Last Order-san."
"And according to what you know, we don't know what caused the sudden change to Fräulein Kreutune?"
"No, unfortunately not." Beetle 05 said with an apologetic shake of his head.
Ruiko sighed. "I suppose we will just have to make do with that…"
Much to her disappointment, it wasn't enough to come up with anything concrete. She was hoping to come up with an alternative plan but it looked like they had to rely on Kamijou's plan after all. Considering it consisted of feeding a copy of Order-chan's brain to Fräulein Kreutune, she was not exactly comfortable with it and she would've much preferred another option if they could find one.
"To save Kreutune, right, Mama? Misaka Misaka asks leadingly."
"Right?" Fremea-chan echoed.
Ruiko exchanged looks with Frenda-chan and Beetle 05, both of whom let out exasperated sighs before nodding.
Sighing again, Ruiko conceded. "Like I promised at the start of the Incident, I will try."
As inspired as Kamijou's plan to stop Fräulein Kreutune was, and Naru thought it was quite impressive indeed, it was not without problems. The first was that they needed to acquire the knowledge required for Cendrillon to produce a brain from her leftovers that would sate the mysterious entity's need to eat Last Order's brain. Knowledge that they needed from Yoshikawa Kikyou, the only researcher involved in the Level 6 Shift Project and thus familiar with Last Order's brain structure that they trusted. Which was why Naru had teleported Cendrillon near a multi-level overpass in School District 7 where after calling the woman, they had agreed to meet her.
They found the former researcher wasn't alone and was instead with ITEM warily looking at a lost looking Fräulein Kreutune some distance away. That she was with ITEM was no surprise, she was last known to be with Hamazura-san and Takitsubo-san and that they would bring in the rest of their team as the Incident escalated was to be expected. However, it was a surprise to find the thankfully currently non-hostile Fräulein Kreutune there too.
"How?"
"We were tracking the GPS tracker of Fremea-chan's panic button but it led us to her instead." Yoshikawa-san said in answer to Naru's vague question.
Naru nodded. "Well, I just learned from Rui-chan that apparently Fremea-chan gave her panic button to Fräulein Kreutune as a sign of their friendship."
"That girl… Super seriously!?" Kinuhata said, shaking her head in exasperation and gesturing at the strange female entity that was Fräulein Kreutune as she stumbled around almost like a zombie a short distance away. "How could she become friends with that!?"
I've gotta agree with the Kinuhata girl. To befriend that thing so easily… Kurama trailed off with a shudder.
Yeah. Order-chan and Fremea-chan are insane but we love them regardless.
Well, love does make people do stupid things.
Hey!
"Can we please stop wasting time?" Cendrillon hissed impatiently in French.
"I must agree with the Magician." Mugino said, eyeing Cendrillon warily. "What the hell are you looking for Yoshikawa at a time like this anyway? And with a Gremlin Magician no less?"
"Correction, I am a former Gremlin Magician." Cendrillon said fiercely. "Do not lump me in with them again."
"Yeah, we get it. Just be patient okay. Cendrillon-san." Naru said, shushing her and quickly explained the Magician's situation and Kamijou's plan.
"And why should my team and I help with this crazy plan?"
"Because it is the will of Kamijou Touma." Cendrillon said as if that answered everything.
Expectedly, Mugino sported an unimpressed look upon hearing that. Thankfully, despite being their official leader, she wasn't ITEM's actual leader. And upon hearing Naru's explanation, Hamazura-san spoke up. "You can count on ITEM's help, Namikaze-sama."
"Hamazura!" Mugino said, shooting a glare at the former Skill-Out overruling her.
He remained firm though and met her gaze unwaveringly.
"Don't give me that look, Mugino. You know that it's the right thing to do. It'll do us good to have Kamijou and the Trinity owe us one."
"And we will owe you one if you guys help us." Naru assured Mugino.
"That's a good deal." Takitsubo commented with a thoughtful hum.
Mugino sighed. "Okay, we'll help. So you mentioned you learned what happened to her panic button from Fremea-chan, I take it you found her. Where is she? She was supposed to be with ITEM today so she's our responsibility. It's only right for her to help protect her."
"She's with Frenda-chan, Last Order, and Rui-chan in a transport that is driving into the underground passageways of the multi-level overpass over there." Naru said, gesturing to the aforementioned interconnecting roadways.
Mugino nodded. "Then we'll go meet up with them. The rest of you can go back to our safehouse and do whatever you need to. The Magician's leftovers are over there."
With that she turned and with a gesture to her team to follow, began leading them towards the nearby overpass. Seeing them walking off, Naru turned to Yoshikawa-san and Cendrillon. "So ready to go cook up a brain?"
"No," Yoshikawa-san said with a determined look. "But I am ready to play my part to save Last Order."
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And of course the rest of the Norse Magicians decided to come on in and make some noise. The Ichihanaransai is going to be a big boom, huh? Time to do some beetle shenanigans and so, so much more! I'm really excited for this one!
Nameless: And things in the Ichihanaransai arc are heating up! Hope you like our take on canon events. We've tried our best to make them interesting whilst keeping true to the broad strokes of canon as always. Hopefully we did a good job. Please let us know how successful we were.
To the reviewer going by R'ley on FFN: I'm glad you liked the previous chapter and the story as a whole, despite your differences with us over the treatment of our villains' suffering. As to why we engaged with you, I make it a point to respond to every reviewer who provides anything resembling valid critique. No more, no less.
E4E: You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!