Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Seventy Two: The Clone Menace
Beta:
Sitting in a cafe that a particularly entrepreneurial member of Maniple had set up inside the expansive warehouse complex in District 11 that served as their base - which was honestly looking less like a base nowadays than a small village! -, Ruiko, dressed in her Tokiwadai Winter Uniform as was required by the season, was looking over her budget for the month whilst Wataru-san sat nearby in case she needed any of his input.
"Wataru-san," Ruiko asked as she spotted something unexpected and looked up to face her subordinate who was happily enjoying the cafe's much recommended café au lait. "Why does it seem like our profits this month are down?"
"They are?" Wataru-san asked, taking a lazy sip from his drink.
"They are," Ruiko informed him with a nod. "Even taking into account the upfront investment that we'd made into Eden Corp and the Indian Poker project, things shouldn't be as low as they are."
"You'd know better than me." The redhead said with a shrug. "I just run errands around here. You're the boss, Stoic-jouchan."
Ruiko just crossed her arms and sent him a glare. She was in no mood for teasing.
"While I am capable. I am hardly omniscient."
"Never said you were." Wataru-san said with another shrug. "But if you don't know what makes you think I would?"
"You're closer to the ground." Ruiko told him pointedly. She was not above referring to someone else if they were more capable than her in any given field and in terms of keeping an ear to the ground, Wataru-san definitely met that criteria. "So what have you heard?"
"We've got new competition."
"Hmm," Ruiko hummed as she connected to her database to see what she could find about this new competitor. "Ah. I see what you mean."
That night, Ruiko and Wataru-san found themselves on top of the roof of an office building as they spied on one of the agents employed by their new competition in the information brokerage business.
"So?" Wataru-san asked expectantly, looking away from the binoculars he was using to peer into the neighboring building
"They're using Mental Out. Fascinating... I didn't realize that Misaki-sempai had clones running around."
"Clones? What makes you think they're using clones?"
"The spy in that building over there," Ruiko said, gesturing at the other skyscraper. "Has the same AIM Field pattern as the [Queen]. That only happens with clones."
"I see. I see." The redhead said, nodding. "So mind if I ask if all you Level 5s have clones running around?"
"Not that I know about. But," Ruiko said with a shrug. "I can see why someone would want to clone us if given the chance."
She had been no exception. The small experimental batch of her own clones that Gensei had created had been dismal failures at least with none of them ever surpassing Level 0. Apparently her AIM Sovereign was just incredibly difficult to unlock. Though there were rumors that the Director, Yakumi Hisako, had managed to figure out how using one of the brains of the clones she'd recovered after Gensei had them terminated. Thankfully, for now at least, she didn't seem to be using the success of her Project Rensa for anything besides a hidden ace should the emergency event when all Level 5 Espers rebelled against Academy City ever occurred.
"Yeah, you lot are scary. Even if the clones are weaker versions. If the Usagi-jouchan had clones...burr!"
"It's good that her Maniforce is hard to replicate." Ruiko sighed out in agreement. Clones of Naru-chan would be super annoying to fight en masse. She grimaced as she imagined the bombardment of elemental attacks they could unleash. "Though I suppose you could say that the Shinobi are knock off versions of just that."
"Yeah, cheap knock offs." Wataru-san said with a snort. "They barely hold a candle to the original. The Sisters match up to Sparky-jouchan a lot better. Imagine what Usagi-jouchan's clones could do?"
"True that." Ruiko agreed. "Let's get going."
"Huh? We're leaving already?" Wataru-san asked, blinking in confusion even as Ruiko grabbed his arm and teleported them back to the van they'd parked on the street below. "We're not going after the agent to interrogate them?"
"No," Ruiko said with a shake of her head. "I'd like to ask for permission for it before I take any action."
"Permission? From whom?" Wataru-san asked, his brow furrowed in confusion even as he gallantly opened the door to the van for her.
"The clones' Onee-sama."
Shokuhou Misaki, the Number 7 ranked Level 5 and [Queen] of Tokiwadai, was having tea with her Faction at an upmarket cafe in District 6 after a fun day at the amusement park as part of their celebrations over the successful completion of the Daihaseisai. A celebration that was doubly meaningful for her thanks to the Festival this year having also marked her saving of and reuniting with her beloved childhood friend, Dolly.
Though she really didn't need to now also be saddled with having Kozuaku Mitori under her wing too. Not that she had any choice in the matter since Dolly regarded Kouzaku as just as close a friend as she did Misaki. And Misaki was loath to upset Dolly in any way.
Now if only I can figure out a way to introduce Dolly and Kouzaku to my Faction without raising unwanted questions. Misaki thought to herself as she sipped on her Darjeeling tea. Then we can all hang out together. I'm sure they'd have enjoyed visiting the amusement park with us earlier. Guess I'll just have to work on my convincing ability.
And no, just using Mental Out on her Faction to make them accept her friends was out of the question. Outside of certain circumstances, she refused to abuse her power like that.
Her ponderings were interrupted when out of nowhere her kohai, Saten-san, teleported into the empty chair directly across from Misaki. Since Junko-san had wandered off to get some snacks for them that left the two of them alone at the table for the moment.
"Ara ara, this is a surprise! To think Saten-san would just appear before me. Unannounced. Without a call or text." Misaki smiled sweetly, keeping her undercurrent of annoyance out of her tone.
Seriously, what did this busybody want now?
"Shokuhou-sempai, there is an issue that needs your attention."
"Blunt power as always, aren't you Saten-san?" Miskai chided her rude little kohai. "You know that's not how an ojou-sama should behave."
Saten-san had the audacity to roll her eyes at her. At her!
"I may attend Tokiwadai but I am no ojou-"
"Isn't your mother a multi-billionaire now? Doesn't your family own Eden Corp?" Misaki cut in pointedly. "I think that makes you an ojou-sama by default, Saten-san. So please act like one. You wouldn't want to damage your family or Tokiwadai's reputation ability, do you?"
Saten-san's eyebrows twitched at that.
Looks like I hit a nerve. Misaki concluded. Good. She really should stop being such a harridan. It hurts her reputation most of all!
"I see that you're beginning to realize where you stand. Good, Misaka-san already is oafish enough, no need to bring the Trinity's reputation power down further. Naru-chan can only do so much with her elegance ability."
"Very well," Saten-san said in the most upper crust accent Misaki had ever heard. Something she must be using her bloody archive of emulated powers to somehow manage. "I will be more tactful in my behavior. Lesson learned. Now can we move on to the matter at hand, Sempai?"
"No need to be so over the top with it, Kohai-chan~." Misaki told her with a roll of her eyes. "Everything in moderation ability. Moderation."
"Noted." Saten-san said with a tight but poised nod, one that betrayed none of the impatience that Misaki was sure she felt. "Now enough of this. I have news for you."
"For me?" Misaki asked curiously. "What is it?"
As she took a sip of tea, Saten-san swiftly replied.
"You've been cloned."
Misaki spat out her tea in a fine mist, the liquid dribbling down her chin.
...The little bitch timed that purposefully!
"W-What!?" Misaki shouted even as the members of her Faction turned in her direction only to suddenly turn away as she detected Saten-san deploy some telepathy of her own to direct their attention elsewhere. "What do you mean I've been cloned? I haven't given my DNA Map to anyone like that Misaka-san!"
Her mind drifted to Dolly though and she hastily corrected herself.
"Not that it was a wholly bad thing." Misaki said as she used a napkin to dab at her chin daintily to clean herself up.
"No, it has not." Saten-san said sporting a smile that told Misaki she was thinking of her daughter Last Order.
"That being the case… If this is a joke, Saten-san, it's in poor taste." Misaki harrumphed.
"I have it on good authority that I have a horrible sense of humor." Saten-san confessed. "As Mikoto-sempai puts it, I take after Accel too much."
"Considering his idea of a good joke always involves murder in some way…" Misaki said, trailing off meaningfully.
"H-He's getting better." Saten-san said with a wince and offered a fleeting smile. "But no, I am not joking in this instance."
Misaki frowned, weighing the possibility that Saten-san was either wrong or lying. She had no reason to be either…
That means I have been cloned.
"Tell me more," Misaki insisted, shooting Saten-san a narrow eyed look.
Naru covered her mouth, stifling the yawn she released as she sat with Rui-chan, Misaki-sempai, her sempai's not!girlfriend Dolly-chan and Kouzaku atop a warehouse roof as they spied on another particularly rundown warehouse across the street.
"Wish I had a little more warning for a stakeout, girls. I was having a conversation with Shu-chan and Arisa-chan."
"Naru-chan, you can have phone sex anytime." Rui-chan chided with a giggle.
Kouzaku let out what sounded like a hastily stifled gasp at that while Dolly-chan giggled too. Misaki-sempai for her part just shot Naru an unimpressed look.
"Yeah well, it was getting good. There was whipped cream and strawberries. And I had to-"
"Naru-chan, keep your fetish power in your skirt, please~" Sempai chided with a wag of her gloved finger. "I don't want you corrupting Dolly."
"But I want to be corrupted!" The prototype Sister said with a playful grin. "With whipped cream!"
"Dolly! Do you even know what you're saying!?" Kouzaku asked in exasperation as she blushed atomic red.
"No, but it sounds super yummy."
Naru nodded in agreement. "It is."
"Naru-chan, enough." Misaki-sempai demanded firmly. "And Dolly, no, neither Mii-chan or I will tell you what she meant, so stop asking. And don't you dare use your search ability to find out over the internet later either."
"Kay~" The two more rambunctious girls sang out.
Clearly, Dolly-chan needed to be taught on the side. Hm, save that idea for later.
"Saten-sama, what did Naru-sama me-"
"Dolly!" Misaki-sempai cried in exasperation.
In response, Dolly-chan just offered her an impish smile.
"I'll tell you about it later, Dolly-chan." Ruiko said without taking her eyes off the target warehouse.
"Saten-"
"She needs to know these things, Sempai." Ruiko countered harshly. "Would you rather she found out from an untrusted source? She'll do so eventually, no matter what you do. Would you rather she learn it from the internet, like Naru-chan."
Misaki-semspai could only hang her head in defeat at that.
As she should. Kurama commented with a sagely nod. The girl speaks from experience.
That she does.
"Spoken like a true Mama, Rui-chan." Naru observed. "But that aside, why the crap am I here anyways?"
"Don't make me spank you." Rui-chan said teasingly. "You're here as my muscle."
"You just want me to break stuff while you look like a mob boss about it."
Rui-chan at least had the decency to blush at the statement.
"But seriously, what are we actually here to do? All I know is that I'm the muscle today."
"We're here to shut down the use of Shokuhou-sempai's clones by a Dark Side operation."
"Wait! Misaki-sempai got cloned!? Since when?" Naru asked, a flabbergasted look on her face. "And wait… They're used by a Dark Side outfit? Oh! Rui-chan… You just want to shut down competition for your intel brokerage business don't you?"
"Shh, shh!" Rui-chan begged, a finger to her lips.
"You need to be more honest, Rui-chan. Honestly." The younger blonde huffed.
Like you? Kurama asked pointedly. A point that Misaki-sempai unexpectedly also chose to touch on.
"Seriously, you two can cut the acting power, you know that?" Misaki-sempai said with a sigh. "You're not fooling anyone. We all know you two have a lot more kindness ability than you pretend to have. You are helping because you want to."
"Eh? But it's making you more relaxed, right?" Naru offered with a sly smile.
"They've got you there, Shokuhou-san." Kouzaku said with a smirk. "You always prefer when people have ulterior motives for helping you. You think it gives you leverage to manipulate them and that comforts you."
"Must you air out all my secrets, Kouzaku!?"
"It's not like anyone here didn't already know it, Misaki-chan." Dolly-chan pointed out with a grin.
Pouting, Misaki-sempai backed down. Clearly Dolly-chan knew how to handle her. Now how to teach the clone the right massage techniques for a lover?
"Seriously though," Rui-chan said, cutting into Naru's scheming. "I will not deny the element of personal benefit in my motives for being involved with shutting down this operation, but beyond that I do not believe any of us want the continued abuse of cloning technology. Particularly in reference to Level 5s."
"Okay. But why me?" Naru asked, still confused about that point. "Why not call up, I dunno, Maniple? Their base is like literally just a couple blocks away."
"Simple. Sempai trusts you far more than she does myself or anyone else I could call. So having you here ameliorates some of her worry. She insisted you come."
"I'll totally tease Misaki-sempai about this, but later." Naru assured with a kind smile to her Sempai, who kept a stoic look on her beautiful face.
"Misaki-chan, you should work on your trust issues." Dolly-chan said shooting Misaki-sempai a scolding look. "It's not healthy."
Misaki-sempai looked remarkably like a kicked puppy at that rebuke and Kouzaku and Naru both giggled at her expense.
"Question." Kouzaku said as she calmed down once Misaki-sempai glared at them. "If you two are here, where's the [Railgun]? Don't the three of you work as a team?
"Blame Shokuhou-sempai." Rui-chan explained with a weary sigh. "She insisted on not bringing her in. Probably too embarrassed to let her know about her getting cloned too."
"To be fair, Onee-sama will likely never let Misaki-chan forget about it." Dolly-chan said with an air of certainty that considering her nature had quite the weight to it.
"Alright, I'm putting my foot down. No more conversations about me. Please!" Misaki-sempai begged with puffed up cheeks.
"That's fine." Rui-chan agreed as she turned away from the warehouse at long last and gestured at a black van that had just pulled up into its loading bay. "That's the last of the clones. It's time to strike."
"Fire in the hole!" Dolly-chan shouted as she used her Electromastery to transform her long hair into makeshift 'rails' to fire a volley of low powered railguns with random small metal parts she'd fished out from a hip pouch as her ammo.
"Not going to lie. That's flipping awesome." Naru complimented Dolly on her technique as it blasted apart the blast door that the enemy had dropped down to impede their way into the heart of the facility.
Seriously, how had Sempai never thought of this?!
"It's 'cos she keeps short hair." Rui-chan said, somehow discerning her unasked question. "Plus she prefers quality over quantity. One of her railguns packs more punch than all those Dolly-chan can muster combined."
"She'd look better with long hair." Dolly-chan said with clear bias. "And she is a Level 5. I'm only Level 3."
"You sure about that?" Naru asked as they sauntered into the heart of the Dark Side base, Kouzaku's Liquid Shadow puppet eviscerating the handful of armed guards that tried to block their way. "Being able to use railguns at all seems to be a Level 4 ability."
"Only if it's unassisted, Naru-chan." Misaki-sempai corrected. "Technically Dolly has to use her hair and that means she is still a Level 3, no matter that her capabilities are safely within the Level 4 bracket otherwise."
Oh! That's bullshit! Kurama grumbled. They should gauge these things by the power! The power!
Naru had no idea why her partner was so worked up about this and didn't want to ask. His reaction was just too amusing to interrupt.
"Bureaucracy." Rui-chan said with an amused snort. "The greatest aid and bane to civilization since its invention."
Damned straight it is!
"Oh! Look! They're sending the clones at us now." Naru observed as a group of eight girls and women with vastly different appearances stepped forward to engage them, raising a plethora of remotes in their direction and pressing their buttons to no effect. "Rui-chan, you're disrupting their AIM?"
"Of course," Rui-chan said with a huff. "You think I would let them mind control Dolly-chan and Kouzaku-san?"
"Uh, Misaki-chan? Why do they look different from you?" Dolly-chan asked as she fired a volley of her railguns to destroy a set of Powered Suits that the enemy sent at them to cover the Misaki clones' retreat once they realised their Mental Out wasn't working.
"Probably to make it so they blend in with the crowd better than the Sisters." Kouzaku commented as she had her Liquid Shadow shred the few Powered Suits that escaped Dolly-chan's barrage.
Naru dodged a few stray shots the Powered Suits managed to fire off from their guns and released a breath of acidic vapor to melt the enemy's weapons.
"Eh, Rui-chan, I get why Misaki-sempai isn't doing anything. She's lazy."
"Hey!"
"But why aren't you doing anything?"
"I'm supervising." Rui-chan said, shooting her a cheeky grin.
"Ah, looking all Bossy Chuuni, got it." Naru shot back with a giggle. "But seriously. Something wrong?"
"Not really." The [AIM Sovereign] replied with a shake of her head. "Just that negating the powers of the Misaki Clones is harder than expected. I think their powers are being enhanced by Body Crystals and that's after I dismantled the Level Upper Network they had going."
"Gotcha, makes sense. And Body Crystals and Level Upper? How high is their Level?" Naru stepped forward and made a large chakra construct of a large kanabo, feeling thuggy. "Oi! Give it up, ladies! This dance is over!"
"Without the Level Upper? Three." Rui-chan said as Naru smashed the head of a Powered Suit in, revealing that it lacked a pilot and was on autonomous mode. "I'm thinking their base Level is 2. It would explain why they need Body Crystals. Mental Out at anything less than Level 3 is pretty much useless for the line of work they were being used for."
"I guess Misaki-chan is too strong for regular clones." Dolly-chan hummed as she released several wing nut railgun bullets that exploded the ground just ahead of the fleeing Misaki Clones, cutting off their escape.
"Or the methodology of whoever made them wasn't as good as Gensei's." Kouzaku opined as she had her Liquid Shadow use the building's rafters to swing ahead of the Misaki Clones and more firmly cut off their escape. "He was a piece of shit but he did good science."
"Mii-chan is probably right!" Dolly-chan giggled as she released a small burst of electricity at a nearby camera.
"So sub-quality? Yesh, that's mean." Naru sighed and engaged another group of Powered Suits and swept them aside in one swing of her kanabo. Only for more of them to skate into the room they were fighting in on those rollers they had built into their feet.
Though they suddenly came to an abrupt halt before entering engagement range.
"...Are we going to talk now or are we dancing some more?" Naru called out, waiting for a reply.
You know what's going on Naru.
Yeah, but there's no point spoiling her big reveal. You know how prissy she'll be if we do.
True that.
"Neither." Misaki-sempai said with a smirk. "I've suborned the remaining enemies. They work for me now. Who's exercising her lazy ability now, Naru-chan~?"
"Oh, as expected of Sempai. When it comes to the mind, she's the best of the best. Even her clones don't stand a chance!" Naru whistled, genuinely impressed.
"Fufu, praise me more!"
Naru didn't have the heart to tell her that her clones were all whispering among themselves exasperated variants of "We're cloned from that!?".
She'd save that bullet for later down the line.
A week after liberating her clones from the clutches of the evil Dark Side organisation misusing them for their own nefarious purposes, Misaki was sitting down with said clones in a fancy dining room having tea.
"So how do you like the house I got you?" Misaki asked as she put down the cup of Earl Grey that one of her clones had brewed for her.
"It is perfectly acceptable, Onee-sama." They announced all at once in creepy unison.
"It beats-" "-the stasis chambers-" "-we were stuffed in for rest-" "-in the past."
Misaki could only nod to that. "I can't imagine letting my little sisters live in such a hovel. With me you shan't be living in such squalid conditions. I promise."
It was the least she could do for them after her part in their unasked for creation. They were created from her DNA after all and that meant that somewhere along the line she'd been careless with it. And that made them her responsibility. Just another in a long line for her to bear it seemed.
"We would like to thank-" "-Namikaze-sama and Saten-sama-" "-for their stalwart aid-" "-in our rescue as well!"
"I will pass the sentiments along." Misaki agreed begrudgingly. She hated thanking others almost as much as she did trusting them.
"On another note," Misaki asked, eyeing her clones with annoyance. "Please stop talking like that! It's creepy."
"Yes, Onee-sama," the clones said in unison.
"You're just doing that to troll me aren't you?"
"Yes, Onee-sama," the clones said in unison, smirks on their different faces.
Misaki growled in frustration, biting into a handkerchief. This was why she was an only child!
"Enough with the jokes already," Misaki demanded. "What's this about setting up a private investigation agency? And the Misaki Agency, really? Certainly you have more creative ability than that, no?"
She'd be a laughing stock over it!
"The inferior Misaka Sisters have a joke about how they're the Moe Legion." "We decided to escalate and steal their thunder." "They are most likely pulling their hair at how we one upped them."
Misaki blinked at this. This was actually a good idea! Not only did it take the mickey out of Misaka-san, but it also allowed her clones to get a steady source of income all on their own.
"And we'll sell merch as PI idols." "We never agreed on that." "It's silly." "I want neko ears."
"Now, now, no need to fight," Misaki cooed at her adorable clones. "Now tell me more, because this sounds like a great idea."
"Of course, Onee-sama." The clones said with their deliberately creepy unison.
Yeah, that sends a shiver down my spine every time I hear it. How does Misaka-san handle it?
"You two are serious?" Mikoto asked, hardly believing her ears. "Shokuhou got cloned too?"
"Yup." Naru said with a playful popping of the 'p' as she looked up from her meal as the Trinity gang chatted over lunch at Joseph's.
"I'm holding this over her head. Forever." Mikoto smiled wickedly. Her revenge had arrived!
"I thought you would." Naru said with a knowing grin. "Though I also thought you'd be a little peeved that your monopoly on being an Onee-sama to a clone army is over."
Mikoto tried to reach across the table to smack her, but Naru squirmed away with a cheeky grin.
She'd spank her for that later.
"I'm curious though. How did anyone even manage to acquire Shokuhou-sempai's DNA?" Kuroko asked with a worried frown.
"She got sloppy." Ruiko said after taking a sip from her strawberry milkshake. "She wasn't as thorough with destroying Exterior as she should have and someone managed to recover samples. They extracted her DNA from those."
"Haha! Looks like her big brain bent her over and went to town!" Mikoto crowed in triumph. "Big brain moment? More like a smooth brain, right?"
"Sempai, you're spending far too much time on the internet." Ruiko sighed. "Please remember that you are a Tokiwadai student."
"You've never bothered with that before Saten-san." Uiharu said, blinking at her best friend curiously. "What's changed?"
"As I've been reminded, I am officially a ojou-sama now." Ruiko said with pain in her voice. "I have to show representation like Naru-chan."
"And me too?" Mikoto tacked on with a raised brow.
"...Yes?"
Why did that sound like a question?
"Misaki-sempai's scolding really got into your craw huh, Rui-chan?" Naru asked with an ever growing grin.
"Unfortunately." Ruiko admitted with a sigh. "Because she's right. I have my family and Eden Corp's reputation to uphold now. I need to watch my behavior more closely going forward."
"Back to Exterior," Kuroko said, seemingly still caught on that point. "If it was so risky. To the point that it allowed Shokuhou-sempai's DNA Map to leak out, why did she even use it instead of destroying it when she first had the chance?"
"Duh, Sempai knew the risks, but that temptation of such a trump card? How could she resist?" Naru shook her head. "Boosts of that magnitude for a Level 5 are rare and the chance was too good to pass up."
"You always side with Shokohou," Mikoto said, shaking her head at her kohai.
"Nuh-uh! I only do so when Sempai does something right. It just so happens that when it comes to you two butting heads, Misaki-sempai is usually in the right."
"She's got you there, Mikoto-sempai." Ruiko took a break from enjoying a deluxe sized parfait with Uiharu to chime in.
Where the hell did that huge thing come from!? Mikoto couldn't help but think as she boggled at the massive ice cream dish. It was as big as the two best friends' heads combined! Weren't they just eating their main courses a minute ago?
"That is unfortunately true, Onee-sama." Even the ever loyal Kuroko said.
"All my kohai!? Traitors! The lot of you are traitors!" Mikoto growled as she tossed her hands in the air in frustration.
Omake: Clone Wars
A week after the launch of the Misaki Agency by the Misaki Clones, Military Otaku and the rest of her sisters of the Academy City Council of Misakas were waiting impatiently at the City's airport as the Moe Legionnaires from around the world arrived.
There was already a large crowd of their sisters filling up a whole section of the airport's arrivals building and much to Otaku's satisfaction, the latest and last batch of Sisters had just cleared Customs and were joining the ranks of their army.
It's time. Otaku concluded as she stepped up onto an impromptu stage made out of some of the Sisters' luggage to address the assembled Moe Legion.
The sun was out, the skies slightly cloudy and there was a pleasant breeze generated by the building's air conditioning that played with their skirts. Truly, it was a fine day for a war.
"Misakas, you are here today for one reason and one reason only, Misaka declares with all her authority." Military Otaku announced and clicked her Mary Janes together. "We Sisters are here to put an end to the BBM, the Big Boobs Menace, Misaka spits. Also known as the Misaki Sisters, the rip offs, Misaka spits again!"
A cheer erupted from the Misakas and Military Otaku raised her hands to quiet the crowd.
"Today, we march on their self-proclaimed Misaki Agency and TEAR. IT. TO. THE GROUND!" She roared, eliciting a matching roar from the crowd that utterly silenced her comparatively soft, "Misaka roars!"
"We, Misakas, will dine on their bones! For we are the Moe Legion! Misaka shouts to the heavens!"
Nearby, a nervous Anti-Skill officer looked at his partner.
"Do, do we call this in?"
"It's gotta be a joke, right?" His partner suggested, fidgeting anxiously.
That hope was dashed when the gathered army of clones started unloading guns of all types out of their luggage.
"Call this in, call this in now!"
"Is that an RPG!?"
A half hour later at the Misaki Agency Headquarters, the battle was in full swing.
Said headquarters had been a stately Victorian inspired building surrounded by a sizable park just earlier in the day. One which stood out and thus drew in clientele in the otherwise ultra modern architecture of the City.
Now though, it was reduced to a battlefield.
On one side were hundreds of Misaka Sisters equipped with all manner of guns and supported by a veritable army of combat robots. On the other were the eight Misaki clones and their hundreds of mind controlled Anti-Skill and Dark Sider minions armed with everything the City had to offer. In between, casualties littered the park in the form of piles of unconscious combatants and destroyed robots.
The only consolation out of the chaos was that it was incredibly localized. The fighting stopped at the perimeter of the Misaki Agency's property line with Misakas acting as traffic wardens at the edge of the extensive parkland to direct bystanders safely away. Plus, there hadn't been any deaths. Both sides refraining from using lethal force. Other than that though, the whole thing wouldn't have looked out of place in an actual war zone.
"So you think they'll actually manage to calm their clones down?" Accel asked Ruiko as they watched the mayhem unfolding below them from the perch of a rooftop overlooking the battlefield.
"They better be." Ruiko said irritably. This little war had disrupted a perfectly good date and she was not happy.
"Flat is Justice! Misaka cries out in a Kamikaze attack!" One of the Sisters shouted loudly enough to be heard all the way up on their perch as she led a dozen robots in a suicidal frontal charge against the Misakis' well fortified positions.
"...I'm scared." The Number One confessed to his girlfriend.
"I'm scarred." Ruiko rebutted. "And honestly, why are you scared? The Misakas love you. They wouldn't support you with the Misaka Network if they didn't."
"Do you see the destruction they're creating down there?"
"Meh. I can create worse if I felt like it." Ruiko dismissed with a roll of her eyes. She wasn't called the [Army Slayer] for no reason!
Any further conversation was put on hold as Mikoto-sempai finally arrived, carrying Shokuhou-sempai in a piggyback as they leapt down from a neighboring skyscraper courtesy of some assistance from the former's Electromastery.
"Alright, that tears it!" Mikoto-sempai called out to the warring clones and stomped her foot with authority even as she let Shokuhou-sempai down. "The two of us are here to impose a permanent ceasefire!"
"That's right! All this combat power is being wasted and is far from what you girls should be doing!" The busty blonde proclaimed sternly.
"So stop fighting and go home, you brats! Your Onee-samas are not happy!"
"Hug it out!" Naru called as she teleported onto the rooftop across from the one Ruiko and Accel were occupying, no doubt using her power to project her voice.
"Since when was the Gremlin here?" Accel asked in a whisper.
Ruiko shrugged. "She's probably been here the whole time recording it and snacking."
"Sounds like her." Accel agreed. "She's an imp."
"Hug it out to show bygones are bygones!"
"Naru!" Mikoto-sempai shouted loudly enough for everyone to hear even without the audiokinesis Ruiko had been using to let Accel and her to listen in so far.
"Just do it." Misaki-sempai mumbled to her. "We'll get her back. Together."
The dark, expectant looks the two older Level 5s sported as they hugged at Naru's insistence told Ruiko clear as day they planned to make the Number 2's life hell for this.
Ruiko didn't need to read their minds to figure that out.
Fortunately, their clones weren't quite so knowledgeable about their Onee-samas' true feelings, and they reluctantly followed their progenitors' lead and began to hug it out as well.
"Argh." Ruiko growled, thinking of all the trouble the prank war between Naru-chan and her two Sempais that would inevitably result from this would cause her. "This is my life now."
"If it's any consolation, you can crash at my place if things get too crazy?" Accel offered.
"Find a way to get Yomikawa-san and Yoshikawa-san out of the house at least for a little while and I'll take you up on that offer."
"Deal!"
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
Yeah, we went there. Misaki has clones now. Sadly, no Stepford Cuckoos for her. Discount Misakis were made to look different to not be as obvious as the Misakas. And of course, our own fun. With war, the Clone Wars… fear the moe. Overall, it was a blast to do this!
Nameless: Sadly, twins and triplets are eye-catching and that defeats the purpose. They really only serve the purpose of seduction since some people have particular fetishes about such things, but with Mental Out at their disposal seduction isn't really necessary so no clones were created for that. At least not yet. If the outfit were allowed to create more? Then who knows. Misaki and friends stepped in before they could though.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!