Reconstruction

By: Aviantei

Chapter Six

Restriction

It appeared that Kusanagi's idea of "something productive" involved anything that didn't involve the destruction of his bar. Instead, he assigned Yata to go and investigate the area where the blackout had occurred looking for clues. Furthermore, in some form of team building exercise, HOMRA's leader had requested that Hitomi go along with him.

While Eri thoroughly agreed that the teenagers should learn to at least get along with each other for the sake of finding Ruyaki, that didn't mean she thought sending them together on their own was necessarily a good idea.

The fact that they were searching for something that had unknown power was a concern as well. Kusanagi had explained a Strain upon prompting. It was a term used to refer to a person—or animals, something about a horse—that had special powers. The current Strain appeared to have some power over electricity, which was the probable reason for the blackout.

Hitomi had been improving, but she was still prone to fights. And if the opponent happened to be someone with power, she would want to fight them even more. Sure, she would have Yata as some weird form of backup if the opponent was a threat to HOMRA. It still didn't change the fact that it would be running a risk. But…

"We just can't let someone that might be a potential lead fall into the hands of SCEPTER4," Kusanagi had said.

Eri couldn't argue with that logic.

Even so, that didn't mean she could just let Hitomi go out on her own. Especially not when either teenager could get into a brawl with each other just as likely as with an actual opponent. Eri could allow for the two to deal with each other otherwise, and only intervene if they were at risk. With luck, the forced interaction would form some sort of toleration.

And if it didn't… Eri hoped that Kusanagi would be willing to understand. Of course, the smile he had given as the two teens headed out the door, glaring daggers at each other, gave Eri the feeling like he was encouraging them to battle. As long as it wasn't in the bar, a fight didn't seem to be his concern at all.

Eri sighed silently. Kusanagi may have been nice, but he was almost scary at times. If trusting him wasn't the only option at this point, she might have reconsidered the options. Hearing that HOMRA would probably kill Ruyaki—what was left of Ruyaki anyway—made the decision harder. But she had promised Hitomi that they wouldn't stop until they got answers, so sticking around was what had to be done.

She wasn't going to be weak anymore. That was Eri's determination.

While it didn't go as quickly as trips with Urumana-san, finding their way to the desired location didn't take much time. Yata-san knew the area well enough, so he was able to direct the group based off the small, frozen image of a news report holograph coming from his watch. Double checking one last time, Yata held his arm up, comparing the representation to the reality.

"Looks like this is it," he said. Eri, fallen back to silence, nodded her approval. Hitomi scowled but didn't disagree. The area was cleared out of much activity, the expected crowds and police cars already gone. Eri pursed her lips.

"I don't like this," Hitomi said, projecting the other girl's thoughts on accident. "There was a blackout and someone got hurt. It was only a little bit ago, right?" She looked around, scanning the area. Watching made Eri feel nervous.

"Yeah, about an hour ago." Yata looked at a crosswalk, its signal counting down until it changed. "If that's lit up, the outage is probably over. And the news said the girl that got hurt was already sent to the hospital." He shrugged, tapping the end of his metal bat on his shoulder. "If the cops are gone, that makes it easier to look around."

Hitomi nodded. "True enough," she said. "Which building did they find her at?"

Yata pointed with his bat. "That one." Eri suppressed a smile. They were actually having a civil conversation, and Hitomi was talking on her own. It just showed how a common goal could unite people.

"Well, time's a wastin', let's go," Hitomi said, walking towards the building's entrance. Eri followed close behind. "The sooner we get this out of the way, the sooner we can get back to finding Nii-san. Come on, Yata-chan, don't drag your feet."

"Who the hell gave you permission to call me that?!" Yata shouted. He rolled on his skateboard and stopped in front of Hitomi, blocking the way. "I'm older than you! Not to mention HOMRA'S helping you! Show some goddamn respect!"

Hitomi blinked, surprise etched on her face, "There's no way." She smirked. "Still waiting on your growth spurt, eh? Must be hard to play the part of a big, bad gang member when you're constantly being mistaken for an elementary student."

The two teenagers locked each other into glares before tossing insults at each other. Eri sighed, navigating functions on her phone. While their creativity was impressive, it wasn't productive. The woman shoved her phone between the two, and both recoiled from the holographic clock that appeared in front of their faces.

We don't have time for this. Eri hoped that the message was clear enough.

She also hoped that Kusanagi-san knew what he was doing.

Hitomi grinned in a way that was apologetic. "Sorry, sorry," she said. "Nee-san's right, Yata-chan. We really should get going. Don't want any of our leads to get away."

Yata didn't answer, only wheeled on his skateboard to the building. Hitomi stuck out her tongue at the boy's back. Eri rolled her eyes, waving a hand to encourage her sister to keep moving. The inside of the building was clean enough, brightly lit. One ride in an elevator and a walk up a set of stairs allowed the door to the roof to be opened.

It was peaceful. There was a light breeze, pushing at Eri's hair and faint strands of Hitomi's. A vague noise of the crowds in the distance was the only noise to be heard. The air was cold. The sky was blue. Life was as it should be, like an accident had never happened.

The calm made Eri feel uneasy.

"Man, they sure took a beating over there," Hitomi said, looking at the other roof. A hand shielded her eyes from the sunlight. Part of the adjacent building's railing was completely missing. There was a bit of blood on their own roof, a faint trail leading to a darker stain. Hitomi's boot tapped the mark's surface. "You think they'd clean this up. Just what the hell happened?"

"The Strain's gone," said Yata. He turned to the other roof. "They probably bailed when the cops got called. No way we'll find 'em hanging around here now."

Eri considered the options. Finding the Strain wasn't that impossible if they had a witness. Kusanagi had made it sound like finding the Strain wasn't necessary, but it could still be useful. So she wouldn't have to make Mie-chan speak too loud, she stepped away from the doorway.

She stopped when a hand was put on her shoulder. Mie-chan conveyed a gasp before falling to the ground.

"A woman…?" The voice was lazy, bored even, but Eri still felt a sense of threat. It was far too terrifying for a voice like that. The voice's owner clicked his tongue, and Eri winced. "Two women and… Ehh?"

Eri didn't think she could be any more scared; she was wrong. If boredom caused fear, then hearing interest shot her beyond something that could be defined as any form of "terror." Her breath was rushed, her heart beat too fast, and her whole body shook.

"You know you shouldn't be here… Misaki."

Sitting in her hospital bed, Nakahara Minenai wanted to trash her hospital room. It wouldn't accomplish anything, it wouldn't be productive, and it certainly wouldn't get her out of the hospital any quicker. But it would be something to do, something that could use up energy and get her frustrations out. She would have been just fine if Sparky hadn't blown up in her face and knocked her out.

"At least it was just your submissive arm that got broken," Momoko commented, smiling at the bedside. Her words called attention to the cast on Minenai's right arm, a broken bone that she could have walked off if she hadn't passed out.

"That's not the damn problem," she growled, hitting her head against the backboard of the bed. Except the nurse had piled up a mountain of pillows behind her so Minenai's skull hit that instead. It was nowhere near the satisfying thunk she had desired, and that only pissed her off more. "Getting my bones set does nothing for me. It just makes it worse when I gotta fix it myself."

"Still, it's pretty impressive that a brat like that could score a one-hit K.O. on Nakahara-san," Yoshiro commented, nodding in appreciaition. Minenai scowled at him, wishing her power was better suited for offensive purposes. If she had her way she would have kicked him in the gut with her heels still on, then dug the end into his stomach. The fact that a nurse may come in at any minute to discharge her was the only thing stopping the impulse, and Minenai was ready to let all hell break loose just for the sake of teaching Yoshiro a lesson. "Hey, Sato-kun, Sato-chan, what do you think?"

Sitting on the guest couch were two young kids, just barely thirteen, sitting back to back, legs propped on the armrests. They each held a handheld gaming console in their hands—hell if Minenai knew which brand—but looked up when they were addressed.

"She's lost her touch," Takehiko said.

"She keeps getting too impatient," Ayaka agreed.

Yoshiro laughed like they were the cutest things in the world. Minenai wanted to rip their throats out. Just as she was about to send a stream of profanities their way, Momoko spoke up.

"Speaking of Newa-san, how is he?" the girl asked, looking to Minenai for a report. "I understand that his powers have been surging in and out of control and he's too stubborn, but don't you think you're being too harsh on him, Minenai? I know I'm not up to strength to talk to him but—"

"Absolutely not," Minenai interjected before a lecture could start. "The way I'm handling him is just fine, there's no need to even send you anywhere near him, especially if he's pushing his attacks at other people now. Besides, the attitude I'm giving him is the same way I was told to deal with my powers, and it's the same way you were told Momoko."

Momoko winced, just the tiniest bit, but gave a nervous laugh afterwards. "Yes, but you're a completely different person than Newa-san is, and so am I, Minenai."

Minenai frowned, knowing the conversation was getting nowhere. Noticing the silence, Yoshiro cleared his throat and spoke up. "Well, clearly we should change our tactics," he said. Minenai went to protest, but he held up a hand to stop her. "All debates on strategies aside, SCEPTER4 is already pursuing him. If we don't take him in and train him to control his powers before things get worse, he's as good as detained for the next few years."

"SCEPTER4's a pain," Ayaka said.

"If they come in we're not going near them," Takehiko stated.

"No one's asking you to fight SCEPTER4," Momoko interjected, her voice hurried. "If they show up you two can escape, but right now if we do things right, you won't have to worry about them at all. Why don't you help us think of some plans so we can avoid it?"

The Sato twins both lowered their consoles and moved so they could look at each other. After a moment they nodded in unison, though no one could tell what they were thinking. A moment later they were back to playing their games like nothing had even been asked of them.

"I don't care, SCEPTER4 can kiss my ass," Minenai said. "I'm getting sick of those little punks carrying us off like we're criminals. If they get anywhere near any of us, Sparky included, we beat the shit out of them and send them in a box to their supervisors."

"I really don't think that's a good idea…" Momoko said.

"Regardless," Yoshiro interrupted, "what we're coming up with is irrelevant until we think things through properly. So the real question is what does the boss think?"

Everyone was forced to shut up, even Minenai. The only sound left in the room was the twins tapping away at their consoles, which died down after a few seconds. All of the Strains in the room were looking in one direction, the exception being the one they were all staring at.

"I think," said Shinichiro, "that maybe it's time we let Ayumu use her powers."

Fujioka Goro sighed with impatience on the monorail, wishing it would hurry up and get to the next stop already. While it was a beautiful view from the window, he had taken this ride and many like it around Shizume city in the past that there wasn't anything else left for him to take pictures of that would interest him like it had before. He should really take a trip down to the riverbank that hosted the supports of the track and take some pictures from there. Maybe that would be interesting enough.

A trip like that would have to wait until later, if there was even time for that. Goro had been busy at work for days on end, with new assignments piling up all the time as he raced from room to room to forever record the progress that they were making. This was his first outing that didn't involve the trip from his housing to work in weeks, and it was still for an assignment. At least his job was one that tended to his hobbies, which was why he had even agreed to join up in the first place.

Ultimately unable to resist, Goro slipped out his camera from its case, attaching the zoom lens. Even though such technology had been outdated years ago, Goro still enjoyed using it. This particular lens had been a gift from his father, the only thing left that was a reminder that the older Fujioka had even existed, aside from a collection of pictures buried in some album somewhere.

Ashinaka Gakuen. It was a beautiful school, no matter how many times Goro saw it. It was the same view, the same angles, the same buildings, but it was still breathtaking. Maybe the fact that some of the buildings had been rebuilt after the recent incident was what had replenished its charm, but Goro wasn't entirely sure if that was the case. Regardless, he kept clicking the shutter, setting his camera off over and over again as it captured the image of the school buildings shining in the sunlight.

A few passengers on the other side of the train started talking about him, saying things like "Check out that freak" and "What's he even doing, anyway?" Goro turned up the flash on his camera to the highest setting and took a picture of them. The image of their disgusted and surprised faces graced his digital screen a few seconds later, and he went back to what he was doing. The pictures he kept taking barely changed, just held the image of the school that was slowly drawing closer, barely noticeable in each frame. By the time they almost got to the stop, Goro had collected enough footage to make a small and rather uneventful movie.

The passengers disembarked the train, and Goro slung his camera bag over his shoulder. He took a few pictures of the hubbub of people, but quickly stopped. The cluster of passengers just didn't have any real life to them, and the pictures were deleted almost immediately. It was funny, because he had taken thousands of pictures like that only a year ago, and they were still beautiful to him. What was the difference, what had made the crowds of people in the photographs he took now lose their touch?

Furthermore, why was a guy like him that hated things that never changed so obsessed with capturing pictures that would never change, could never change, aside from the wear and tear that the passage of time put on them?

Reminding himself that he had work to do, Goro forced himself to walk as he took pictures of the academy as it got closer. His steps naturally made the shots look shaky, amateurish, even with all the technology that had been developed to prevent such things, but he liked that about them. Goro quickly decided that he was getting tired of the idea of "the perfect picture" anyway. Saying that there was a perfect version of something only meant that things that were less than perfect had no worth. He spit on the grass before heading up the sidewalk to the entrance.

Watching a few students enter, Goro quickly remembered that the security had been bumped up in the past few weeks. Inversely, Goro hadn't updated his own credentials in months. Taking a chance he walked up to the gates, tapping his camera against the sensor where students set their ID. The system let him through anyway, wielding easily as he passed. The technology still worked. Setsuko was a genius.

Goro paused when he reached the courtyard, snapping pictures as he went. The mass amounts of damage that still haunted him for not being able to pictures of were gone, no traces that they had ever happened. Why did the Blue Clan have to be so damn efficient? He made himself feel better by taking pictures of some of the students; the uniform was definitely one of the best things about this place, that was for sure.

Goro slipped his camera back into his pocket, adjusted his glasses, put on his best smile, and headed over the girl he had just taken pictures of.

"Excuse me, ojou-chan, could I impose on you enough to ask some questions?"

Apologies for the late in the week update as I started a new temp job, worked overtime, tried to figure out how to manage my writing time, had some disappointments, and just kind of rolled around in the Kuroko no Basuke anime a lot.

Much thanks to kittycattkatt, Sleepyface, Haruhi330, iluvninjas, AshTheRandomOtaku, and Ms. PessiMystique for for your favorites, follows, and reviews. I seriously appreciate it more than this tiny, exhausted paragraph can even begin to express.

I just wanted to note that I did watch the Missing Kings movie and am excited for the next anime season. However, a lot of the planned aspects of this story don't fit/blatantly contradict some of the movements in the movie (and some line up perfectly). I'll be taking cues from the movie and anime on some aspects and ignoring others so (it's not like this story was going to be canon anyways)... Just know that you won't see some things, others you (eventually) will, and the rest will be present but with twists.

Haha, I forgot I left this cliffhanger in this chapter. The good news is that the next chapter should be out on the twenty-second of this month, provided I get my shit together.

Next time, Kukuri contemplates her situation, a certain photographer takes an interest, the memorial of Suoh Mikoto. Please look forward to it!

[POST] 071115