Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto or Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/Toaru Majutsu no Index
The Trinity of Tokiwadai
Chapter Seventy Six: Jailbreaker - The New Juvenile Hall War
Beta:
Frenda Seivelun, Dark Sider and member of the elite outfit ITEM, found herself and her team sitting in the modified camper they used as a transport cruising as fast as the City's speed limits would allow towards the location where Saten-sama demanded their presence. And, no, Frenda had not mischaracterized the nature of how Saten-sama had summoned them.
"Ugh, I still can't believe the nerve of that girl. Just because we might owe her a few favors. Ridiculous!" Mugino scowled as their ride took them to the meet up location. The Level 5 holding her thumb to her lips and gnawing at the nail in agitation as she spoke.
"It's not like we have a choice." Kinuhata said with a shrug. "We owe her a few super favors."
Mugino cut her eyes to the Level 4 causing the tomboy to wilt into her hoodie, before quickly cutting her gaze over to Frenda.
"And whose fault is that?" She hissed, glaring murderously at Frenda. "If someone didn't rely so much on her intel, we wouldn't be in this mess."
Normally Frenda would have begun sputtering apologies at this level of ire being directed towards her by Mugino, but the dynamic between them had changed lately. It was no secret to anyone on the Dark Side that Frenda was friendly with the Trinity. And they were known for going out of their way to help their friends. Just look at what they did to Yumiya Rakko for hurting her. That gave Frenda a little more courage than usual despite Mugino's displeasure.
"G-Good intel makes the difference." Frenda returned with a weak smile. She might have powerful friends now but they weren't here to save her if Mugino lost her cool and killed her, so damned straight she was still scared stiff. She just wasn't as terrified as she would have been if in a similar situation a few weeks ago. "Besides, Saten-sama just likes to hang out with me sometimes. I'd rather not get on her bad side."
"Funny, it sounds like you want to be on mine." The Number 6 stated icily.
"Can we not do this before a job?" Their sleepy teammate Takisubo chimed in, looking bored.
"And before we meet Saten-sama?" Kinuhata asked. "'Cos if she reads our minds and sees you bullying Frenda, she'll be super pissed. I dunno about you, Mugino, but I don't think you want a repeat of that one time she blasted you into Tokyo Bay."
"Not to mention the other two being there too." Takitsubo mumbled. "Namikaze-sama may not have taken her tall glass of blood today yet. She threatened to bite our throats out last year."
"Ma'am, we're here." Their driver said over the intercom and Frenda and her teammates all turned as one to look out the camper's windows even as the door to the rear compartment they were in slid open.
"This is where we're supposed to meet the Trinity?" Kinuhata said with a frown as they trooped after Mugino as she led them out of their transport. "Isn't this just like a super normal dorm? It isn't even a fancy one."
"It's the right place," Frenda said, gesturing at the impressive array of forces, presumably called to action by the Trinity, that had gathered in the small car park. "Unless you think anyone else, except maybe Kamijou Touma, can bring this kind of firepower together."
Speaking of the infamous [Imagine Breaker], there he was standing next to Accelerator, whose presence was admittedly expected with him being Saten-sama's boyfriend and all. But that was only the scary tip of the iceberg, as in addition to these powerhouses there were was also the Trinity's stalwart support operative Shirai-san from Judgment, a fully deployed Maniple, the City's Sisters, Sequenzia-san and her Black Crows, but also unexpected groups like themselves in ITEM, the Number 7 plus Kouzaku and the prototype Sister - Dolly was it? -.
Shit. Fuck. Crap. Shit fucky fuck crap! Frenda wanted to go home! Just flat out run out of here. There was enough firepower gathered here to fight a war and Frenda wanted no part in something like that.
Well, maybe if Saten-sama asked nicely. A traitorous part of Frenda's mind added, offering just how she'd like Saten-sama to 'ask nicely' that was decidedly not safe for work and would likely occupy her dreams for the rest of the week.
Though that imagery would likely take on a more fantastical bent than usual. Because floating off the ground and moving towards her and her team whilst surrounded by a nimbus of prismatic light with tendrils of the same light growing out of her back like exotic wings that were writhing angrily was the objection of her lustful affection. She honestly looked like some kind of monster. A very pretty and sexy monster, but a monster nonetheless. Thankfully, Frenda knew better than to say that. It would be a shame to get killed for it before she got the chance to enjoy all the fantasies Saten-sama's current look had inspired for her 'private time' for the next month!
"Oho, who's going to die, Saten?" Mugino asked with a curious look. No, she looked disturbingly intrigued.
Ignoring her fellow Level 5 entirely, though Frenda noted with satisfaction that she managed to offer her a smile in greeting, Saten-sama turned her attention to Takitsubo.
"[AIM Stalker]!" Saten-sama shouted at Frenda's reserved teammate. "Are you familiar with Saten Hiroki?"
"Level 4 Thermal Hand?" Takitsubo replied, cowering a little as the Level 5 floated towards her. "Yes, I am."
"Good, I need you and your team to help track him down. He kidnapped my best friend."
"He kidnapped Namikaze-sama?" Frenda gasped. Who the fucky freak could do that besides those Shinobi guys who had a murder boner for her fellow blonde?
"No, not me." Namikaze-sama said as she walked over. "Rui-chan's other best friend, Ui-chan. Sorry, I mean Uiharu Kazari-chan. She got taken about an hour ago. We're planning a rescue."
"Oh," Frenda said, scratching her head in embarrassment.
Still! To be able to not only already figure out not only the kidnapper, but also mobilize all these forces in an hour… Damn! The Trinity's influence is truly scary! Frenda thought with a shiver. Why do I have to be attracted to powerful girls!? My life would be so much simpler if my tastes were more pedestrian.
If it was maybe she'd have settled for someone like Shinka-kun instead of leading him on by being his sex friend. But alas, her tastes skewed towards the adventurous.
Well, I do like living dangerously. Frenda thought as she smirked and savored Saten-sama's current sexy, scary form, determined to sear as much of it into her memory as possible. Her fantasies demanded it!
"Why do we need to help you?" Mugino said, her eyes narrowed. "You can track the kidnapper too, can't you?"
"I can," Saten-sama agreed, shooting Mugino a dark look. "But the kidnappers have somehow, probably using a modified AIM Jammer, duplicated his AIM Field signature. Thankfully, there are only two of them. Hence, I want us to split our forces. [AIM Stalker] will lead one group and I will lead the other."
"AIM Jammers can do that? You're super kidding me, right?" Kinuhata said with a sigh and Frenda just nodded.
"AIM Jammers work by creating a wave pattern that interferes with an Esper's AIM Field." Frenda explained to her teammate in a whisper. "It can't duplicate a Personal Reality so it can't emulate powers like Saten-sama can but with sufficient modification it can I suppose duplicate a Esper's Field pattern to throw off AIM trackers."
"They are suppressing your friend's AIM Field? I can't detect it." Takitsubo asked after a moment of looking off into the distance, receiving a nod from the hovering Level 5.
"Alright. And why should we help you?" Mugino persisted, causing Frenda to step warily away from [Meltdowner].
Saten-sama raised an arm, probably to smite Mugino when Misaka-sama ran over and grabbed her arm and forced it down.
"Ruiko! No!" Misaka-sama scolded her friend. "We want their help. Reducing their team leader into her constituent atoms might be cathartic, but it won't exactly convince them to help."
"It would make the day for some of us though." Accelerator said with a bloodthirsty grin.
"This is a bad joke, right?" Kamijou said as he rubbed his right wrist warningly.
"Sadly, it isn't. Rui-chan is on a hair trigger at the moment." Namikaze-sama said with a shake of her head and gently took her best friend's hand. "But yeah, calm down Rui-chan."
Saten-sama began muttering in an inhuman language that sounded like sweet music to Frenda's ears even if she was sure it was an expletive laden rant or something close to it but floated away and moved towards Maniple and the Black Crow officers.
"Okay, while Ruiko is busy discussing things with the paramilitaries, let's discuss what you want for your help." Misaka-sama suggested.
"We'll pay you your usual rate." Namikaze-sama cut in before Mugino could open her mouth to likely make unreasonable demands that would've gotten her smited.
Mugino looked hesitant but much to Frenda's relief, the Number 6 took a deep breath and nodded.
"Give us the details."
"This is insane overkill, you know that right, Namikaze?" [Meltdowner] said from her seat across from Naru in the back of ITEM's transport as it drove according to [AIM Stalker]'s directions towards one of the two AIM Fields matching the pattern of Ui-chan's kidnapper. "Just look at who we have here!"
At this the Number 6 gestured at who else shared the camper's back compartment, namely the rest of her own team sans Takitsubo-san who was seated up front with the driver to give directions and Kamijou-san. That wasn't even the end of their little army either as trailing behind the Camper was the full might of Shu-chan and her Black Crows in their assorted Mobile Weapons and armored vehicles, which now included a conventional tank that they'd bought recently for some reason.
"It's Rui-chan. If you touch what is hers, she will respond with overkill. Remember what happened with those terrorists? She's got a rep to maintain: she gives no fucks and will not play nice when you mess with her. I know it's hard for you to understand, but having friends makes things like this possible."
"Are you talking down to me?"
"No, just shelling out some life advice. I'm feeling generous."
"Mugino-san, can you please stop hate flirting with my girlfriend." Shu-chan said chillingly through the radio from her spider tank.
"Please~! Why would I touch some flat little kid." Mugino scoffed under her breath.
She was not flat! She used to be bigger than Sempai before she super duper cheated with Bust Upper.
"You just don't know how to appreciate it." Arisa-chan rebutted, the change in personality as clear as day to Naru but likely going right over the heads of everyone else in the camper if their subtle looks of confusion was any indication. Especially as Shu-chan abruptly took back control and said. "I'm detecting a vehicle ahead. Is that our target?"
"Yes," Takitsubo said via intercom from the driver's compartment.
"Okay. Shu-chan, you and your Crows are up!"
"Leave it to us, Naru." Shu-chan replied as the camper's occupants watched the Black Crows' spider tanks suddenly accelerate and surge past them, some of them firing precise micro rockets that punctured the tires of the van that might be containing Ui-chan even as they moved to cut off and surround the vehicle.
Said van screeched to a halt as ITEM's camper likewise came to a stop and everyone filed out of it to add a human element to the encirclement of the disabled target.
"Come out with your hands up and surrender!" Shu-chan demanded via her spider tank's external speakers. "Try anything remotely funny and we'll blast you to pieces."
As if to punctuate this point, the Black Crow tank finally pulled up and leveled the barrel of its main gun squarely at the kidnapper's van.
"W-We surrender already!" A wimpy looking goth kid with a spiky mohawk said as he led a gaggle of thugs out of the van, all of them with their hands up. "P-Please don't shoot! We don't want to die!"
"I told you working for Kimi was a bloody bad idea! But did you listen to me!? No! You were too scared of her to see rea-" One of the thugs ranted.
"Shut up, Shinji!" The kid with the mohawk said, kicking his shin. "Now's not the time!"
"No, fuck you! Look, Trinity folks, we'll tell you everything we know, okay? Just, don't-"
"I like this guy," Naru said with a grin. "Crows, separate him out. I'm sure he'll tell us loads."
"Yes ma'am!" Crow Three said as he and a squad of his men who had rushed out of an APC (armored personnel carrier) moved to secure their prisoners.
"Score." Shinji beamed.
"You sniveling ass."
"What about the rest of them?" Kamijou-san asked. "If the Juvenile Hall is compromised, do we send them to the Reformatory?"
"We'll hold them in our temporary holding facility." Shu-chan explained for Naru, allowing her to turn to Takitsubo.
"So?" She asked the AIM tracker.
"She's not here." The perpetually sleepy girl said as she pointed to a wrecked piece of unfamiliar machinery that Kinuhata had hauled out of the van. "Saten Hiroko's AIM Field was being generated by this."
"Argh. So wild goose chase?" Naru said with a groan. She ran a hand through one of her twintails. "Let's just hope Rui-chan and the others have better luck."
"Should we be worried if they don't?" [Meltdowner], of all people, asked.
Naru shrugged. It was hard to say. Rui-chan was on more of a hair trigger than Naru had ever seen her. The only time she'd been more out of control was when she'd completely lost her cool during the Mercenary Terrorist Incident. She thus didn't know what would send her tumbling over the edge into full-on [Army Slayer] mode. But…
"I hope not."
"Oi, Ruiko, ease up." Accelerator told her as they chased up their target.
"I am at ease." Ruiko refuted.
"Then explain to me why all of the vending machines we've passed have blown up?" Mikoto said, gesturing at the trail of smoke that seemed to mark their passage through the windows of one of Naru's luxury transports, thankfully there weren't many more of them that needed refurbishment, and the pile of canned drinks that were swimming in a Dark Matter conjured container of ice water that now took up a good chunk of the space in the compartment they occupied. "And why do we now have enough drinks to keep us supplied for a whole year?"
"We need to keep hydrated. Plus did you see how many people we have on this op? I'm just being a generous employer." Ruiko retorted primly.
Mikoto just exchanged an exasperated look with Kuroko.
"Well, I wouldn't mind another can of Musashino if you'd be so kind, Stoic Jouchan!" Kurozuma-san said over the vehicle's intercom from where he was driving the transport.
"That's not in a vending machine, you know that." Mikoto said with a roll of her eyes.
"Says you." The former Skill-Out leader said with a chuckle. "And thanks Saten-jouchan!"
"Must you humor him, Saten-san?" Kuroko asked with a sigh.
"I think it's the other way round actually, Teleporter." Accelerator said with a groan. "Hey! Runner man! Stop abetting my girlfriend's silliness!"
"Hey! Would you rather she vent her anger by randomly dropping nukes on people she doesn't like as we drive past their houses?" Kurozuma-san countered and Mikoto couldn't help wincing at the disturbingly real possibility that Ruiko would resort to that if she didn't have her current outlet for her anger. "At least, she's paying for the damages and we get drinks out of it. You are paying for the damages, right, Saten-jouchan?"
"Eh, a bloodbath is never bad. The overkill retaliation is a classic." Accelerator said unhelpfully.
Thankfully, his girlfriend, even in her currently murderous mood, was a lot more sensible. "Yes, Kurozuma-san, I've already wired the money to cover the damages I've caused to the owners of the vending machines. And our target is dead ahead. Three hundred meters. Signal Maniple please."
"Will do, Jouchan. The show's yours."
Ruiko nodded and suddenly the rainbow aura that had surrounded her the whole time since she'd learned that Uiharu-san had been kidnapped spiked. Mikoto barely paid it any mind though, more interested in seeing what Ruiko intended to do than the lightshow she put out as a side effect.
"We are going to aim to take them alive, right?" She asked her hyper murderous kohai as she looked ready to lash out with rainbow claws.
"Yes, we are." Ruiko said in an unnaturally echoey voice as the van they were chasing was suddenly disassembled down to its nuts and bolts courtesy of some very precise telekinesis, sending its occupants tumbling harshly onto the roadway they had been driving on just seconds before. "Aoo gsvb'oo tvg rh hlnv mzhgb ilzw izhs ru gsvb pmld dszg'h tllw uli gsvn."
"What?" Kuroko said, blinking at Ruiko in confusion.
"She said all they'll get is some nasty road rash if they know what's good for them." Accelerator translated helpfully.
"Ruiko, speak Japanese please." Mikoto said, rubbing her forehead in exasperation as Maniple troops surrounded the groaning and writhing kidnappers. "What language was that anyways?"
"I';;- Sorry. I'll try." Ruiko replied, sounding sheepish. "And I don't know. Accel? Do you? You understood me."
"Yeah, it's like a grinding in your ears if you know it." Accelerator scowled as he dug a finger into his ear. "And heck if I know what language it is. I just know what you said. Like, spark notes of it."
"As fascinating as this is, perhaps we can discuss it after we see if these people have a clue as to where Uiharu is? Because she is most definitely not here with them."
"Yeah, I wouldn't have stopped them the way I did if I thought she was. I scanned the van before I disassembled it and there wasn't anyone in it that matched her description." Ruiko explained as she teleported all of them, Kurozuma-san included, so they stood at the edge of the circle of Maniple troopers that were tending to the kidnappers.
"So anyone knows how we're going to get them to talk?" Mikoto asked, prompting Kurozuma-san and a number of the Maniple troopers to smirk or outright giggle at her. "What!?"
"Seriously, Ruiko, she's been your friend for how long?" Accelerator said, shooting Mikoto a look of annoyed disbelief.
"H-Hey! I'm still new to this Dark Side stuff. No need to be a dick about it."
Before Mikoto could keep defending herself, all eight of the captured kidnappers suddenly started clutching their heads and screaming their throats raw.
"Saten-san, must you be so violent about it?" Kuroko asked with a sigh, causing Mikoto's eyes to widen in shock as she realized what was going on.
"She's doing that part on purpose." Shokohou-sempai said as she sauntered over with Kouzaku, Dolly and the Council of Misakas escorting her. "She doesn't actually need to use so much violent power to get the things she wants out of their minds."
"So you came too huh?" Ruiko asked, looking at the new arrivals with an arched eyebrow. "I thought you'd wait for Naru-chan's team to bring whoever they captured back to you so you could interrogate them?"
"Of course, you did say you'd owe me if I dug up all those dirty dirty thoughts from these miscreants, didn't you?" Shokuhou-sempai tittered against her gloved hand. "And I decided to come with you instead. I didn't want to be near that brute Number 6. Her irritating ability is too much for me."
"So you tagalonged with Maniple and followed us instead?" Mikoto asked, massaging her forehead in frustration.
"Mhm~ Now, please give me room to work. I'll squirrel out everything I can. Even what age they stopped wetting the bed~"
"Uh, Misaki-chan, wouldn't Saten-sama already know that? I mean she already ripped what she wanted from their minds, right?" Dolly asked innocently.
"Do you, Saten-kohai?" Shokuhou-sempai asked Ruiko challengingly.
Ruiko just shrugged and ignoring her, floated over to examine a piece of machinery that Mikoto presumed was the AIM Jammer that the kidnappers had used to spoof the AIM Field pattern they'd been tracking. Accelerator, for his part, shot the [Queen] a glare and stalked off after his girlfriend.
"Okay, what was that all about?" Mikoto asked, blinking in confusion.
"Saten-chan has no subtlety with her telepathy." Misaki-sempai explained as she pointed a remote at the squirming kidnappers, who had thankfully stopped screaming now that Ruiko had decided to stop torturing them. "She might've extracted everything in these poor fools' heads, but that's too much. She now has to sort through all that. That takes a lot of time and processing ability. My method is easier. Just make them give me the information power I want."
"A hammer versus a scalpel, huh?" Kuroko mused. "That makes sense."
"Saten-sama does like being a hammer." Kouzaku said with a chuckle. "Overwhelming force seems to be her solution for everything."
"Except when it comes to AIM manipulation itself." Mikoto corrected. "There she is a subtle bitch if she wants to be, trust me I've the experience to prove it."
"Is that why every time you spar with Saten-sama, you lose control of your electricity Onee-sama?" Dolly asked curiously. "She subtly messes with your AIM Field?"
"How do you know that?" Mikoto asked her sister, surprised she'd seen a spar between her and Ruiko.
"Eh? Misaki-chan secretly records them to giggle at. I learned a few things too!"
"Fufu." Shokuhou-sempai turned away, covering her mouth to giggle.
Is nothing sacred anymore?!
"Misdirection," Kouzaku said with a sigh. "Pretending to be a hammer most of the time so she can surprise people when she decides to use the scalpel. Damn, she's sneaky."
"That I am," Ruiko said as she floated back over with Accelerator trailing her dutifully like her personal knight. "Shokuhou-sempai, what do these fools know?"
"Nothing much," the [Queen] said with a shrug. "They were only tasked to drive around the City with the AIM Jammer. They don't know anything beyond that. They didn't even know that they were serving as the distraction power for a kidnapping."
Ruiko nodded. "The one responsible? Their base of operations?"
"Shundan Kimi. As for where they're based, I think we all already know that."
Inside a cell of the New Juvenile Hall that served as the base of the Trinity's enemies this night, Kazari found herself forced to work on bringing down the City's firewalls so she could spread its Esper development tech to the rest of the world like the leader of her kidnappers had demanded. She would have never even considered doing it but she had no choice, not when that woman threatened to destroy Asunaro Park if she refused.
Stupid, dumb, power tripping jerkface. Why don't you get a life and let us live ours in peace? Oh wait, you're too busy being a moron!
And a creep too. Why else would the blue haired older girl have forced her to drink some of her blood, of all things, after all?
Blue hair, sharp teeth, and makes people drink blood? It was like she's a vampire! A chuuni vampire living out her anime fantasies.
Though maybe she wasn't that much of a chunni. Not if making people drink her blood was how she'd mind controlled the New Juvenile Hall staff like the three female guards that stood at one end of the cell Kazari occupied and were keeping an eye on her on the blue haired kidnapper's orders. Then again, that assumption was based solely on said wannabe vampire's claims and Kazari knew well enough to never believe your enemy when they explained their abilities. At least not entirely.
She said that using her mind control on me would hinder my hacking abilities, but then why give her blood to me at all? Was it part of some misdirection? She mentioned it was for insurance. But how so? And more importantly, can I use what she told me somehow to help me escape?
Kazari really disliked super esoteric Esper powers. They could be so annoying. At least it wasn't magic. That made even less sense.
She unfortunately didn't think she could use what she knew to escape. She just didn't have enough information to make any conclusions. And a quick survey of her cell told her that deciphering the blue haired woman's abilities wouldn't help her with her most immediate obstacle to her escape at all. That being the guy who had knocked her out back at her dorm, a boy who had eventually been introduced to her as Saten Hiroki by the blue haired girl, who was serving as her guard alongside the trio of brainwashed Hall staff. A boy who judging by the frigid aura that surrounded him was likely a Thermal Hand user like she was.
If not for his ability…
She'd have overheated the supercomputer she'd been provided with, thus raising the small room's internal temperature to the point of knocking out her guards whilst she kept herself cool thanks to the ice from the drink provided to her which she'd keep at a constant temperature with her Thermal Hand. But whether the enemy had expected it or for some other reason, they'd shut down the AIM Jammer coverage for at least her cell, and likely the surrounding cells, so his ability was active and a perfect counter to her little plan.
I can't escape on my own. She realized with a frown. I'll just have to hope that Saten-san and the rest of our friends can rescue me in time.
The thought of playing for time had crossed her mind but… But the chance that the blue haired woman would carry out her threat and destroy Asunaru Park…
I can't risk it. But maybe I can gather some information…
"So, um, H-Hiroki-san," Kazari said, stumbling over the boy's name but pushing through, refusing to call him by the surname he shared with her best friend. "You're a Thermal Hand user too?"
"Saten Hiroki, Level 4 Thermal Hand user." He replied brusquely, clearing trying to shut down the conversation before it could even get started. Kazari wasn't about to give up so easily though.
"So, uh, are you somehow related to Saten-san?"
"I wish," Hiroki snorted, apparently unable to resist Kazari's bait. "If I had a Level 5 to have my back, I wouldn't have had to go through half the shit I had. The name's just a freaking coincidence."
Kazari visibly frowned at that. This idiot boy had no idea what he was talking about! He had no idea what Saten-san had to go through because she was a Level 5! What the rest of her Level 5 friends went through!
She knew she should have played along and tried to build some kind of rapport with her kidnapper. All her classes on how to handle being kidnapped taught her as much, but at his callous words, a part of her snapped and she couldn't help herself as she unloaded all the disgust and jealousy she felt towards this, this moron!
"You don't know anything!" She hissed, angrily standing from her chair in front of the computer to glare at him. "You think being a Level 5 is easy!? Then what about yourself!? You have a high Level for our power and you do this?! You dummy face!"
If he thought that being a high Level made one's life easier than as a Level 4, his life should be pretty good shouldn't it!? Yet, here he was, being nothing more than a petty criminal. He stank of hypocrisy!
"High Level!? I'm only a damn Level 4 in name. My powers are screwed up!" He shouted back furiously, stalking up to Kazari so he was up in her face and they glared directly into each other's eyes. "I can't fully control my power, so I'm always surrounded by perpetual cold."
"Are you restricted to only lower temperatures?"
Hiroki-san's answer was to reach past Kazari and pick up a random metallic doodad off the computer table she'd been working at. Bringing it in front of Kazari's face, he rapidly raised its temperature, causing it to turn molten and warp within seconds.
"If you can create high temperatures too then the cold aura is probably the result of some kind of mental hangup." Kazari pointed out with a frown.
"Don't you think I know that!?" Hiroki-san shouted as he tossed the piece of molten metal away like it was so much trash. "But no matter how many counselors, therapists or psychologists I see, I can't fix it!"
"Yo, Hiroki!" One of Hiroki-san's accomplices, a Tsurigane Saryou according to Shundan-san, said as she opened the cell door and poked her head in. She was a teenage girl with short hair tied in a low ponytail style and dressed in a school uniform Kazari didn't recognise, over which she wore a full-body climbing harness and a sheathed Tanto at her back. "Are you two done making out?"
"What?! No, we aren't making out!" Hiroki-san shouted as he jumped away from Kazari with a fierce blush.
Feeling daring, Kazari decided to take a page out of Namikaze-san's book.
"We weren't, but I wouldn't have minded too much."
And to be honest, she probably wouldn't have. Hiroki-san wasn't exactly ugly. And Kazari had to get experience with such things somewhere. She couldn't live vicariously through Saten-san and Namikaze-san's sexcapades forever. No matter how Ojou-sama and juicy they were.
"What!?" Hiroki-san said, looking at Kazari in shock.
"Oh, you've finally got a girl interested in you at last Hiroki! I'm happy for you." Tsurigane-san said with a giggle. "But sadly you two will have to save your fun till later."
"Why?" Kazari asked as innocently as she could, even as Hiroki-san sputtered out denials about what had happened between them.
"The Trinity just showed up." Tsurigane-san said with a shrug. "Kimi wants us to fend them off."
"Right," Hiroki-san said, finally regaining his composure. "Let's go."
Seeing them go, Kazari couldn't help but smirk and think one thing.
And so they have chosen death.
"So in the end we're storming New Juvenile Hall anyway?" Mikoto couldn't help but comment from her seat inside Naru's luxury transport and sipping frustratedly at a can of her favorite ice coffee that she'd fished out of the stash that Ruiko had collected during her rampage against vending machines earlier in the night.
"Don't sound so upset about it, Sempai." Her Usagi kohai said with a roll of her eyes as she fished out a can of strawberry milk from the Dark Matter container holding the canned drinks. "We're just going to make sure that Rui-chan doesn't leave too much of a body count."
"A body count?" Kamijou said, looking warily out the windscreen at Ruiko who was literally flying ahead of the army they'd gathered with her wings stretched out to either side. Wings that had transformed over the course of the night such that the individual tendrils of light had coiled around each other to form masses with an appearance resembling a pair of skeletal wings.
"Have you not seen an Ojou-sama on a warpath? We can be vicious~"
Kamijou frowned at this and Mikoto was preparing to say something when help came from an unexpected quarter.
"Relax, Hero. Ruiko will hold back." Accelerator said with a shrug as he tossed his finished can of coffee into a bin. "She's just getting it all out of her system right now."
"Yeah, Kamijou." Frenda-san said with a nod. "At most she'll permanently disable someone."
"She'll have more fun tormenting them while they rot in prison anyway." Naru snickered like a little fox.
"Why am I not comforted?" Kamijou said with a sigh. "But I can see her wanting to make sure whoever threatened her friend can't do it ever again."
This was met with agreement from everyone in the surprisingly crowded vehicle, all the big players having decided to file into the Trinity's transport so they could plan things out better. Thus leaving Mikoto, Kuroko, Naru, ITEM, Misaki-sempai's group, Kamijou, and Accelerator all stuck in one place. Something that had resulted in tension thick enough to cut with a knife.
"Uh, should we be worried about Ruiko's new look?" Mikoto asked, pointing at her aforementioned kohai and her new wings.
"I don't think so." Kiyama-sensei said from the transport's intercom. Because of course they'd called up Ruiko's mother and head of her Power Development Team to see if whatever was happening to her was a problem. "I can't be 100% sure without specialized equipment and a thorough scan, but if Ruiko isn't making a big deal about it then it should be fine."
"So you have no clue why [Multi-Skill] is imitating an angel?" [Meltdowner] asked, eyeing Ruiko warily through the windscreen.
"No," Kiyama-sensei said with what Mikoto imagined was a shrug. "My best guess is that it's likely that the stress of the situation is causing Ruiko's Angel Mode to evolve."
"That's obvious," Naru said with a roll of her eyes.
"Yes," Kuroko agreed. "And this isn't the first time either. It's been happening more and more often lately."
"Yeah, whenever Ruiko loses her cool." Mikoto added. "Any correlation?"
"High stress is probably some kind of catalyst. Uiharu's latest kidnapping must have pushed Ruiko's development forward past some kind of threshold, thus accounting for the change in the physical appearance of her Angel Mode."
"Saten-sama can change how it looks, right? Maybe she just wanted a change to her look?" Dolly asked innocently.
"No," Accelerator and Frenda-san said at the same time, causing them to exchange a surprised look.
"She told me about it once when we were hanging out," Frenda-san said hastily as Accelerator's look turned questioning. "She likes how her Angel Mode looks, she wouldn't change it of her own accord."
"Yeah," Naru piped in with her own agreement. "Plus she wouldn't try something like that in a time like this."
Accelerator nodded and added his two cents. "It's probably like what happened to me during the Daihasei and I got my black wings."
"There is a similarity." Kiyama-sensei said with a thoughtful hum. "And Ruiko's more gradual development might be a result of a lesser compatibility with whatever power the two of you are developing."
"Or because Saten-chan has better control of her emotions and is less prone to outbursts." Misaki-sempai opined, earning her looks from everyone. "What?"
"Uh, no offense, Misaki-san, but have you met Saten-sama?" Kouzaku asked. "She might pretend to be an Ice Queen but she's a bloody closet Yandere."
Everyone nodded at that.
"Oh, I know that." Misaki-sempai said with a roll of her eyes. "But even when she goes all yandere, she's in control. I mean just look around you, she's basically lost her cool entirely and she's still managed to gather together an army to beat the shit out of the ones who pissed her off. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone with more of an insane level of control of herself, emotions included."
"Why am I now even more super scared of Saten-sama?" Kinuhata said with a shudder.
"Because she's just that scary?" Frenda-san said dreamily, causing Mikoto to roll her eyes. That girl had it bad.
"Yup, it's what makes her so damn sexy." Accelerator said with a grin.
"As true as the first part is," Kamijou said, shaking his head. "We can focus on what's happening to Saten-san later. Can we maybe talk about who we're up against instead?"
"Tch, killjoy." The albino said with a click of his tongue.
"Kamijou-san is right though." Misaki-sempai said, shooting the perpetually unfortunate boy a grin. "And on that note, I can provide some answers."
"You mean, my digging got the answers for you." Kouzaku said, sounding disgruntled but limiting herself to that as Dolly shot her a look.
"Yes, okay, so Mitori-san was the one who found this out." Misaki-sempai said, gesturing to the purple haired Level 4. "But it seems that Aohoshi Suzuran, an assistant to the Director of the New Juvenile Hall, was formerly a fellow Child Error in the same facility as one of the detainees in the facility: a Shundan Kimi."
"Wait," Shutaura-san said from her Mobile Weapon via the radio and the transport's intercom. "Isn't that the mastermind behind the kidnapping? That's what the prisoners' testimonies and Saten-san's AIM sense indicates, correct?"
"Yeah. It does, Shu-chan." Naru said with a frown.
"It's not just that," Kouzaku chimed in with a frown of her own. "Aohoshi was the mock prisoner during the Jailbreak Trail. So if they were using the Trail to scout out their targets for the kidnapping like we think they did."
"By making it geared towards hackers." Naru said with a nod. "And if she was the mock prisoner then during the Trail, there's a good chance she didn't just facilitate this Incident, she's an active participant in carrying it out. She was probably supposed to pick out their target based on whoever 'rescued' her."
"How did the Hall end up hiring a criminal like that!? Surely, they would have noticed the connection between a member of its staff and one of its inmates and that would've raised red flags?" Kuroko asked with a frown. "Corruption?"
"Likely," Ylva-san said from the Maniple command vehicle. "Or an oversight."
"Oi, you're all overthinking it," Kurozuma-san said from the front cab where he was playing driver. "Occam's razor says Aohoshi simply had Shundan transferred to where she worked."
"All three have plausible ability but the exact reason is irrelevant for our purposes. We can leave investigating that to whoever has to do the after action report." Misaki-sempai said with a shrug. "Though it seems that Saten Hiroki, no relation of course, also came from the same facility as the other two."
"So the question is, do these idiots have any other known associates we can expect to run into when we storm the Hall?" Naru hummed, acting cute about possibly mutilating someone.
Mikoto was going to have gray hair due to her kohai at this rate.
"Associates, no." Misaki-sempai said with a shake of her head. "But there are two more fellow members of the same Child Error facility that have quite the reputation on the Dark Side. First up is Tsurigane Saryou, a member of the Kouga School of Ninja who came into the City as an infiltrator."
"Tsch, more Shinobi wannabes." Naru hissed in irritation.
"How do we know she's an infiltrator and why is she involved in this if she is? Misaka asks. Is the Kouga choosing to get involved? Misaka posits." Conspiracy Nut chimed in from the APC that the Council of Misakas had commandeered from Maniple and was somewhere in the long line of hardware that Ruiko and their own transport was leading towards the New Juvenile Hall.
"Conspiracy-chan, Shinobi are very dumb. So it's not too much of a stretch that they just want to die stupidly." Naru said as if she was a wise sage.
"Can't say anything about whether the Kouga are getting involved." Kouzaku said with a shrug. "But that Tsurigane is an infiltrator they sent into the City is a matter of public record in the Bank. It's right there in her profile so long as you have enough clearance. I'm guessing that a telepath read her mind at some point and figured it out."
"I take it that you haven't had a chance to check the Dark Side boards in the last few minutes, Kouzaku-san?" Shutaura-san asked over the intercom suddenly.
"Not since we got moving, why?"
"Because a bulletin just went out about the Kouga. Apparently, the group of them that infiltrated the City appear to be engaged in internecine conflict resulting from Tsurigane Saryou attacking their leader."
"Why am I not surprised that a bunch of ninjas are double-crossing assholes?" Naru muttered angrily under her breath.
"Okay, that's one. Who's the other one, Misaki-chan?" Dolly asked, looking at her friend curiously.
"Wanigawa Raifu." Misaki-sempai said, offering Mikoto's sister a grin. "Her ability is Gravity Sling. It allows her to redirect objects in motion. She can apparently change the trajectory of anything that would hit her, such as a bullet or a falling car, to make it hit someone else. She can also use gravity to bend light to throw off her enemy's targeting and make their attacks miss. Basically, she's Accelerator-lite."
"Tsch. Bloody copycats." The original said with an annoyed huff.
"Never heard of either of them." Naru said as Misaki-sempai finished her explanations. "Or that Saten Hiroki fellow either to be honest."
"Not surprising." Kouzaku commented with a shake of her head. "Shundan, the Saten boy, Wanigawa and Tsurigane were all survivors of the Dark May Project; that alone made them infamous."
Kinuhata fidgeted in place, looking uneasy as she ducked further into her orange hoodie. Mikoto couldn't blame her. She'd read up on ITEM after Frenda-san became Ruiko's friend. She fully expected them to end up as more at some point and she wanted to know more about her kohai's new girlfriend and that included learning about her teammates. And what she learned about Kinuhata and Dark May was deeply unsettling, enough so that she too shifted anxiously at the mention of that infamous experiment. She wasn't even surprised when most of the others in the transport did too.
"What exactly did they do?" Dolly asked, radiating innocent curiosity.
"In the particular subsidiary lab where they were?" Kouzaku said cautiously, eyeing Kinuhata warily. "They were experimenting with cutting out portions of the subjects' brains to-"
"Enough about Dark May," Kinuhata hissed angrily, quieting everyone and causing a tense atmosphere to descend over all of them. "Just, zip it alright?"
"Understood. One hundred percent silence power on Dark May." Misaki-sempai said with a nod, before turning to look at Naru. "As for your earlier question, Naru-chan, you never heard of these miscreants mainly because they aren't part of an outfit. Or even freelancers. They're more lone wolves who stir up trouble occasionally. They're below your pay grade."
"Not anymore." Naru said, cracking her knuckles. "Not if they took Ui-chan. I'mma break their kneecaps!"
"Yeah. They deserve to have their illusion of thinking they can just kidnap one of our friends shattered." Kamijou said, causing everyone to look at him in surprise.
"W-What's with the looks?" He sputtered. "They hurt one of our friends. That's unforgivable even for me. I'll make sure to beat them to within an inch of their lives for it."
"What a chuuni." Someone whispered and Mikoto looked around, but couldn't find who. Mikoto's money was on [Meltdowner], she was looking smug for no reason and was glancing at Kamijou's coloring face.
"Glad you're onboard with the plan, Kamijou-san." Kurozuma-san said from the driver's cab."But maybe you guys should actually work out a plan for what we should do when we get to the Hall? 'Cos-"
"We're almost there," Takitsubo said sleepily. Then again when wasn't she half-asleep? "And they're waiting."
"They?" Naru asked, looking at the AIM Tracker with a frown.
"Shundan, the Saten boy, Tsurigane, Wanigawa." Ruiko's voice boomed into the interior of the transport via audiokinesis. "They've stopped hiding their AIM Fields. They are expecting us and letting us know it."
Mikoto exchanged nods with Naru and Kuroko.
"Well, we shouldn't keep them waiting."
"Everyone knows the plan?" Namikaze asked for the umpteenth time as everyone filed out of her tacky, overly luxurious transport and joined the encirclement around New Juvenile Hall that the paramilitaries had set up with their armored vehicles.
"We literally just finished discussing it, Namikaze." Mugino told the annoying blonde with a roll of her eyes. "We're not idiots. We remember."
"Just checking, [Meltdowner]." The Number 2 hissed back in annoyance, before turning to [Multi-Skill]. "Rui-chan, the show is yours."
The Number 3 just nodded and floated up into the air so she was hovering above them instead of just off the ground like she had all evening. Once in position, she raised her right hand over her head and pointed skyward. In response, a single massive fireball began to form directly over the New Juvenile Hall. It started small but rapidly began growing as it sucked in oxygen. Shundan, or whoever she had put in charge of manning the Hall's defenses, wasn't an idiot though and quickly directed its long-range AIM Jammers at the [AIM Sovereign].
The disrupting effects of the Jammers were such that even though Mugino herself was only in the periphery of its cone of effect, she still felt a splitting headache that had her clutching her head. Thankfully, not that she'd ever admit to the sentiment, the [Railgun]'s teleporter quickly handed her a set of the Counter Capacity Down earbuds that Eden Corp had developed and she was able to stuff it into her ears, canceling out the Jammer's effect.
She gave a nod and that was the best the Teleporter was going to get, not that the tawny haired girl even noticed her as she went about continuing to distribute the earbuds. Growling at the dismissal but knowing that lashing out would just get her beat up, she turned her attention back to the spectacle the Number 3 was preparing.
And had the dubious pleasure of not being in pain as she saw the [Army Slayer] live up to her moniker and completely unaffected by the Jammers aimed her way, snapped her raised hand downwards, sending the fireball, which by now was almost as big as the Hall itself, hurtling towards the complex. Seconds before impact, it split apart into dozens of smaller fireballs that seemed to compress themselves and turn white before they slammed into specific locations throughout the New Juvenile Hall as a literal rain of fire.
…The fuck? The actual fuck! They were all Level 5s but this?! This was insane!
Mugino tried her best to hold back from visibly reacting and she mostly succeeded, only biting the bottom of her lip so hard she tasted copper.
How big is the fucking gap?!
"Raining fire huh? Classic!" Namikaze said in appreciation and with a sick twisted grin on her face.
Damn monsters.
"That should have taken out the AIM Jammers as planned." The Number 3 said as she floated back down. But not to the ground. No. The bloody showoff still wouldn't allow her feet to touch the ground like the rest of them.
"It's going to be a massacre."
"Maybe, but it's still going to be a lot of work." The [Railgun] said with a sigh as she gestured at the main gate of New Juvenile Hall which was opening to allow a horde of robots to stream out to confront them.
"Oh, they got us windup toys!" The Misaka clone that hung around [Mental Out] chirped in excitement, like a dumb child, as she fished something out of the hip pouch she wore. "Imouto-chans, let's shoot them up."
"Sisters, fire. Misaka orders." One of the Misaka clones, one dressed, of all things, in a cosplay of a Prussian military uniform, shouted, causing the rest of them to form up into a firing line and unload the firepower of their diverse long guns at the incoming robots.
Between that, [Mental Out]'s pet Misaka clone using her hair, of all things, and random metallic debris to shoot a brace of railguns, and fire from the paramilitaries, the robot horde was annihilated in seconds.
"Are we done playing around? We have a job to finish." Mugino frowned as she tapped her foot with impatience.
"Frenda-san, is she always this much of a killjoy?" [Railgun] asked Mugino's weapons specialist.
"Um, no, of course not! She just takes the job seriously, you know?" Frenda smartly retorted with a nervous laugh.
"If Mugino gets angry with you, I'll smite her." [AIM Sovereign] said, patting Frenda's shoulder. "You can be honest."
Oh come the fuck on! She didn't even do anything. Ugh, this is why she didn't want her team getting chummy with these girls.
"No, no, I'm being serious here. Let's just get the job done. Uiharu-san needs saving after all."
At least Frenda was being professional. Small mercies.
"Let's move ladies." Namikaze reminded them. At least she was professional too. "Head to your targets!"
"I'm no lady, Namikaze." Accelerator gripped.
"It's like saying 'let's go guys', stop being such a whiner."
"Accel, we can pick a fight with Naru-chan later." [Multi-Skill] said as she floated over to him and wrapped her arms around one of his own. "Let's go free Uiharu."
"I'll hold you to the promise of a fight." Accelerator said as she and [Multi-Skill] sauntered off like they were on a bloody date!
Namikaze just rolled her eyes and started to move at her prodigious speed into the complex, prompting everyone else that was heading in to start doing the same in their assigned groups.
"Frenda, are they always like this?" Kinuhata asked as their team too followed her lead. "Super casual even on an op?"
"I know right? It's so weird how casual they are." Frenda answered back as they jogged on in.
"If they let me sleep on the job when I'm not needed, I might consider defecting." Takitsubo said in her usual tired drawl.
Mugino shot [AIM Stalker] a look at that.
"I let you do that already, Takitsubo." She reminded the Level 4.
"Ah, my joke fell flat."
"You super have no comedic timing, Takitsubo." Kinuhata pointed out. "Leave the jokes to Frenda. She's the joker on our team."
Their lazy teammate just looked downtrodden at the remark.
"It wasn't that bad." Frenda said, patting Takitsubo on the back. "You do need to work on your timing and delivery but the core idea was a good one."
"Thanks, Frenda." The Level 4 told the Level 0 with a rare smile.
"Zip it ITEM," Mugino hissed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in irritation. "Did you forget we're on an op?"
She was met with silence and blinking in confusion turned to look at her teammates.
"Didn't I just ask you a question?"
Frenda made a zipping motion over her lips that Takitsubo and Kinuhata copied.
Mugino blinked at that before smirking.
"Very funny," she said with a roll of her eyes as they stepped through the New Juvenile Hall gate. "But be serious, we're in hostile territory now. No way we're going to embarrass ourselves. Not in front of the Trinity. Frenda shares enough of our pratfalls with them already, let's not give them more things to look down on us for."
She was met with three nods of understanding and Mugino couldn't help the smile that graced her face. Her teammates might drive her up the wall at times, but they were hers and no one, not even the Trinity, was going to take them away from her. And yes, though she'd never tell them, she enjoyed their company too. Sometimes.
A dozen thoughts raced through Shutaura's mind as she snapped out orders to her men and the Maniple forces on the scene.
"Keep the perimeter secure. I don't want one of these degenerates to slip past us."
"We won't let anyone escape." Kurozuma-san reassured her. "The Jouchans would kill us if they did."
"Trust us," Ylva-san said with a nod. "Between my men and your tanks, we have the perimeter firmly locked up."
"Alright. Invasion Team head in." Shutaura shouted, signaling to the men she would be taking inside the Hall with her to get moving, and turned to her trusty lieutenant. "Crow Two, the armor and the rest of the men are yours. Coordinate with Ylva-san and Kurozuma-san."
"Yes ma'am." Crow Two replied, snapping a salute.
Returning the salute, Shutaura broke into a sprint to catch up with the rest of the Invasion Team. With the majority of the AIM Jammers down thanks to Saten-san's rain of fire, there was a good chance that the reduced coverage would give the prisoners a chance to escape. Their plans had accounted for this however and Naru-chan, Shutaura and her Black Crows were assigned to prevent that.
Naru-chan had run ahead, which was just like her, so Shutaura and her men would have to play catch up and clear the Girl's Building whilst Naru-chan handled the Boy's. A task made easier by how it seemed the others who had gone ahead like Naru-chan had seemingly dealt with much of the expected opposition, as evidenced by the scrapped robots that littered the ground everywhere Shutaura turned.
"Pick up the pace!" Shutaura ordered her men as they advanced towards the Girl's Building. "We have a clear path, let's use it to make good time."
That was something that they managed easily enough and after letting Crow Four and a couple squads split off to go reinforce Naru-chan at the Girl's Building and less than five minutes later Shutaura and the rest of her men found themselves in front of their target where they at last ran into their first opposition.
"Black Crow too? This day can just suck it." Saten Hiroki grunted as he rubbed his snowy white hair as he stood in front of the Girl's Building, surrounded by a host of the Hall's tripedal security robots. No doubt under his command. "Listen, we got no-"
"Save it, scum. We're here for the girl you kidnapped. Stand down and maybe you'll get a lighter sentence."
"First off, rude. I was talking." He held up one finger, and then raised another two in succession. "Second, I can't do that. Kimi will kill me if I do. Thirdly, why don't we be civilized about this?"
"In what regard?" She asked. As if he even knew what civility was.
"I can't just step aside or surrender like you want me to. I would literally be killed, but that doesn't mean we have to let this become a bloodbath." The boy said, gesturing between the robots under his command and her Crows.
"Are you being held against your will?" She asked, just to be sure. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened.
"It's complicated." Her fellow Level 4 said with a shrug. "I owe Kimi. She's like my sister. And I wasn't lying when I said she'd kill me if I just let you through. Not even sure if I'm being metaphorical when I say that."
She'd take that into account and include it in his report after she arrested him. Shutaura understood what it was like being forced to do something you disagreed with by your family.
It's like with Ladylee, just less bad. Arisa whispered unhappily, summarizing their feelings.
"But I don't think she'll be that mad with me if I at least put in an effort." The boy continued. "So what about it? We duel and if you win, I'll surrender."
"Fine. And when I take you down, those security bots will stand down too?"
He held up his hands. "Sounds like a deal to me."
Before he was even finished speaking, Shutaura was on the move and running to the side to avoid any potential counterattacks as she tossed a trio of her rare earth discs that she'd already precharged with explosive energy thanks to her Earth Palette at the boy. Not taken by surprise at all, the Thermal Hand user just ducked down and swiped his hand across the ground in front of him causing a wall of ice to shoot up from where he'd touched and serve as a barrier that kept him safe as the discs exploded.
"Don't interfere," Shutaura shouted to her men even as her opponent pivoted around his wrecked barrier to toss a metal ball the size of a fist at her. "We have a deal!"
Dodging to the side, Shutaura allowed the ball to hit a wall behind her where it proceeded to melt a sizable hole into the concrete from the intense heat the boy had charged it with.
We don't want to be hit by one of those. Arisa gasped, pointing out the obvious.
Thank you, Arisa. Shutaura replied sarcastically.
"How are you using your ability?" Shutaura asked as she tossed a few more earth discs at Saten Hiroki which he used another wall of ice to shield himself against, this time using a sweep of his leg to conjure it, whilst retaliating by throwing another superheated metal ball at her. "There should still be AIM Jammer coverage in this area."
"Not going to explain it to you in a fight. Do I look like an idiot?" Saten Hiroki said even as Shutaura pirouetted out of the way of his latest throw.
He's using Counter Capacity Down earbuds too. Arisa informed her helpfully. I saw them when he dodged just now and the hair covering his ears moved out of the way.
Argh! The Hall must have bought a bunch of the earbuds to equip their Esper guards. Shutaura realized as she barely avoided another superheated ball and tossing another brace of her explosive disks closed the distance once more.
"You are damned fast you know that?" The boy grumbled as he tossed another metal ball at her.
"Lots of cardio!" Arisa chirped through their mouth as they spun out of the way. "And you've got a pretty good pitching arm too."
"Hey, thanks."
Are you flirting with him?! We do not flirt with the enemy!
Shutaura, if it works, it works! I'll take the win. Her more feminine other half huffed as they got close to the range where she wanted to bring the fight.
"You're trying to get into CQC range aren't you?" The boy asked as he took a step back, causing ice to burst out of the ground where he had been standing. Very sharp, very spiky ice.
Ice that was rapidly growing towards her and was about to skewer her.
Not on my watch! Arisa declared dramatically as suddenly a rainbow colored aura wrapped around their skin that the ice broke harmlessly against, allowing them to cross the remaining distance and into close range like Shutaura wanted.
"What!? Since when could you-" The boy began, but Shutaura was not about to let him finish and lashed out at him with a kick to his midsection.
Caught off guard he didn't put up any kind of defense to the blow and was sent staggering back. Determined to not let him recover, she rushed forward and reaching into her hip pouch pulled out a syringe of knockout drugs that she stabbed into his neck before he could even process what was happening.
"Nighty night," Arisa told him cheerfully as the drugs took hold and he passed out.
"Scrap the bots!" Shutaura snapped at her men only for a bolt of crimson to shoot through the robots' ranks that left them falling to pieces with its passing.
"Muu, Naru-chan is such a showoff." Arisa commented with a pout.
"Shu-chan! Arisa-chan!" Their little angel chirped from amidst the small mountain of wrecked robot parts she'd created, her uniform not even scuffed. She beamed at them in excitement as she used Move Point to teleport next to them and saluted. "The Boy's Building is all secured. Crow Four and his men are keeping it that way."
"As you can see we are a little behind schedule." Shutaura told her even as she used hand signs to order Crow Three to lead the rest of the Invasion Team in securing the Girl's Building and that she'd follow behind with Naru-chan.
"Nah, it's fine. You actually had a decent opponent, all I had were robots. By the way, I saw the end of your fight and it was just awesome. Love the rainbow powers. That's the color of your magic?"
"Dunno. It just came out that way." Arisa told their girlfriend with a shrug, who was strangely distracted by the unconscious Saten Hiroki as he was being carried away by a pair of her Crows.
"Huh, he looks sort of like Accelerator. That's going to be funny to badger him with."
"Please don't," Shutaura said with an exasperated sigh.
"I don't want to have to learn healing magic just because he beat you up for being a pain." Arisa added.
"You two worry too much," Naru-chan said with a mischievous grin as she led them after Crow Three. "I needle him and Rui-chan all the time and they haven't figured out a way to get back at me for it yet."
Why do I fear it's only a matter of time?
Because it probably is? Arisa replied with a sigh. I'll start working on learning some healing?
Please do.
"Give me a minute and I should have these shutters open. Misaka firmly says." 13577 stated with a confident look on her face as she plugged a tablet she'd whipped out from under her trench coat - Which considering the kinds of things 10032 had seen her produce from the confines of, she was starting to think was some kind of magical item - and proceeded to plug it into a terminal outside the shuttered doors to the Detention Center that Anti-Skill operated in the New Juvenile Hall compound.
Apparently unlike the rest of the Hall, Shundan had decided not to suborn its staff to her purposes. Instead, she'd simply sealed the building by triggering its anti-riot defenses, that included armored shutters over all its entrances, thus effectively locking all the Anti-Skill officers inside.
"I trust your skills, Conspiracy-san." Shokuhou-sama said, causing 13577 to preen.
12873 nudged 13577. "Focus on the task, Misaka, says Misaka with a scolding tone. We have soldiers to aid."
"Aye aye, Captain Killjoy, says Misaka with an eye roll." 13577 replied as she pulled resources from the Network to assist in her hacking. "The shutters will be up shortly. Misaka reminds her cranky sister."
12873 bristled at that but 10032 ignored her, preoccupied instead with hoping that the Anti-Skill agents they were about to rescue wouldn't be too sour about being rescued by students. Anti-Skill tended to be rather protective of the students of the City, many of them being teachers as well as law enforcement agents, and would probably not be entirely happy to see students putting themselves in danger, even if it was part of rescuing them.
That wouldn't be a problem if they didn't seem to always end up against those who could easily crush them these days and need saving by the students they want to protect. 10032 thought with a bitter smile. Things in Academy City really did seem to be getting more dangerous with each passing Incident, didn't it?
With a soft ding, the armored shutters that had sealed the front door of the Detention Center began to retract, clearing the way for a number of Anti-Skill members to cautiously look through the previously blocked glass doors. They visibly startled at seeing Shokuhou-sama, Kouzaku-san, 10032 and her sisters but as perhaps befitted them being adults, soon recovered their wits and a group of them proceeded to exit the building to greet them.
"Oh my, the Network's processing power is far superior to my own low Level clones." Shokuhou-san applauded with her gloved hands.
"Misaki-chan," Onee-san scolded her personal Level 5 with a frown. "That's not nice, your imouto-chans might get sad and sulky if they hear you say that. We're Electromasters, this is far easier for us than it would be for Telepaths."
As Onee-san tried to say those baka Mental Out clones had their uses, the Anti-Skill welcome party shuffled up to their group. And a rather scruffy looking older man stepped ahead of them, clearly acting as their de facto spokesman.
"Thanks for letting us out, but what's the situation? And who let you kids in here in the first place?"
The Council of Misakas was still consulting with the Network to come up with a reply that would properly explain the situation and maybe not comment on Anti-Skill's general ineffectiveness when Shokuhou-sama stepped up with her remote.
"No need to worry, Anti-Skill-san!" The Level 5 said as she pointed her remote at the adults and pressed a button. Immediately, all the Anti-Skill agents stood rigid with stars in their eyes as Shokuhou-sama smiled at them sweetly. "Please initiate evacuation protocols and leave the facility in a safe and timely manner. Thank you~! Oh, and please ignore us being here too, okay? Ask your subordinates to do the same too. Just focus on the evacuation."
"Ma'am!" All the Anti-Skill said with a salute and proceeded to do as the Level 5 ordered, initiating an evacuation that had agents trickling out of the building, even those not under Shokuhou-sama's control, causing the Council of Misakas to look at [Mental Out] in awe.
"Hm? What? They would be all stuffy and complain if we had to waste time explaining things. Best get them out of danger without a muss or fuss." The golden blonde haired girl explained with a sassy wink.
Onee-san tilted her head and nodded. "That makes sense. As expected of Misaki-chan."
[Mental Out] puffed out her buxom chest at the remark.
"Ah, so you got all the G.I. goons to run away? I guess no fun hostage situation~"
Turning towards the voice, 10032 recognized its source from the mission briefing as Tsurigane Saryou. Flanked by half a dozen War Armadillos, her face was twisted in bemusement and something else mildly disturbing.
10032 was still convinced that having War Cats would have been far more effective for the New Juvenile Hall. Though that the Hall had gone for the inferior Armadillo design instead was a point in the Misakas' favor. It would make them easier to wreck.
"Villain, your wicked ways end here, Misaka exclaims with vigor!" 14091 announced to the ninja, pointing at her like this was some Saturday morning anime.
10032 could only shake her head in exasperation at her sister. She was truly obsessed.
But at least her antics served the purpose of drawing attention to herself, thus allowing Shokuhou-sama to discreetly aim her remote at the kunoichi.
But before the Level 5 could press a button and activate her power, a kunai soared through the air and sliced the remote in half, making Shokuhou-sama yelp and drop the wrecked device before she flinched back, holding her gloved hand in fright.
"How did you-?" [Mental Out] asked with a startled look. "Wait! Your ability, AIM Watcher, lets you observe AIM Fields. Did you spot my AIM Field shifting? But how? Saten-chan made sure not to take down the AIM Jammers in this area!"
"Fufu, for a Telepath, you sure think small." Tsurigane-san chided and tilted her head towards them, showing off that she was wearing a Counter Capacity Down earbud. "Nicked them off one of the guards. It was really easy for someone like me."
"Doesn't Shundan have the Hall's guards brainwashed or something?" Kouzaku-san countered with a scoff. "That's how you described the condition of the couple we came across earlier, right, Misaki-san?"
"Yes," the Level 5 said with a nod, visibly recovering her poise as she did so. "Ara ara~! So you didn't nick those earbuds as much as you just asked for them from one of your boss' mind controlled thralls, eh?"
Tsurigane-san just shrugged. "To-ma-toes. To-mah-toes. What matters is I got my hands on a pair. And second, Kimi isn't my boss."
"Then what is she?" Onee-san asked, innocently curious.
"My friend." Tsurigane-san said with a shrug. "Not that I care all that much for her plan either, mind you."
"Then why help her at all? Just because you're her friend? You don't strike me as a bleeding heart like the Trinity." Kouzaku-san observed with a frown.
"I have my reasons," Tsurigane-san said with a shrug. "By the way, you might want to do something about those guys."
At this the ninja gestured at a group of the Anti-Skill who Shokuhou-sama hadn't enthralled who had just exited the building. They took one look at the situation and ran back inside, presumably to arm themselves so they could intervene.
"Tsk." Shokuhou-sama said irritably. "Dolly, Kouzaku-san, with me. Let's go stop those idiots before they get themselves killed. Council of Misakas, you think you have the power to handle her?"
"We have things under control, Shokuhou-sama. Misaka assures." 12873 said with a firm nod towards the Level 5.
"Okay, but be careful okay, imouto-chans?"
"We will, Onee-san. Misaka promises." 10032 and her sisters all chorused in response to their elder sister's concerned question.
"Cute," Tsurigane-san said with a giggle.
They all ignored her and watched as Shokuhou-san, Onee-san and Kouzaku-san raced into the Detention Center to stop the Anti-Skill officers from getting involved in the fight and put themselves in needless danger, their opponent surprisingly making no moves as they did so.
"Considering you're a ninja, Tsurigane-san, Misaka is surprised you were willing to let us discuss our plans like that. Misaka says suspiciously." 13577 said, eyeing their opponent warily.
All whilst 12873 used the Misaka Network to outline their battle plan over a telepathic channel between the members of the Academy City Council of Misakas. This was a function of the Network that they tended to avoid using as it led, especially with prolonged use, to the risk of their personalities bleeding into each other. However, in combat situations like this it was a vital advantage that they would be fools not to exploit despite its risks.
13577, good. Get her talking. Buy us time to figure out our strategy.
Roger, 12873.
12873, you don't already have a battle plan? How unbecoming of a hero! 14091 teasingly accused.
Stow it, 14091. 12873 replied frostily. So here's our plan-
Before 12973 could finish thought, the former Kouga ninja, 13577 had briefed them on Tsurigane-san's status on the way over, shrugged and replied to their sister's comment. "All I care about is dying the perfect death. Or as close to one as I can get without Oumi-sama being involved. So you being prepared for the fight actually works in my favor."
"'Perfect death'? Misaka asks, morbidly curious." 13577 pressed.
-11132, take point in dealing with the robots. 10039, 19090, 11118 and 10287 support her. Between your lasers, railguns and 10287's grenades, you're best equipped to deal with them.
10039, 19090 and 10287 all transmitted their agreement, 11118 however wasn't happy with the arrangement.
But you have a railgun too and 10032 has a laser. She whined. Why is it that we are the ones who have to deal with the boring robots?
We want a relatively even mix of weaponry between our two groups. 12973 argued. And I basically just picked you at random. Deal with it 11118!
11118 would've probably kept arguing but 10287 stepped in to shush her. It's not so bad 11118. At least, we have a five on six fight. That's roughly even. They have a five on one. We all saw the threat assessment of Tsurigane that 13577 did. Their side of things will be a cakewalk, at least ours will be fun.
10287, you're sounding like Namikaze-san. 10032 chided her sister.
Agreed. 19090 added. I dearly hope you don't end up a battle junkie like she is.
10287 just blew them a mental raspberry just as Tsurigane-san continued her conversation with 13577. It was disconcerting to 10032 and her sisters to keep track of both their surroundings and what went on in their telepathic channel, another reason why they used it sparingly, but considering that no more than a few seconds had passed since 13577's last question, the ninja had hopefully failed to notice their planning.
"Oh, yes." Tsurigane-san said with a disturbing grin. "I want to be beheaded and to catch a glimpse of my body as my head falls to the ground before I lose consciousness forever. That would just be the perfect death."
"Why is the City full of crazy people? Misaka bemoaned." 19090 said, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"Hey, you are a bunch of clones. That's pretty crazy in its own right. You girls have no room to judge." Tsurigane-san pointed out. "But are we done talking? I'd really like to get down to the fighting now if you don't mind?"
"Misakas, attack!" 14091 shouted as she brought her combat shotgun to bear and fired off a burst of buckshot at the ninja. She was too slow though and the Level 3 was able to toss a grappling line attached to the climbing harness she wore at a nearby lamppost where it firmly wrapped itself around its metal shaft, allowing her to use a device built into her harness to pull her to safety seconds before the pellets would've hit her. "Misaka shouts!"
Damn, she reacts fast. 19090 noted with dismay as she spun around towards Tsurigane's last known location to unload a burst from her assault rifle, only to have the ninja already be in the process of swinging herself out of the way.
Please, she's not as fast as Naru-sama! We can force her to slip up. 10287 encouraged.
By Science, we get it! You want to have her babies! 10039 said, sounded incredibly exasperated. Stop telling us at every opportunity you get! And focus on the damn fight!
10039 is right, 10287. Please stick to the plan. 12873 scolded. You too 19090. Leave Tsurigane to us, focus on the robots with 11132, 10039, 11118 and 10287.
I'm sorry! 10287 bemoaned, as she tossed a grenade at a pair of the War Armadillos that had been herded together thanks to suppressive fire from 11132's gatling laser and 11118's railgun. Unfortunately, the explosive never reached its mark as an air cannon shot from another of the other robots knocked it off course and caused it to detonate harmlessly out of range.
Me too. 19090 added apologetically as she shifted her fire so she could help 10039 in suppressing the other four War Armadillos as 11132 and 11118 ripped the two they'd boxed in to pieces with their heavier weapons.
Glad you finally decided to help, 19090. 10039 said sarcastically. And I think we really need an upgrade! The assault rifles I and 19090 are using are pretty much useless against these things!
We should really look into getting our hands on some specialty ammo. 10287 agreed as she performed some Electromastery assisted gymnastics to leap over a War Armadillo as it foolishly got close to her in an attempt to use its heat blade and she tossed a grenade down at it as she sailed over it. I'm pretty sure Maniple can help us get some. They got 13577 some.
I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help their fellow Heroes of Justice! 14091 said with her usual enthusiasm, despite how Tsurigane-san was somehow evading their best efforts to shoot her.
Her ability to do so frankly defied logic! How was she able to evade five people shooting at her!? Five people who could share senses and thoughts, thus allowing them to coordinate where they were aiming their fire!?
"Wow! You guys are damned poor shots, you know that?" Tsurigane-san said with a mocking sneer as she once more used that grappling rope of hers to pull herself out of the way of the laser 10032 and the automatic fire that 13579 sent her way. "Any half decent one would've at least landed one hit on me by now. I guess that hivemind of yours isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh? Too busy arguing amongst yourselves to aim properly?"
She noticed us communicating telepathically!? How!? 11118 shouted, startled, thankfully after she'd gutted the War Armadillo that had been looming over her with a shot from her railgun rifle.
"AIM Watcher lives up to its description in the Bank, I see. Misaka observes." 13577 said with a frown as she missed her latest shot. "You saw our AIM Fields spike as we used Radio Noise to connect to each other over the Misaka Network and worked out the rest, didn't you? Misaka hypothesizes."
"Yup. It wasn't hard." Tsurigane-san agreed as she swung herself directly at 13577 whilst she was busy reloading.
10032 turned to line up a shot to force her back, as did 14091 and 13579, but a spread of shuriken tossed in their direction had them abandoning the effort to dodge to safety themselves.
13577! 10032 shouted worriedly through their telepathic channel.
Perhaps due to her warning or just noticing Tsurigane-san closing on her of her own accord, her trench coat loving sister abandoned her attempt to reload her shotgun and simply pulled her coat around herself like it was some kind of protective magic cloak.
"What the hell?" Tsurigane-san shouted in shock as her tanto skidded across 13577's coat like it was armor, leaving a shower of sparks in its wake. "Your coat is armored!? Did you just ape Batman's cape!?"
"If it works, it works. Misaka comments idly." 12873 said as she fired her railgun rifle, but not at the ninja. Instead, her shot was aimed at the annoying grappling rope she'd been tossing around to aid her mobility.
Surprised by 13577's cloak, Tsurigane-san only belatedly tried to swing her rope out of the way. Far too late to avoid the supersonic round 12873 shot her way from cutting the rope and sending her tumbling to the ground.
She recovered quickly from the fall though and with a few quick rolls was soon back on her feet. But as soon as she did, she found 14091 right in her face and lashing out at her with a quick series of jabs.
"You're trying to beat a ninja with martial arts?" Tsurigane-san asked, literally laughing at 14091's attempt. "I've trained all my life in it. You're not even a year old, little clone!"
"Never thought I would. Misaka confesses coyly. Just wanted to keep you distracted for a bit. Misaka adds." 14091 said as she leapt back, just in time for 13577 to level her newly reloaded shotgun at the ninja's face.
"Well played, clone. Well pla-" Tsurigane-san said, getting cut off mid-sentence as the electroshock round that 13577 fired from her shotgun found its mark and shocked her into unconsciousness.
"Well that was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Misaka confessed." 14091 admitted verbally with a grin as with the threat of combat ended, they shut down the telepathic channel. "She was a lot tougher than we thought. Misaka opines."
"Yes, and so were these robots. Misaka notes." 11132 commented from inside her Powered Suit as she finished blasting the last of the War Armadillos to pieces with her gatling laser. "I am surprised that you actually finished with Tsurigane-san before we were done reducing them to scrap. Misaka says honestly."
"I know right. Misaka chirps happily." 11118 said with a grin. "I had fun. Misaka admits."
"Told you so. Misaka says proudly." 10287 said with a roll of her eyes.
"Misakas! Enough chit chatting. Misaka scolds." 12873 chided as she and 13577 finished securing Tsurigane-san in a set of restraints that the latter had pulled out from the seeming endless depths under her trench coat. "11132, 11118, 13579, take the prisoner out of here. The rest of us will continue into the Detention Center and try to link up with Shokuhou-sama. Misaka orders."
"Yes, Misaka. Misaka says with a salute." 10032 and the others said in unison, snapping salutes at 12873 as she did so.
"Very funny. Misaka says in exasperation." 12873 replied, one of her eyebrows ticking in irritation at the tease. "Just hurry up and get moving already. Misaka scolds. We don't know if more enemies will show up, so stop playing around and keep your guards up! Misaka warns."
"Party pooper. Misaka says, sticking her tongue out at her over-serious sister."
12873's ticking eyebrow jumped even more aggressively at that but she thankfully had the restraint to ignore 11118's comment and just angrily turned around and stalked away, prompting those going with her to meet up with Shokuhou-sama to hurry after her.
"I think I know how Onee-sama feels when we do things she thinks are crazy now. Misaka laments."
10032 winced at 12873's whispered confession.
We aren't that bad are we?
Mikoto was really questioning what Ruiko was thinking when she'd organized who was on her team to find and rescue Uiharu-san right now. Sure, she was happy to have Kamijou on it. And that wasn't entirely due to her crush on him. He was pretty damned useful in a fight too. Though having Kuroko here too made things a little uncomfortable since she kept eyeing Kamijou warily, but Mikoto could handle that. It wasn't exactly a new phenomenon. She was even okay with most of ITEM too. Frenda-san was a friend and Takitsubo-san and Kinuhata-san were professional Dark Siders and as much as she hated most things to do with the Dark Side, she appreciated their professionalism. She absolutely could not stand [Meltdowner] though.
"Seriously, that girl. This is just ridiculous overkill." The Number 6 said with a scowl. "Two Level 5s and [Imagine Breaker]? All just to find one girl? Shouldn't we have spread out our firepower a little better?"
If this was the first time Mugino-san had said this, Mikoto might have been able to bottle in her irritation. However, this sadly was not the case. And the other Level 5 had been repeating this one complaint ad nauseum for the whole five or so minutes since ITEM had caught up with her, Kuroko and Kamijou as they searched the New Juvenile Hall compound for Uiharu-san.
"Ignore her," Frenda-san leaned over to whisper in her ear. "She's repeating herself on purpose to try to get a raise out of you."
Mikoto just nodded in understanding and turned to Takitsubo-san.
"Any luck?"
"No," the AIM tracker said with a shake of her head. "Shundan is using the still functional AIM Jammers to smother Uiharu-san's AIM Field."
Dammit! Mikoto thought with dismay. The hope was that with the reduced number of AIM Jammers thanks to Ruiko's opening rain of fire, Takitsubo-san would be able to track down Uiharu with her AIM Stalker. Sadly, it seemed like things were a no go on that front.
"Yeah, about that." Kinuhata cut in before Mikoto could follow up on that observation. "I thought Saten-sama took out all of those?"
"If she did, there would be a mass jailbreak or she would have had to level the whole compound." Mikoto reminded her. "So she just took out the ones that covered the external areas of the compound. The ones in the cell blocks and other buildings are still working."
"But we're super not indoors." The Level 4 observed with a frown.
"The range of the still active Jammers can extend out from the buildings." Kuroko helpfully picked up the rest of the explanation.
"It's why those of us who need them are all equipped with Counter Capacity Down earbuds." Mikoto added, tapping the pair of the aforementioned devices she was wearing.
"That doesn't help with your tracking, Takitsubo-san?" Kamijou asked the girl in the tracksuit with a worried frown.
"Not if they're jamming on Uiharu-san's end of things. I can't detect something that's being made to not appear to be there."
"Then what do we do now? Go on a wild goose chase?" Mugino-san asked with a roll of her eyes.
"No, not a wild goose chase." Mikoto said with a shake of her head. "There are only so many places where the AIM Jammers are still active. Naru, Sequenzia-san and the Black Crows have the cell blocks settled."
"The [Queen], Kouzaku, Dolly-chan and the Council of Misakas are securing the attached Anti-Skill Detention Center." Kuroko continued.
"That leaves the Hall's central Admin Building." Frenda concluded. "Which is where we'll go. And where I'd bet my money on Uiharu-san being. It's not the first place most people would look for a prisoner inside a prison like this and it'll let whoever is manning this place's defenses keep her close."
"We have company," Takitsubo-san said suddenly and they all spun to see a little girl with light teal hair and red eyes dressed in a pink sweater with long sleeves ride in on top of one of the tripedal guard robots that the Hall used, one of about two dozen of the machines plus a trio of Riot Suppression Gigapedes that made up the newly arrived enemy force.
"Wow, you guys sure are smart to figure that out. That's exactly what Suzu-nee said when she put the hacker girl in the Admin Building." The girl said.
"Wanigawa Raifu?" Mikoto asked, looking at Takitsubo who nodded.
"And you even know my name!" The girl said, clapping her hands in a whimsical way. "I guess Saten-sama really is the best info broker in the City."
"She is," Frenda-san said with a grin as she pulled a pair of what Mikoto recognised from her growing knowledge of Dark Side equipment as Handheld Anti-Tank Missile Warheads from under her skirt.
How the hell did those fit under there!? Mikoto boggled.
"But we didn't need her to figure out who you were." Frenda-san continued as she fired off the two missiles at one of the Riot Suppression Gigapedes. "Apparently Kouzaku-san knows about you."
"Oh, liquid metal nurse girl?" Wanigawa said with a chuckle as she waved her hands at the missiles headed towards her and her robotic allies, redirecting them back at Frenda-san. Only for Mugino to blast them out of the sky well away from them.
"Accelerator-lite indeed." Kuroko noted with a frown, causing both Mikoto and Kamijou to nod.
"Still pales in comparison to the original though." Mugino said with a bloodthirsty grin and stepped in front of their group, the orbs of crackling green energy that she created so she could more easily fire her iconic Particle Waveform High-Speed Cannons forming around her. "Fighting her will be good practice for when I have to go up against that albino monster. Leave her and her toy soldiers to us and go find Saten-san's pet hacker. Take Takitsubo with you."
"Aww~!" Wanigawa whined. "I want to fight heroes who fight to protect people! Not a villain like [Meltdowner]!"
"What did you call me!?" Mugino roared as she fired no less than her full payload of four Particle Waveform High-Speed Cannons at Wanigawa, who of course just deflected the beams right back at them forcing Mikoto to use her Electromastery to redirect them away.
Mugino's flashy attack served its purpose though and Wanigawa completely missed Frenda-san pulling a gun from under her skirt and shooting at her with it. To her credit, the teal haired girl managed to dive out of the way but that put her right in the path of Kinuhata who had sprinted up to her and lined up a punch. If it connected it would likely have splattered the little girl's brains all over the place thanks to the super strength granted her by her Offense Armor, but again, as what was probably expected, Wanigawa reacted in time and used her ability to send Kinuhata flying back. But with her focus entirely on her narrow escape from death at Kinuhata's hands, she completely failed to notice Frenda-san lining up another shot and the electroshock bullet found its mark in her neck, quickly shocking her into unconsciousness.
Wow! ITEM has really good teamwork when they put their mind to it.
"I'm a villain, huh? I guess it should be okay if I took a few limbs from you then. Would that make you feel better, you little shit stain?" The Number 6 asked menacingly as a corona of light illuminated from her.
Geez, for all her acting like a snob, she really is nothing more than a crazy woman, huh? Mikoto thought to herself. And after she had just complimented her 'Sempai''s team too.
"You, with so little street cred, so little presence! Who let you have the right to even act as if you are even in my league!?" Mugino said, advancing towards Wanigawa's still form radiating bloodlust even as she blasted away at the robots that at the defeat of their commander were now trying to swarm them.
"She's not really going to cut off that girl's limbs is she?" Kamijou asked worriedly, rubbing his right wrist. A worry that Mikoto and, she imagined, Kuroko shared.
"Nah, Mugino is just posturing." Frenda-san assured them as she used her Handheld Anti-Tank Missile Warheads, which she somehow kept pulling out from under her skirt, to support Mugino and Kinuhata as they engaged in a little robotic genocide. "Can't look weak when some uppity stain thinks they're hot shit."
"Oh thank goodness." Kamijou let out a sigh of relief.
"What are you four still doing here!?" Mugino asked as she blasted a Riot Suppression Gigapede into scrap. "Didn't I tell you to go find the hacker girl already?"
Kamijou jumped at the sudden shout. Actually jumped! Was he always so high strung during an Incident? She didn't remember that being the case.
"Right!" He shouted back as he looked at Takitsubo-san. "Lead the way."
The AIM tracker looked bemused and Mikoto could feel her. It seemed that Kamijou was so out of his element that he had already forgotten that she couldn't track Uiharu.
"This way then," The slothful member of ITEM pointed in the direction of the Admin Building. "She should be in there."
"Does your AIM Stalker work now?" Onee-sama asked Takitsubo-san as they stood in the atrium of the New Juvenile Hall's Admin Building after she'd finished taking out the building's AIM Jammer with her Electromastery.
"Ah, yeah." The tracksuit girl nodded as stared out into space. She was silent for a long moment before she suddenly pointed in a seemingly random direction. "That way."
"Um, do we know the route?" Kamijou-san asked politely as he rubbed his right fist gingerly which was probably a little sore from all the faces he had punched in.
Unlike the rest of New Juvenile Hall, it seemed Shundan and her allies had made the mind controlled Hall staff, they were acting like bloody zombies so Kuroko was fairly sure that was the case, act as the Admin Building's guards rather than robots. And as a result, they'd had to take out dozens of them as they fought their way into the building's atrium so Onee-sama could take out its AIM Jammer. There were three dozen of them scattered around the atrium alone that they'd knocked out.
"I'm a compass, not a GPS." Takitsubo said with a shrug as she casually kicked the arm of one of the guards away from her as the man, having apparently only been playing at unconsciousness, attempted to grab her leg. "She's somewhere about two floors down and sixty meters in that direction. That's all I know."
"Kuroko?" Onee-sama asked, turning to Kuroko as she shocked the sneaky guard into proper unconsciousness.
"Give me a minute." Kuroko replied as she consulted with the building's blueprints that Saten-san had provided them, alongside those of the rest of the Hall, and which she'd downloaded to her phone. "I've got it. She's in what is marked as a storage room."
Onee-sama nodded. "Go get her."
"On it, Onee-sama." Kuroko replied, as she finished the necessary computations and teleported to Uiharu's location.
She reappeared in what looked suspiciously similar to one of the Hall's standard cells and found Uiharu seated in front of a computer with three of the facility's female staff standing against a wall and acting as guards. Without even hesitating, Kuroko ran a hand over the band of tranquilizer nails she wore around her thighs, teleporting three of them into the necks of the guards. The startled guards hadn't even fully registered her presence before the drugs forcibly delivered into their bodies by the auto-injectors built into her nails knocked them out.
It was the sound of their bodies collapsing to the ground that startled Uiharu from whatever she was working on at the computer and she spun around, her eyes widening at seeing her. Ignoring her partner's surprise, Kuroko just threw her arms around the other girl and held her tight. She was just so relieved to see that she was okay.
"Shirai-san?" Uiharu asked in confusion, but happily returned the hug. "I'm okay."
"Mhm. Let's get you home, Uiharu." Kuroko said. "You need to stop getting kidnapped. My heart can't take it. Neither will Saten-san's grip on sanity. We'll be putting a tracker on you, young lady."
"Shoe or tooth?"
"Both."
"I can deal with that." Uiharu smiled, and Kuroko teleported the both of them back up to Onee-sama and the others where her friend would be safe.
Whilst her friends and allies were running amok throughout New Juvenile Hall and rescuing Uiharu, Ruiko, with Accel dutifully in tow, had gone to confront the mastermind behind tonight's madness: Shundan Kimi. The arrogant, or stupid, girl was actually waiting for them expectantly in the Hall's park-like exercise yard.
"So I get to fight the City's resident power couple, huh?" The older girl with long light blue wavy hair, which covered the right side of her face, and noticeably sharp teeth greeted as Ruiko and Accel stepped into the yard. "And with Saten-san rocking the angel aesthetic too. Well, this will be fun. Oh, and welcome, I guess."
Ruiko ignored her greeting, instead choosing to ask a question that had been bothering her all night.
"Before I show you your place, mind telling me why you thought kidnapping Uiharu would be a good idea?" She asked as she raised one of her skeletal wings to stop Accel as he took a step forward to prematurely start the fight. Her boyfriend really had no patience.
"Tch, Ruiko, don't even bother. This waste of breath isn't worth it." Accel told her, but she silenced him with a look. She had something to say and she was going to damn well say it.
Shundan snickered, "Hey hey, listen. I didn't start this to make enemies with the Trinity of all people. I just wanted the best hacker in the world and that just happened to be the [Goalkeeper]. My bad!"
"For what purpose?"
Her bad? Oh, it was going to be a disaster for her once this was over.
"Simple. I wish to spread the City's Esper development technology to the world." The clearly insane girl said.
"And what would that accomplish?"
"The weak are trapped below the heels of the strong, but even they can tear out throats if they grow fangs. They won't need heroes like you to save them. The heroes can't reach all of the weak. So isn't it more fair to give the weak weapons so they can fight back?"
"That's not what's going to happen and you know it." Accel snapped even as Ruiko's brows furrowed as she tried to decipher Shundan's true motives. "All your stupid plan will succeed in doing is creating chaos and a whole new group of villains using strength to oppress the weak."
"At least I'd have made things a little more equal." The blue haired girl said with a shrug.
"You're doing this because of Shirakinu Honoka sacrificing her life to save you, aren't you?" Ruiko said finally as her investigations into Shundan Kimi's past finally came together into something that made sense.
Shundan's eyes widened but didn't say anything, which was more than enough for Ruiko to know she'd hit the bullseye.
"It's survivor's guilt isn't it?" Ruiko pressed, her eyes narrowed. "You hated your own weakness back during your escape from the Dark May lab when she pushed Wanigawa and yourself to the guard robot which she knew would use non-lethal measures to capture you while she served as bait for the armed guards with orders to kill. And somehow that evolved into a desire to arm the weak, so that as few people would ever be in such a situation as possible ever again. Helpless as others sacrificed themselves to protect them."
"What are you? A school counselor!?" Shundan shouted, her eyes narrowed and a set of glowing avian, dare she say it angelic, wings manifested behind her back and shot a barrage of feathers at Ruiko and Accel.
Feathers that bounced off Ruiko's own wings as they swept forward to shield them both.
"No, just someone who has had to endure her fair share of survivor's guilt as well." Ruiko replied as she recalled the years of knowing she'd been the only one of her siblings who had awoken from that accursed experiment that had set her down her bloody path as a Level 5. "But that doesn't excuse what you've done."
"You're finally done, Ruiko?" Accel asked impatiently.
"Yes." Ruiko said with a nod as she launched a barrage of particle beams at the older girl whose own wings wrapped around her and shielded her. "Time to show her what it means to cross us."
"About time!" Accel shouted enthusiastically as he shot towards Shundan, his arms raised like a lance poised to run her through.
Sadly, things weren't going to be so easy and she somehow unleashed a storm of black lightning that forced him to leap back and eye her warily.
"Be careful Accel," Ruiko warned. "We have no idea what powers whatever she's hosting has given her."
"Oh? You figured out I'm hosting something? How?" Shundan asked airily as she shot black lightning at them that they both used their powers to deflect. For all its odd coloration, it seemed to still function like normal electricity.
"Clairvoyance." Ruiko said with a shrug. "I can see under that cloak of yours."
Smirking, Shundan pulled off her cloak with her left hand to reveal her grotesquely deformed right arm with tiny avian wings and a multitude of eyes growing out of it.
"Shall I show you two a taste of what my dragon can do?" Shundan said with a demented smile, eyes glinting with malice.
"This is your fault," Shirai-san hissed angrily as she, Touma and the rest of their group made it to the exercise yard where Takitsubo-san's AIM Stalker informed them that Saten-san and Accelerator-san were facing off against the mastermind behind tonight's Incident.
Normally, Touma would dispute the Teleporter's accusation but as he looked at the serpentine, arrow headed dragon with angelic wings, he found he just couldn't. The damned thing had after all come out of his right hand.
"Yeah, it is." Touma admitted reluctantly as the Angel Dragon began shooting feathers and black lightning at Saten-san and Accelerator-san that they both deflected, the former with her wings and the latter with his Redirection.
"I'm going to have to discipline it. Fukōda!"
"You are indeed one of the most unlucky persons in the City, Kamijou-san." Takitsubo-san agreed as they watched the Dragon shield its host from a brace of particle beams and the tornadoes that were directed Shundan-san's way.
"Excuse me Takitsubo-san, but aren't you surprised by that thing?" Uiharu-san asked, gesturing at the Dragon which had condensed its black lightning into a laser and was using it to track after Accelerator-san as he flew through the air on a column of air.
"I was there when it first flew out of Kamijou-san's right arm when it got disintegrated during the Daihasei." Takitsubo-san explained with a shrug. "ITEM was on standby during the Incident and watched the battle from a distance."
Biri Biri crackled with sparks as she snarled at the girl. "You could have helped, you know?"
"Why would I jump into a crazy battle between Level 5s and an apparent Level 5.5? I don't have a death wish. Besides, the rest of the Trinity and their allies seemed to have it handled."
"Uh, so keeping that in mind, should we help now?" Touma asked, nervously. He really wanted to but if the professionals didn't think it was necessary. If some of Saten-san and Accelerator-san's best friends didn't seem inclined to do so, then maybe he shouldn't.
"Please don't." Uiharu-san urged him, grabbing his arm firmly as if intending to physically stop him. Which was kinda odd since Saten-san had just been hit by the Angel Dragon's laser. Shouldn't she be worried about her best friend? Though as the Level 5 just rematerialised out of a teleport to hover over the serpentine creature with those skeletal wings of hers spread wide, he guessed he could understand why she wasn't concerned.
"It's best to let Saten-san vent. Besides, your reputation for butting in when people don't want or need you to do so is bad enough already."
Touma could only chuckle self-deprecatingly at that. He had heard from a couple of his acquaintances, mainly but not limited to Namikaze-san, that he'd earned himself quite the reputation in that regard.
"But don't let your guard down." Biri Biri said firmly as Saten-san and Accelerator-san danced through the air, evading the Angel Dragon's feather barrages and laser whilst returning fire with particle beams and blasts of wind of their own. "If Ruiko and Accelerator needs help-"
"You can count on me." He declared firmly.
"Ruiko, she's using railguns now." Accel informed his girlfriend as Shundan's Dragon construct started using that black lightning of hers to start accelerating those feathers she loved shooting at them to hypersonic velocities. It wasn't any different to him since he could still deflect them with his Redirection, but Ruiko might have a slightly harder time of it.
"I see it. It won't be a problem." Ruiko reassured him and he was happy to see that she was right and he needn't have worried. Somehow those wings of hers and the rainbow field they had surrounded her with, he was still working on understanding that new aspect of her ability, had just as easy a time deflecting the amped up feathers as he did.
"Oi, Ruiko! Was this thing really part of Hero boy?" Accelerator asked, trying to distract himself, frankly a little bored of the fight already.
Nothing that Shundan did was a real threat to either him or Ruiko. Why his girlfriend hadn't already smited the blue haired girl was beyond him to be honest. His bet was her working on something dramatic. Ruiko loved her dramatics way too much in his opinion.
"Yes, Accel!"
"How the shit did this brat get her grubby little hands on it?"
"No clue, but I ain't going to look a gift dragon in the maw." Shundan shrugged as the serpentine Dragon coiling around her lunged up at Ruiko prompting her to teleport away from it.
"If you want me to guess," his girlfriend said as she rematerialized, unfazed by the need for a sudden teleport and hitting the Dragon in the back with a barrage of particle beams that sent it crashing towards the ground, though it recovered quickly enough to once more coil around and shield Shundan from the lance of air that Accelerator had shot at her in the opening that Ruiko had created. "It was likely the Dragon was drawn to Shundan because of her ability to create black holes. If it was attached to her as a host, it could feed off the radiation emitted by even a small black hole to sustain itself indefinitely instead of fading away as an unanchored magical creature like it should."
"Oh? Is this the legendary Saten-san's intuition talking? Man, even in the middle of a fight you hit a lot of nails with that noggin!"
"Bitch please, that's hardly anything." Accelerator said as he tore into the earth and sent shrapnel flying towards the yapping bitch. "My girlfriend's the smartest person in this fucked up City. That was child's play."
"Accel, stop with the flattery and help me beat this woman half to death already!"
"Man, is that the harshest thing you're going to call me? I take your buddy and 'this woman' is the best you can dish? Lame~!" Dragon bitch spewed from her mouth.
Ruiko, face perfectly straight, retorted. "As an ojou-sama, I don't need to swear to get my point across."
Accelerator could only look at her funny for a moment before he just shrugged. If she didn't want to trash talk, he'd do it for her. With that in mind, he returned his full focus to the fight.
"Accel, keep her distracted for a bit. I need some time to finish my plan." Ruiko said, as they both danced around the latest feathery railgun and black lightning lasers that Shundan shot their way.
"And what exactly do you think can overcome the power of a dragon empowered by a literal black hole, Saten-san?" Shundan asked, looking honestly curious.
Big mistake. When a Level 5 tells you they have a plan, it is time to panic and desperately try to stop them from putting it into motion. Not get curious and arrogantly think you could take whatever they threw at you.
This girl is an idiot. Accel thought as he used his powers to create a cluster of tornadoes that he sent spinning towards Shundan, forcing her to have her Dragon abandon offensive action to coil itself tightly around her to keep her safe.
"Why just make the black hole stop existing of course." Ruiko said with a vicious grin that instantly made Accel have a problem in his pants, even as she spread her wings and the aura that surrounded her flared, turning her into a rainbow star.
Accel was man enough to admit he had absolutely no idea what Ruiko was doing but whatever it was, it was definitely doing the trick if Shundan's agonized screams and the blood pouring out from her nose, eyes and ears were any clue. Even her Dragon wasn't exempt and it reeled in agony, uncoiling from the protective position it had held around Shundan to thrash about.
Clicking in annoyance, Accel dispelled the tornadoes and using a tendril of air pulled Shundan away from the writhing construct. As much as he hated having to save their enemy, - He'd much rather her get reduced to bloody paste by her own pet in a case of poetic irony to be honest. - he knew Ruiko would be pissed if he did, so he did what she expected him to do, like a good boyfriend.
"Kamijou, it's your turn." Ruiko said as she cocked a finger in the direction of where the Hero was standing watching the fight with the rest of the team that had gone to rescue Ruiko's hacker best friend. An action that had the Hero flying through the air courtesy of what Accel imagined was Ruiko's telekinetic hold on his shoes.
"S-Some warning would be nice!" The Hero howled in annoyance.
"Just punch the dragon, Kamijou." Ruiko retorted with a roll of her eyes.
"Time for you to go back where you belong, you stupid lizard!" Kamijou-san exclaimed as he did as Ruiko demanded and punched it dead in the snout.
Like with everything generated by an Esper ability the construct shattered upon contact with the Hero's mysterious right hand.
"And good riddance to bad rubbish," Accel snorted as he came in with a landing beside Ruiko who was doing the same whilst simultaneously lowering Kamijou safely to the ground.
"I think I hate dragons." Kamijou-san commented with a pained expression across his face, eliciting a ring of chuckles from many as everyone converged on their location.
"She did what!?" Frenda heard Mugino roar from under the substandard protection of her hands over her ears as ITEM gathered in the salon safehouse they were using as their base this week and they had a debriefing about what was being called the Jailbreak Incident.
"She ripped Shundan Kimi's AIM Field apart." Takitsubo confirmed, miraculously unfazed despite Mugino's anger.
"Saten-sama can do that? That's super cheating." Kinuhata said with a shudder.
"I do not think she can do so normally." Takitsubo offered. "But yes, it seems in her Angel Mode, she can. Though if my last sense of Shundan-san's AIM Field is anything to go by, her Field will recover. Mostly."
"Mostly?" Frenda asked, curiously.
"It'll probably never fully recover. So she's probably stuck as a true Level 0 going forward but at least she's still an Esper."
"Is a Level 0 Esper really worth anything? Super no offense, Frenda."
"None taken Kinuhata," Frenda said, waving the insult away. She knew full well that she was no ordinary Level 0. "But she's right, Takitsubo. How's her being stuck at Level 0 any good?"
"At least she's not dead?" Takitsubo said with a tired shrug.
"Okay, the Number 3's new overpowered ability aside," Mugino said, taking a deep breath to recover some of her usual menacing poise. "Anything else that we've learned from this Incident?"
"Well, dunno if this is super useful or not, but all four of Shundan Kimi's accomplices: Saten Hiroki, Tsurigane Saryou, Wanigawa Raifu and Aohoshi Suzuran were arrested."
"Actually Kinuhata, Tsurigane Saryou escaped this morning." Frenda corrected. "And I think Saten-sama arranged for Saten Hiroki to be transferred to Maniple's custody."
"Is she recruiting him?" Mugino asked with a frown.
"Why would she need him? He isn't super powerful."
"She recruited Kurozuma-san and he's a Level 0." Frenda reminded her teammate. "And he's proved very useful to her. So what more a Level 4?"
"True." Mugino agreed. "So is she recruiting him?"
"I can't be 100% sure." Frenda admitted. "But I don't think so. What I heard-"
And Mugino doesn't need to know I heard it from Saten-sama herself.
"-is that she's doing it as a favor to her best friend, Uiharu-san. Apparently, she asked her to help him with some problems he's having with his power."
"How plebeian." Mugino said dismissively. "The escapee? Is she targeting the Trinity for revenge? Planning to rescue her co-conspirators?"
"Doesn't seem like it." Frenda said with a shake of head. "The last reliable reports on her said she was sighted with an Iga operative in the City. It seems she might be trying to return to her original line of work as a ninja."
"Boring." Mugino said with a sigh. "Anything interesting at all?"
Frenda exchanged a look with Kinuhata who shook her head.
"Nothing it seems." Frenda confessed. "Unless you count the Trinity and their friends going out to celebrate the rescue of their friend. Saten-sama bought out a restaurant and is going to treat everyone to a night of dinner and dancing apparently."
I should know. I'm invited.
Not that she could ever let Mugino find out. Or how much she was actually looking forward to the experience. The Trinity knew how to throw a party. And she wasn't about to miss a chance to either see Saten-sama all dressed up or if things went well, snag a dance with her.
"Who exactly does this list of friends include?" Mugino asked, adding a disdainful emphasis to the word 'friends' as if the very concept repulsed her.
"Of the big names in the City? Kamijou Touma, Accelerator, Shokohou Misaki and Sequenzia Shutaura are invited." Frenda informed her volatile team leader. "Plus some of the Trinity's allies in Maniple and the Black Crows. Oh, and some of the Trinity's friends in Tokiwadai too."
Something to do with not calling them in to help and feeling guilty, if what I gathered from talking to Saten-sama is anything to go by. Though I'm sure Mugino could care less about that.
"So nobody new that we need to worry about joining their little faction?"
"No, nobody new." Frenda assured the [Meltdowner].
"That's a relief." Mugino said with a sigh. "Alright, anything else we need to discuss about the Incident and its aftermath?"
Everyone made some negative sign or other.
"Good. Then dismissed." Mugino said before standing and stalking away to do whatever she did when she wasn't being bitch to the team.
Kinuhata likewise jumped to her feet and headed off to the gym, probably to punch up some poor training dummy or other.
That left Frenda alone with Takitsubo, who surprised her by shooting her a look.
"Yes, Takitsubo?" Frenda asked her perpetually tired teammate.
"Nothing." Takitsubo said with a slight smile. "Just wanted to tell you that I'll see you at Saten-sama's party without Mugino around."
"She invited you too?" Frenda asked, blinking in surprise.
"She invited the whole team." Takitsubo told her. "Even came over while you were out gathering intel on the aftermath of the Incident to inform us personally, but Mugino said she'd, in her own words, 'rather rot in hell' than attend a party held by her."
Sounds like Mugino.
"So I texted her privately to say I would attend. The chance to eat good food at her expense is not something I'd miss. I guess she invited you personally when you called her up for intel?"
"Yeah," Frenda nodded.
"Expected as much. She likes you." Takitsubo said with a shake of her head. "Probably why she didn't tell you about Mugino's reaction. She wanted you to attend and was worried you wouldn't if you knew Mugino disapproved."
Frenda nodded. That sounded like something Saten-sama would do.
"See you at the party." Takitsubo said as she stood and walked away.
"Yeah, see you there."
Done and done! Thanks to Nameless as always!
And here it is, another mega chapter and the conclusion of the Jailbreak arc. Uiharu, taken once again (she is getting chipped, I assure you) and rescued by her friends who came out in force to drive home the point you do not touch the Trinity's Nerd without consequences! And Kimi just got her ass kicked believing she had a chance. Seriously, when will these people stop thinking they can kick a Level 5's ass and actually be correct?
Nameless: When they're another Level 5, a Saint, a Magic God or worse? I think those are the only things that really give Level 5s any pause.
Very true. But like the dumb girl from Accelerator anime ep 1, it's like, for real? Not going into that rant again. And yes, the people who can handle their weight class like those are really the ones to look out for.
Nameless: On another note, for people who enjoy the more slice of life side of this story, don't fret. Whilst things will be hectic for at least one more arc, we will have a full on slice of life arc following that. As E4E told me when we chatted on this topic, these kids need the reprieve. Especially since immediately after will be the lead into World War 3 and if you're familiar with canon, you know how intense the arcs leading into that main event are.
WW3, whoo! Let's gooo! So hyped.
Nameless: So we were recently informed that we've screwed up with regard to keeping in line with the canon order of events. Oops. Well, we've decided that we'll stick to the timeline we've planned out as it'll flow better narratively that way. So apologies to any canon purists out there.
You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!