FailLord
2050 lb bombs?
- Location
- very high up
That just means you haven't tortured your resume enough./s
A Certain Mental Isekai (Raildex SI)
- Thread starter Eotyrannus
- Start date
- Pronouns
- Reader
If a mind controller is delegating all there business decisions to someone, typically you can trust that they aren't invested enough in business to care about your stock secrets. Even if that's a deterrent, you still have a lot of Tokiwadai high level espers who might similarly delegate such things depending on perceived trustworthiness, and MisaSI rep probably carries beyond her 46 other faction members.
- Location
- Gainful Employment
- Pronouns
- He/They
Me neither...
That 'badge' may repel those who would be paranoid about said mind-controller... but is that really a disadvantage? I mean, having the most morally dubious and problematic people in the city not choosing to get you involved in their businesses seems to me like it could be good for longer term survival.
i forget, was this before or after the bit about all the convenience stores in academy city always carrying weird products?
- Location
- England. Tea and scones, wot wot!
In canon it's mentioned to be because experiments, but it has been theorised in the SB thread that the Strange Drinks and other such products are additionally due to some of the businesses being owned by middle-schoolers (as seen in canon when Misaki straight-up buys a shop that makes nice tea on an idle whim). sage nod
It's probably both with some high ish level Esper liking an experimental drink to go about making sure it stays in circulation
- Pronouns
- Reader
This I understand. There was a delightfully bitter blueberry soda I managed to purchase once from a Walmart. Scrooge bitter I called it. Never seen it again. Can't remember the name because it's been over a decade but the taste haunts me still.
Chapter 28
- Location
- England. Tea and scones, wot wot!
I clicked the post button for 'The Extraterrestrial Combat Unit'- my writing pace had been a bit slow, being one-handed, but I was content enough to slow down a little bit.
I decided to shut down my computer after that; I'd only end up spamming the refresh button to wait for replies if I didn't. After that, I checked my spider plants, and watered a few of them. They needed quite frequent waterings right now, given the heat, but hopefully that would change soon- I always liked the liminal space between summer and autumn, before the leaves were starting to fall, but after the breeze started picking up hints of coolness when the wind blew. Maybe part of it was a residual craving for the end of the hayfever season, too.
After that, I pulled the one of the perfume bottles out of the drawer I'd stuffed them in, and jostled it idly, watching the air bubble at the top of the glass move around as I did.
The one I'd pulled out was the papaya and sandalwood one. After some reflection, I ended up putting it back, and pulling the honey one out instead.
"How do you even check these, anyway…?" I muttered to myself. I vaguely recalled something about spritzing and wafting, and another about putting a little on your wrist, and making sure not to rub your wrists together. I didn't recall which one was right.
Of course, I could have solved both of them easily. I'd used Mental Out for more things than that before, and more invasively, too, after all. I'd called the two Iori clique girls 'walking privacy violations' before, but listening to the local thoughts of the area instead of the news radio in the mornings was distinctly more invasive by most people's standards. Granted, I couldn't exactly upload it to the internet like those two girls could if they wanted to, and I'd set my filters so I wasn't really picking up anything that people wouldn't say in public, but that would be small comfort if anyone actually figured out I snooped for such banal reasons as practice and boredom.
But… I hummed, twirling the bottle between my fingers. I was uncertain. It felt… voyeuristic, for lack of a better word, to use Mental Out for downloading the skills needed to actually use a bottle of perfume effectively. It felt different, in a way that picking up the skills for a recipe or a drawing technique wasn't. It didn't really make rational sense. Most people would be a lot less willing to let me cheat on things they'd actually put time and effort into, rather than things they could just learn on the internet or ask a parent for assistance for.
…Maybe that was it? How it was supposed to be learned, instead of how people would feel about it. That was just as irrational, I didn't need to copy anything other than mechanics when it cames to skills, but it fit the results better.
I ended up imagining how Hokaze might have learned it. A little Hokaze sitting on her mother's lap, with that messy-haired mother of hers gently passing her bottles to review, and see which would make her feel the fanciest. Doctor Toomine, rolling her eyes in an effort to hide her own fondness, showing her ward clean and clinical steps on perfume application while she watched, eyes wide and interested. Hokaze, sitting with other girls- maybe that Mitsuari Ayu girl she'd looked up to in Ideal and her compatriots, maybe with other schoolgirls in the time between leaving Ideal and arriving at Tokiwadai- and gossiping as one of them taught the others the tricks. I rolled the bottle over in my fingers as I thought.
I didn't even need Mental Out to solve the problem, I noted, brows creasing. I could just look this up on the internet, and it'd all be solved.
Instead, I sighed, and put the bottle back in the drawer. Kongou's pets, Wannai and Michan's perfume, Hokaze's comments on my lack of Gekota… I hadn't given any of them all that much thought at the time, but it felt like there was a common thread between them.
My room was perfectly serviceable. I liked cooking, and I liked the simple, plain colour on the walls, and I liked being able to scroll through the internet or play video games on my computer. An aquarium sounded like a lot of effort and commitment to something I wasn't even sure if I'd appreciate, and I'd get a lot more enjoyment out of a good read than just sticking a poster on a wall or something. I was… unsatisfied, though.
Logically, redecorating would be a reasonable solution, but something made me shy away from the idea of redecorating.
Maybe it was because I only had a year and a half left in this room- less, by now. Maybe it was…
The doorbell rang.
…something for later, my thought finished. I stood up, and headed to the little speaker thing by the door, brows furrowed a bit at the interruption.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Stiyl Magnus," said a slightly high-pitched guy's voice. "We need to talk."
"...Sure," I replied, frowning. Magnus? I wasn't exactly a hard person to find, but even then, I'd have expected him to borrow my number from Index or something instead. And he didn't exactly sound happy.
I grabbed my crutch, left the room, and headed to the front door of the dorms. I didn't pass anyone on my way to the foyer. It was close to curfew, irritatingly, but there was still time if he really did need to talk.
He was looming menacingly when the door opened.
I stared blankly back.
This state of affairs continued for a few seconds, and he didn't seem to find what he was looking for in my eyes. I was first to speak. "...There's tables in the courtyard," I said. "That would be the most convenient place to sit."
"...Hmph," he said, and stepped aside. I led the way.
Technically, he should probably have been elsewhere. Guys weren't really supposed to be within the Tokiwadai grounds. Practically speaking, he'd probably done something magical- set up a Someone Else's Problem field, maybe, as Mental Out wasn't giving me any signs that people had noticed or started to care about his presence. The bench didn't creak under his weight, which I could assume was more due to Tokiwadai construction than his lack of weight given his height and the weight of that coat of his.
We sat there, and he exhaled.
"I don't understand why you're being so reckless," he growled. "You're not making anyone else's life any easier, you know. Are you trying to cause problems or something? You can't even blame reading from a grimoire, so perhaps you should just give up with magic entirely, huh?"
Yeah, he definitely wasn't happy. I considered what could have brought this on. "Given the time slot you've picked, I'm guessing it's this afternoon's session that's got you up in arms…" I surmised.
His eyes narrowed. "That, and everything else," he said. He leaned forwards, over the table; I found myself sitting taller in response, though still mostly relaxed. "What do you think happens when people find out about what you're doing?"
I huffed. "The same thing that happens to everything else new and shiny in this city, is my guess," I said. "Some idiot strolls up, tries to benefit from it, and ruins it for everyone."
Magnus stood up- his trenchcoat swayed from the suddenness of the movement. I'd gone tense. "And have you taken a moment to think what 'ruining it for everyone' actually means, Shokuhou Misaki?" he uttered. "What sort of damage it could cause? You just have to keep bringing more and more people into it, don't you? Today you brought another of your 'Level 5 espers' into it, just because you thought it was slightly more convenient. Have you actually questioned your judgement here, or are there no brains at all behind those sparkly eyes of yours?"
My nostrils flared. I got to my own feet. "That's what this is about? Do you think I haven't thought this through?" I snapped back. "Here's what I think- 'making it worse' looks something like four killer robots and an attempt at godhood, all pointed at my friends! And at me! If someone else is going to get there first and do something that dangerous with it, what do you expect me to do?"
With a flash of steel he shouted, "I expect you to stop making things worse!"
Bravado was all well and good, but no matter how powerful you were, a sword being pointed at your neck was a great way to take the wind out of your sails.
It was the sort of visceral thing that a blob monster, or a war machine, couldn't quite match. There was an angry human being on one side, and my jugular on the other, and I suddenly found myself really, really wanting to be somewhere else. My breath hitched.
In her room, Hokaze found herself standing by the closed window, tense and waiting. She knew what it meant.
The silence crept forwards. Then, frustratedly, Magnus lowered his blade away from me- he was furious, not murderous. My heart was thundering. "Business owners? Scholars? Believe me when I say that they are the least of you and your friends' problems if you can't keep your stupid mouth shut," he informed me. "Do I even want to know what Chairman Aleister has been telling you, if you think acting like this makes any sort of sense?"
My fight-or-flight instincts were on full power, but the complete non-sequitur drowned them out. "...What?" I asked.
That was just as much a non-sequitur to him. Something slow and unsteady crept up behind his eyes. "...Chairman Aleister," he repeated. "What orders have you gotten from him, you idiot?"
"What does he have to do with anything?" I asked, legitimately confused. "I don't even know if he's alive, let alone if he actually governs anything in this city. What's some weird rich recluse to do with this?"
Slowly, Magnus sheathed his steel. When I met his eyes, I didn't see rage; just dawning horror, poorly hidden behind glaring eyes and gritted teeth. "...God," he said, not taking a seat. "You're serious. You don't even know who he is?"
Up in her room, Hokaze relaxed, my alert fading now that the risk of a surprise jugular inspection was starting to pass. "I- okay," I said, closing my eyes. "Look… Clearly there's some sort of miscommunication here. Let's both just… sit down, okay?"
He sat down. I massaged my forehead, trying not to grit my teeth.
"...Tell me everything you know about why Index is here," he ground out.
I thought it through. I'd heard a lot of little tidbits, but I'd filed them away under the same box as why she ate so much, or why I'd seen her gnawing on Touma's head that one time. So I hadn't really taken the time to put it all together.
"...She has a large number of grimoires in her head, which aren't harmful because she can't do magic to cause them to activate," I said. "She's part of, or has influence in, some sort of group called Necessarius. Probably an Anglican group given the context. And she has a group of people that protect her from sorcerers- Miss Rosenthal mentioned you're a famous 'witch-hunter', so I take it that you're one of them?"
He glanced to the side for a moment when I mentioned 'people that protect her', the first real crack in his mask. "...Hmph. That's all you know?" he asked. "Seriously?"
"That's all, yes..." I was having to physically restrain myself from letting my knee bob.
"...Ugh. What do you know about magic?" he asked, sounding like he regretted even having to think of the question.
"If you want a question like that answered, you should ask the Nihilists," I said. "They-"
He held up a hand. "That's not what I mean, idiot," he said. "I mean… institutionally. What do you know about the institutions of magic? I've spent years learning sorcery; you're just going to give me a headache trying to explain it with all your science bullcrap."
"Ah, I don't know…?" I replied, starting to see where his problem might be, and not really liking where this was going.
"What have you been told about it?" he pressed. "The politics? You can't just start doing magic research in a place like this and not know anything about it."
"Miss Rosenthal said she got her techniques from her family," I said. "Someone's guarding Index. She'd be willing to ask Necessarius to help with a magical problem. That's… just about everything I've heard. And I'm guessing there's a problem with that."
He buried his head in his hands. "God help me," he said, sounding… young, for just a moment.
Then he raised his head.
"Shokuhou Misaki," he said. "There are four major players in the world of science and magic. Academy City is just one of them."
My gut started to fall, as I realised where he was going with this. "...The City keeps all its best technology for itself," I voiced, starting to cotton on. "So if there's four major players…"
Perhaps it was his bias as a man of God speaking- it really didn't make sense for magic to be anywhere near the power of technology. Conventional technology, I mean. The strength of technology was its ability to be mass-produced, to affect nations rather than people. If magic was unknown, then it didn't have anything near the destructive potential of technology- there was no point in a weapon like a Bronze-age chariot, or an Early Modern machine gun, or a Nuclear-age bomb, if nobody knew about it, and if it couldn't fight an army off. The only real niche that made sense, then, would be the sort of thing that Magnus was doing right now to keep our conversation from being noticed. And Academy City already needed countermeasures for that sort of attack just because myself and other subterfuge-based espers existed.
…But if he was right, and rather than Academy City being an economic hyperpower, it was one of four superpowers of a far more insidious balance of power… What would that mean, if it started to encroach on the other three, and those three weren't complete pushovers…? The answer was obvious.
"The same is true for magic," said Magnus. "But rather than relying on constant progress to stay ahead of the rest of the planet, the Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches each carefully steward and hone what power they have." The way he spoke- like I was a child- made me think he was massively oversimplifying things. "I don't know what I can tell you- if you haven't been told, there must be a reason. The only reason I'm risking telling you this? It's because it could put Index in danger if the people in charge are wrong, whatever they're planning. And I would rather die than risk her coming to harm."
He stood; I felt a little light-headed just watching him move.
"They know what you're doing," he told me. "And I can't even begin to fathom why you haven't been told anything about the problems…" He snorted. "But that's not my problem, is it? I'm just here to make sure nobody abuses the Index of Forbidden Knowledge. Maybe you'll be hearing from someone soon; maybe you won't."
"And- if I do hear from someone?" I asked. Given everything I knew about the sort of people Academy City left in charge-
"Hmph! The only reason things haven't broken down already is because you have an excuse," he said, not turning to face me. "Index had to bring you in because she risked driving a powerful asset of science to madness if she said nothing; so far, all she's given you is parlour tricks. That can be chalked up to poor judgement. Your own city isn't going to mess with a powerful asset when they already have excuses like that," he said. "That you had to fight something which crossed science with magic? That raises a lot more questions, if word gets out. And the Catholic Church was outside the city on the same night- they know something happened, even if they don't know what. It's only dumb luck that's kept you safe from them."
"And… if I were to ask how to be a little less reliant on luck?" I said. Ordinarily, the Catholic Church would sound like a complete non-issue. The heightened pitch of my voice was indicator enough that this wasn't an ordinary conversation.
"If you want my advice? Whatever you do- for any reason- don't teach a normal human magic," he said. "Letting them do it near Index… that's even worse. What you're doing right now? If you had reason to be truly afraid, you would have been told. The only explanation… you're part of somebody's plan."
A full-body shudder went through me. "I… have a bad history with other people's plans," I said.
"Hmph… So do I," he drawled. "But if Chairman Aleister keeps you out of it, you should be glad. Any powerful individual is part of any number of plans- it's how many other powerful people that cross you that matters."
He paused, still not facing me. After a moment, he pulled something out of his pocket- a cigarette, fumbling briefly with the lighter he used to light it.
"...Also? If you tell any of the older kids I lost my nerve, I'll be forced to silence you," he blustered calmly. "Especially not Index."
That said, he walked into the night.
I stayed there, silent and somewhat shellshocked, save for the tap-tap-tap of my heel against the paved floor below the bench.
"...Wait," I said. "Did- did he just imply that Index is older than him…?"
"It wouldn't surprise me, my Queen," said Hokaze- I yelped, basically jumping out of my skin when I realised she was standing right next to me.
"Jeez, don't scare me like that!" I complained, batting her shoulder in irritation. "And- what do you mean it wouldn't surprise you? He's two metres tall, and apparently he's some sort of secret agent or something! Index is our age, your age at the most- why would Magnus be my age?!"
"He is a foreigner, though- they tend to be quite tall- and his face is rather boyish," she replied, in a manner that suggested it was obvious to her. "I would have guessed he's a little younger than me, but being your age also makes sense."
"Oh, next you're going to tell me that 'Stiyl Magnus' is a perfectly ordinary english name," I muttered. She tilted her head in confusion, but refrained from speaking further. "...Well. I don't know how much I can believe anything he said, but I really don't see the point in risking it," I said. "You should go and- ah… Hokaze, could you ensure Tatsuki knows that we're not to let non-espers use magic, and not in Index's presence in particular?"
"Of course, my Queen," said Hokaze, sitting down next to me on the bench. "...You seem worried. More worried than when you had a sword pointed at you, Misaki." She sounded somewhat terse.
"It's just been implied that the Vatican is more like Academy City than I thought- and maybe London and St Petersburg or Moscow, too, and my only source is a massive chuuni when I can't even trust his age," I said. "Ya think?"
I paused.
"Wait, damnit- did he even account for psychometry with this secrecy spell thing?!" I realised.
__________
After Hokaze caught us up to check, he had, in fact, accounted for psychometry- as had the lab, which was apparently what the runed tape I'd seen them putting up on an earlier trip had been for. He had not accounted for our curfew, so me and Hokaze both got a few points docked for that. Jackass.
We ended up having tea and biscuits under the watchful eyes of Hokaze's Gekota collection, trying to figure out what on earth an angry Vatican would look like. Like… did they have a holy hand grenade or something? Magnus was apparently famous, so if he thought we were safe for now then we were probably safe for now, but… neither of us could really figure anything out other than 'mind control wizards', and we had at least one hard counter for that. Hokaze suspected that she might be able to pull off a second, if electromagnetism could interfere with magic in the same way that it interfered with Mental Out; I mentioned that Mugino might be able to help with that.
Fortunately, nobody else decided to drop any further bombshells on me by the next morning, which meant I could get on with my plans for the day- because yes, the all-consuming to-do list was still active. And I was doubly motivated to do so, because apparently there was a non-zero chance I was on the Pope's shit-list, and I couldn't exactly have a stroll around St Peter's Basilica to smite people on God's behalf in the same manner I smote people on Science's behalf in Academy City. Which meant I really, really needed a distraction.
I dialled up the relevant number on my phone, flopping over on my bed, while the weekend sunlight streamed through the window. "Hey Uiharu," I said. "I still needed to do that revision se-"
"Miss Shokuhou!" said Uiharu, a pout clearly audible in her voice. "You can't just get in a fight on the news and go straight to talking about revision session! We're taking you to the fanciest dessert place we can afford first, okay?!"
"...Okay?" I agreed, somewhat bewilderedly.
"Harrumph!" she replied. "...I would have called earlier, but Miss Hokaze says you like your space, and you had Shirai to check on you, too." Shirai…? Oh, right, she was there when Hokaze was buying shoes and having her romantic fiction crisis. "But Miss Misaka was moping until Hokaze had lunch with her, you know? You're lucky you already organised something with her!"
I cringed- right, I probably should've contacted them earlier… even if it would have been a massive hassle making sure I didn't forget anyone… "Sorry?" I replied.
"You can feel sorry once you have ice cream and you've talked to Misaka tomorrow," she responded. Then she reverted to her normal cheerful tone of voice. "Ah, you said you wanted to do one of your training sessions?"
"Ah! Right, right," I agreed. "Yeah, I promised you and Saten I'd help you out, and then I got myself a concussion the whole time afterwards… Would you mind if I invited someone from school, too? Her name's Onizuka; she has a similar power to yours, and I needed to see if I could figure out a particular trick for her power."
"Oh, I'd be happy to meet more of your friends!" said Uiharu cheerfully. "I bet they're even fancier ladies than you are…"
"That's not a very high bar, Uiharu… She's more a coworker, but she definitely fits the ojou-sama cliche better than most of her part of the faction," I said. "She's sort of like Hokaze, but intense and sciencey instead of… Hokaze." In fairness, Hokaze was entirely capable of being intense, but even then it was usually limited to friendship and Gekota.
"Uwaah… Does she like tea?" Uiharu asked hopefully. "At snack times?"
I scanned my memories to see what I'd seen her drinking at the lab, and came up with a negative result. "I've only seen her drink straight black coffee," I replied, to which I heard Uiharu dying inside a little. I was pretty sure I could hear her flowery headband shrivelling over the phone. "Her power's a resetting power that she uses to restore herself- her hair included, so it's easy to test- and I suspect it has some overlap in regards to stasis." I hummed. "...Actually, do you know if Saten has any tricks or notable System Scan scores? I could see if anyone else I know has similar powers, so we're training to her strengths instead of just doing generic aerokinesis."
"Oh! Her best score is Clairvoyance," Uiharu replied. "Our teachers think it's mostly her AIM field, but she can do a little herself- she's not strong enough to move anything, but she can make sure her nose is always getting fresh air when she's sniffing around for things! She's trained her sense of smell so she's always motivated to try using her power; did you know that humans actually have a very good sense of smell compared to many other animals?"
"Really?" I asked. "I've heard it's stronger than most people think, just because it's not trained-" I'd heard a story of a man and his young daughter both pretending to live like badgers as a fun learning experience about nature, and being able to track a piece of cheese across a room, or something like that. "-but stronger that other animals…?"
"Yeah!" replied Uiharu. "Humans are hyper-omnivores, so we have to be sensitive to a lot more smells than most animals do! It's not very strong, but it's very detailed! And Saten's learned how to use her nose like that, so she can sniff out things that other people wouldn't even start to think about using."
"I didn't know that, actually," I said. I wasn't exactly enthusiastic to start researching the human sense of smell, given my AIM field's possible purpose. "She might have to keep an eye out for my AIM messing with hers if we're in close range, then- mine tends to overstimulate scent cells a little if I'm next to people. It's how the whole 'using water control as telepathy' thing got started, actually…"
"Hmm, well, she did say you smell nicer than most people…" she said. "And you don't smell of scented shampoo or anything, either…"
I decided not to comment on that, feeling my cheeks flush a little. Why did Railgun's half of the social sphere have to be like this…? Saten, Shirai, Kamijou's two friends…
"Oh! Have you thought about wearing perfume?" she asked me. "Shampoo might smell a bit strong if your AIM field makes it stronger, but perfume would fit you perfectly!"
"Huh. Funny thing, I did actually impulse-buy some perfume recently…" I said. "Not that I actually know how to use it, so it's just been stuffed in a drawer."
"Make sure you take it with you, then!" Uiharu responded immediately. "If you need an excuse, then it's helpful for Saten's training! I'll text you the address for the desserteria- I'll let Saten know, and you can call your other friend. See you there!"
Then she hung up. "...Oh you squirrely little rascal," I said, narrowing my eyes at the phone. I'd clearly just been played into doing something incredibly stereotypically girly… and given that Uiharu might not actually know me well enough to note that 'it might be helpful' was an excellent way to convince me to do something, one of my other friends was probably involved in it.
Given Hokaze's patience had run thin enough due to the constant stream of bullshit coming her friend's way to actually be a little snippy (by Hokaze standards) last night, and she'd clearly been in contact with the Railgun friend group while I was occupied with other things… Well, there were a few obvious flags there.
Onizuka was very pleased to hear that it was time for her power training, and she and Uiharu were already chatting outside the desserteria by the time I got there. They were surprisingly similar in appearance, actually- Onizuka was older, sure, but she wasn't exactly a towering individual by any means, so if you gave her a bowl-cut and put a flower headband on top, she'd look rather similar to a palette-swapped version of Uiharu.
"Lady Shokuhou," said Onizuka. "It's very odd to see you outside of school!"
"Eh, I do things occasionally," I replied. "Uiharu, it's been a while. How are you doing?"
"The exchange trip went very well!" she said. "Apart from the island exploding… I was telling Miss Onizuka about it when she asked. Are you doing better?"
"Honestly? The universe seems to be actively conspiring against me at the moment…" I said. "That said, I've done about ninety-five percent of my to-do list, so I'm feeling a lot better about it. And I think Hokaze is planning to tie me to a chair and make me watch Gekota shows if I don't relax, so I should be good on the stress front."
"Miss Hokaze's a good friend," she said. "Miss Onizuka thinks she's scary!"
I blinked confusedly at Onizuka, who shuffled self-consciously. "Well, she's very tall…" said Onizuka.
"That… is true," I agreed, not pointing out that I was both taller and wasn't someone she'd considered 'scary' by any stretch. "Say, do either of you go to these sorts of places frequently? I usually only eat out when Hokaze wants to talk at a cafe, and that's usually tea and snacks instead."
"I like to!" said Uiharu. "But Shirai keeps dragging me away for Judgment business whenever I'm about to eat…"
"That sounds inconvenient," said Onizuka, quietly empathetic. "My friend, Miss Tatsuki, often does the same when I want to get ramen and there's science to be done…"
I was pretty sure that 'science to be done' was a turn of phrase that Tatsuki had picked up from me.
"And to speak of friends," Onizuka continued. "Where would this other friend of yours be, Miss Uiharu?"
I didn't say anything, as Saten was already here. Her arrival would be made known imminently, and it was already too late for Uiharu to stop it even if she noticed Saten's arrival… I could totally stop it, but this was either flirting or trolling, and both of those could be solved by basic conversational skills given their friendship if so desired.
"U~i~ha~ru~!" came the obligatory cry. Whumph, went the skirt. "Oh, extra cute today!"
"M-m-m-miss S-s-saten!" complained Uiharu, making distressed marshmallow noises. Onizuka watched, before nodding to herself, presumably to neatly file Saten into the same box that any Tokiwadai student already had for Shirai's general existence.
"Hi Shokuhou!" said Saten, stepping beside the red-faced Uiharu she'd created. "And you must be Shokuhou's buddy, right?"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Saten," said Onizuka. "Some might call me Lady Shokuhou's minion's minion?" The white-haired girl giggled when she noticed me giving her a side-eye.
"It's weird to think that your school has so much politics in it," said Saten. "It makes my head spin…! So what do you do in Tokiwadai?"
"Lady Shokuhou knows me and my friends best as a part of the school's Scientific Research Club," she said. "I'm part of the group that's trusted to work privately, as people often don't want information on their powers to spread… People are often afraid that other people benefitting from their knowledge will make them worse off," she sighed. "Many of us in the research club used to think that way- myself and Miss Tatsuki certainly did, before we joined her clique- but Lady Shokuhou cited enough papers to convince us otherwise."
"Ah, I remember Miss Shirai saying that there were many factions in Tokiwadai," commented Uiharu. "I want to hear more over a nice big sundae!"
We set ourselves up inside, and ordered our food. I wasn't quite in the mood for something excessively sweet, so I ordered dark chocolate ice cream and brownies. Uiharu got her promised vanilla sundae, which was probably bigger than her stomach. Saten and Onizuka went half-and-half on a deluxe mochi platter, and I could practically hear the sparks crackling between them when they realised they both had the same favourite mochi flavours. I was pretty sure some of the mochi were avocado-flavour, and that those were a subset that were being mentally duelled over. Avocado and escargot lasagna, avocado and mint sherbet straws… What was it with this city and weird applications of avocado?
Seeing that her promised information-provider was busy occupied by a mexican standoff with her best friend, her burning eyes turned to me. "I've asked Miss Wannai and Miss Hokaze about all the fine young lady things you do in Tokiwadai," she said. "But I haven't remembered to ask you, Miss Shokuhou- and that's going to change here and now!"
And then she produced a little clipboard that, presumably, had all her questions listed out thereupon. I immediately realised I wasn't getting out of this easily.
We went through the questions, Saten and Onizuka starting to contribute once their epic mochi battle over their favourites had come to a conclusion. This was mostly a contrast between me eagerly taking the opportunity to complain about literally everything, and Onizuka being a dastardly traitor who kept providing reasonable reasons why things were so, or why they were very fancy and thus good.
She saved the faction questions until the end of the list. "Ojou-sama food, ojou-sama transport, ojou-sama decorations…" she hummed, reviewing a few items she'd already asked about. "That's almost everything- what are these mysterious 'factions', then, Miss Shokuhou, Miss Onizuka?" Uiharu asked the two of us.
"Factions are the heart and soul of the Tokiwadai experience!" said Onizuka. "They're fields where the finest of our already-fine roster of students can let their influence be felt throughout the whole school, uplifting the people around them, showing off their pride, and letting their ideals resonate through the whole school!"
"They're a pain," I grumbled.
Onizuka looked towards me. "What do you mean, my Queen?" she asked me.
"Well, me and Hokaze founded the Constitutionals because Hokaze really, really liked the idea of a friend club that you could just volunteer to join and then you're a friend," I said. "Which, like, fair. People make relationships more complicated than they need to be- a relationship that you've volunteered and worked for is no less real than a friendship that just happened, as long as it's mutual, right?" I suggested.
"That's very true," Onizuka noted. "The respect between you and Miss Tatsuki is like that, is it not?"
"Who's Tatsuki?" asked Saten.
"Ah- she's the leader of the Scientific Research Club, and the subfaction in the Constitutionals known as the 'Nihilists'," I said. "Looks sort of like Saten, but with glasses." There were some other differences- her hair was more red-brunette than black, and her facial features were a lot sharper- but my summary wasn't too far off. "She's incredibly perceptive, and very intelligent besides. If we hadn't decided teaming up was more productive for everyone involved, she'd probably be leading her own faction by now."
"Miss Tatsuki first joined the Shokuhou Clique back when it was known as 'the Dollhouse'," revealed Onizuka.
Uiharu looked at me. "The Dollhouse?" she repeated questioningly. "Miss Shokuhou doesn't really…"
Saten said what she was thinking. "Shokuhou's boobs are too big to be called a 'doll'," she said. I facepalmed. "Plus she's got those runners' thighs, and-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I said, mostly just to cut her off. "But… hey, do you happen to have any pictures from last year, Onizuka?"
"Certainly," Onizuka replied in that soft voice of hers, and pulled out her phone to start scrolling. After a minute, she pulled out a picture from September, last year.
It was a picture of me and Tatsuki, from behind, in our gym uniforms. I raised an eyebrow at Onizuka. "Miss Tatsuki has trained intensely to recognise people's thoughts from their body language," she explained, mostly to Saten and Uiharu. "Originally, she was quite antagonistic towards Miss Shokuhou; she joined her faction to try and acquire resources to start a faction of her own. I took this so she could observe that she was relaxed rather than hostile towards our Queen at that point."
"Oh, I see why… Hey, what's with all the bandages?" asked Saten.
I'd told Uiharu before, and the information- minus the damage done to the aggressors rather than the intended victim- was public information. "I had some personal trouble with terrorists last year, too," I said. "They got me pretty good; the scarring was almost done by the time this picture was taken, I recall the conversation we were having, but I still needed the bandages to actually finish healing."
"Was it DA back then, too…?" asked Saten, eyes full of concern.
"Similar, but different," I replied. "Both anti-Level 5, at least. They were basically an early branch of Skill-Out, back before Level Upper really split the level lines… A bunch of people under the impression that Level 5 AIM suppressed lower-level AIM decided I was an easy target, found a bunch of robot suits, and then attacked me. I got out in… not quite 'one piece', but I still have two working legs and two working kidneys despite their best efforts."
"You said it was mostly cosmetic last year," Onizuka commented, frowning.
I paused. "Uh," I said intelligently, trying to think up a reasonable response to that.
I had a tendency to downplay at the time and to snark in full (minus the crime parts) at a later date, and nobody had really called me out on it before… Though, granted, 'a later date' was usually 'never' given the relatively few times I'd been asked about things like Deadlock after the fact.
"...Well," I suggested, "do you really need two kidneys?"
"Yes, Miss Shokuhou!" Uiharu responded, pouting at me in disappointment. "You definitely need two kidneys!"
"Which is why it's a good thing that I still have two working kidneys," I said sagely, to a thoroughly unconvinced audience. "...Umm, where were we?" I blatantly deflected.
Saten huffed, but decided to throw me a bone. "Well, first we were talking about why factions were a pain," she said. "Then it was who Tatsuki was. And now it's about why your group used to be called the Dollhouse, but I think that one's actually been answered." She looked down at the last-year picture of me. "Wow… Did you use your powers to mind-control the puberty fairy?"
"...What?" I asked, followed by Uiharu turning red at the implication, and Onizuka tilting her head curiously.
"Your power works by controlling stuff that's similar to hormones, right?" said Saten. "So… wait, no, you're as shy as Uiharu is when it comes to that stuff," she decided, mercifully shooting down her own theory. "...But if someone else asked, could you use it on the stem cells in their-"
My face went red when I realised where she was going with this- "Moving on!" I interrupted, leaving Saten even more amused, Uiharu as a tomato, and Onizuka nodding thoughtfully. "Umm- No, Tatsuki's already been explained… Ah! Well, I get a bit self-conscious about people calling it the Shokuhou Clique," I explained. "Someone called it the Dollhouse, people used to call me the Doll of Tokiwadai before I got the 'Queen' title, and I was honestly more willing to call it the Dollhouse than the Shokuhou Clique, so it stuck for a while. Tatsuki making her own mini-clique inside ours happened at basically the same time as I got the Queen title-"
"-and the same time as when her-" Onizuka tried to interject.
"-and at the same time as my figure changed," I preemptively corrected, "therefore 'the Dollhouse' stopped fitting the clique roughly at around the time we rebranded to 'the Constitutionals', since we set up a whole bunch of rules so the clique would be stable, polite and functional, even if there were multiple competing bases of power."
"I believe it's one of the largest contributing factors to our Queen's influence within Tokiwadai," Onizuka said. "By leaving room for multiple competing personalities to separate out within the clique, she can much more effectively use her unique talents and resources to have people join or appreciate the Constitutionals- her booking list for the esper training sessions, the various associated clubs, and other such useful things…" She nodded to herself at that. "It promotes in her faction a cooperative, constructive view on things that the other factions lack- which is why they've failed at consolidating power, and Lady Shokuhou has succeeded."
"You make it sound like I'm some scheming mastermind," I grumbled. "If they accepted being buddy-buddy as a valid solution to problems, I'm sure the other cliques would catch up…"
"But they have not, and you have, my Queen," Onizuka said sagely. "And yet they still attempt to compete with such unconstructive methods… I think I understand why you say they're 'a pain', Lady Shokuhou. Their ignorance frustrates you?"
"Eh… I wouldn't really say 'ignorance'..." I hedged.
"Their hubris?" asked Uiharu innocently, seeing an opportunity to tease me and deciding to put her concern on hold for long enough to take it. "Their pride? Their folly? Their inability to see the foolishness in their refusal to consider such basic solutions to such simple problems, Miss Shokuhou?"
"...Those words are technically correct," I admitted, "but they all give completely the wrong impression about what I'm thinking." I paused. "Except not for Kobayashi's, she just likes having her own budget and social circle, I think. I like her. And a few others aren't that bad, either. Most of them see being in charge as an end in and of itself, too- it's not like my own goals in running a clique are any more or less valid than theirs, I just can't follow their opinion long enough to acknowledge their feelings on it, y'know?"
"Ah," said Saten, grinning. "So it's like they're all Shirai and being in charge is Misaka, right?"
"...I hate that you're basically right, Saten," I informed them all.
"Now, now, my fellow young ladies!" said Uiharu. "We're supposed to be helping Shokuhou relax after she got into all that trouble. We shouldn't be making her blood pressure rise as much as she makes ours rise!" I gave her a grumpy look. "Why don't we finish our desserts and let her do something esper-related instead?"
__________
"We didn't end up making any exceptional progress, alas," I told Michan, who was currently folded up on a beanbag as she held her tablet in font of her, somewhere in wider Tokyo. "But we did get a lot of useful information. Saten's powers work best when they're directed cones or air-spouts; she's been doing it semi-consciously with her sniff-'em powers. I think the new girl has something like that? And while there's a difference in the ranges it's affecting, Uiharu and Onizuka definitely seem to have the same powers."
We'd been chatting for a good half-hour by now. I'd been eager to hear about Michan's time with her family; I'd heard a lot of them from her talks with Dolly, and her recollections of them had been very fond. The two of them had even popped by to say hello, once or twice- I'd ended up getting a bit self-conscious under their gazes, so it hadn't been for long, but it was a pleasure to see them. She was an only child, so there were no mini-Michans to coo over, alas.
"You said something about smell stuff being an opportunity to test out that perfume you bought?" asked Michan. "Did you try it out? I was wondering what you thought of it, actually."
"Uh, yeah- I think they tried out more than I did, though," I said. "Apparently test strips are something you apply perfume to, rather than something you buy that already has the perfume on it? Saten had some of them that she's been using to practise with her sense of smell. I was thinking it was like spray deodorant or something where you let it float in the air a little, but apparently not." I hummed. "I did end up finally learning how it's supposed to work, though…"
Michan grinned. "Y'know, you put yourself on these great big adventures trying to help people, and then you get self-conscious about something little like this," she said. "You really are a dork sometimes, bestie dearest. Did you enjoy it?"
"...Actually, you know what?" I said. "I think I did, sort of. I thought it'd just sort of end up annoying me if I left it on too long, or if my mood changed, but wearing the- it was the papaya and sandalwood one… It was sort of relaxing, kinda?" I shrugged. "I dunno. I could see myself doing it again? Trying it in different situations."
"I'm glad to hear you weren't wasting your money!" she said, pleased. I snorted- she was certainly one to talk about wasting money, whatever she was doing with that Level 4 budget of hers… "So, that's something you've enjoyed doing this week, other than the usual busywork. I'm glad! And Junko says you've got something lined up for tomorrow, too?"
"Well, it wasn't all relaxing these past few days," I huffed. "A friend of a friend ended up giving us both panic attacks when we realised someone else had messed something up… and the whole problem was about who I was telling about things, so I've only been able to complain about it to Hokaze."
"Oh… Nothing too bad, I hope?" asked Michan.
I snorted. "I hope so too… I don't think anyone has all the information, but we're taking the advice of the person who knows the parts we don't. The advice is basically 'continue as you were', so it's not too bad, just… stressful." After a moment, I sighed. "But… yeah. Not much we can do about that," I said. "So Hokaze's got her work cut out for her… We've got the spa thing all set up for tomorrow. I'm still not sure about it, but it's certainly a thing."
"Humm… You weren't certain about the perfume either, and that turned out all right, didn't it Misaki?" she commented. I hummed; she wasn't exactly wrong about that. "So tell me all about your plans for it, okay?"
"It's pretty standard stuff, I think?" I said. "I'm not doing any of those pedicure or manicure things, my feet would be stinging if I went out for a proper run with my feet like that… There's stuff like reiki-" A sort of laying-of-hands that supposedly worked like the less realistic interpretations of fengshui. "-but I think I'd just feel silly doing something like that. So I think the list is one of those body wrap things, some massage stuff, and then the sauna and pool stuff…?"
"That does sound very relaxing," agreed Michan. "Let's hope you can keep Misaka's friend from doing anything silly!"
I nodded. "Yeah, she can be a handful at times," I agreed.
"Man, I'm almost disappointed I'm missing it…" sighed Michan. "But you've got me other presents for when I get back! Everyone's gonna know that Mental Out is my super-sweet little kohai…!"
"Yeah, yeah, don't break your voicebox making those sounds," I snarked, as she made various 'squee' noises to herself. "Man, you've been so excited, I bet you're going to get your secret cornstarch vault discovered by nosy middle-schoolers on the first day or something."
"Ah, my secrets are far too well-hidden for things like that to happen," Michan replied. "And besides, it's way too hard to stay under the radar when you get into trouble so often, eh, Misaki? Don't sweat it!"
"I guess you're right on that front," I sighed fondly. "Next time I'm going to have to pull Hokaze from nowhere, just to make sure it's fair."
"You make sure to do that, you're allowed to have more than one bestie, y'know?" she replied. "In fact, I actively encourage it! We've been taking the time to chat ourselves… She said something about a guy called 'Kamijou'?"
"Ah yeah, I owe him lunch after I tried to get him lunch for punching a delinquent," I said. "The card reader was broken and I wasn't carrying cash… Why?"
She was muttering something about 'flags' and 'wrong route'. "Ah- nothing!" she said. I raised an eyebrow at that. "But you enjoy your spa day, okay? Senpai commands it!"
"How could I deny my glorious, beautiful and intelligent senpai in such a vital mission," I deadpanned. "I shall try my hardest to be as relaxed as possible then, Michan. See you when you get back!"
"See you then, Misaki!" she replied. "Enjoy your trip!"
I decided to shut down my computer after that; I'd only end up spamming the refresh button to wait for replies if I didn't. After that, I checked my spider plants, and watered a few of them. They needed quite frequent waterings right now, given the heat, but hopefully that would change soon- I always liked the liminal space between summer and autumn, before the leaves were starting to fall, but after the breeze started picking up hints of coolness when the wind blew. Maybe part of it was a residual craving for the end of the hayfever season, too.
After that, I pulled the one of the perfume bottles out of the drawer I'd stuffed them in, and jostled it idly, watching the air bubble at the top of the glass move around as I did.
The one I'd pulled out was the papaya and sandalwood one. After some reflection, I ended up putting it back, and pulling the honey one out instead.
"How do you even check these, anyway…?" I muttered to myself. I vaguely recalled something about spritzing and wafting, and another about putting a little on your wrist, and making sure not to rub your wrists together. I didn't recall which one was right.
Of course, I could have solved both of them easily. I'd used Mental Out for more things than that before, and more invasively, too, after all. I'd called the two Iori clique girls 'walking privacy violations' before, but listening to the local thoughts of the area instead of the news radio in the mornings was distinctly more invasive by most people's standards. Granted, I couldn't exactly upload it to the internet like those two girls could if they wanted to, and I'd set my filters so I wasn't really picking up anything that people wouldn't say in public, but that would be small comfort if anyone actually figured out I snooped for such banal reasons as practice and boredom.
But… I hummed, twirling the bottle between my fingers. I was uncertain. It felt… voyeuristic, for lack of a better word, to use Mental Out for downloading the skills needed to actually use a bottle of perfume effectively. It felt different, in a way that picking up the skills for a recipe or a drawing technique wasn't. It didn't really make rational sense. Most people would be a lot less willing to let me cheat on things they'd actually put time and effort into, rather than things they could just learn on the internet or ask a parent for assistance for.
…Maybe that was it? How it was supposed to be learned, instead of how people would feel about it. That was just as irrational, I didn't need to copy anything other than mechanics when it cames to skills, but it fit the results better.
I ended up imagining how Hokaze might have learned it. A little Hokaze sitting on her mother's lap, with that messy-haired mother of hers gently passing her bottles to review, and see which would make her feel the fanciest. Doctor Toomine, rolling her eyes in an effort to hide her own fondness, showing her ward clean and clinical steps on perfume application while she watched, eyes wide and interested. Hokaze, sitting with other girls- maybe that Mitsuari Ayu girl she'd looked up to in Ideal and her compatriots, maybe with other schoolgirls in the time between leaving Ideal and arriving at Tokiwadai- and gossiping as one of them taught the others the tricks. I rolled the bottle over in my fingers as I thought.
I didn't even need Mental Out to solve the problem, I noted, brows creasing. I could just look this up on the internet, and it'd all be solved.
Instead, I sighed, and put the bottle back in the drawer. Kongou's pets, Wannai and Michan's perfume, Hokaze's comments on my lack of Gekota… I hadn't given any of them all that much thought at the time, but it felt like there was a common thread between them.
My room was perfectly serviceable. I liked cooking, and I liked the simple, plain colour on the walls, and I liked being able to scroll through the internet or play video games on my computer. An aquarium sounded like a lot of effort and commitment to something I wasn't even sure if I'd appreciate, and I'd get a lot more enjoyment out of a good read than just sticking a poster on a wall or something. I was… unsatisfied, though.
Logically, redecorating would be a reasonable solution, but something made me shy away from the idea of redecorating.
Maybe it was because I only had a year and a half left in this room- less, by now. Maybe it was…
The doorbell rang.
…something for later, my thought finished. I stood up, and headed to the little speaker thing by the door, brows furrowed a bit at the interruption.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Stiyl Magnus," said a slightly high-pitched guy's voice. "We need to talk."
"...Sure," I replied, frowning. Magnus? I wasn't exactly a hard person to find, but even then, I'd have expected him to borrow my number from Index or something instead. And he didn't exactly sound happy.
I grabbed my crutch, left the room, and headed to the front door of the dorms. I didn't pass anyone on my way to the foyer. It was close to curfew, irritatingly, but there was still time if he really did need to talk.
He was looming menacingly when the door opened.
I stared blankly back.
This state of affairs continued for a few seconds, and he didn't seem to find what he was looking for in my eyes. I was first to speak. "...There's tables in the courtyard," I said. "That would be the most convenient place to sit."
"...Hmph," he said, and stepped aside. I led the way.
Technically, he should probably have been elsewhere. Guys weren't really supposed to be within the Tokiwadai grounds. Practically speaking, he'd probably done something magical- set up a Someone Else's Problem field, maybe, as Mental Out wasn't giving me any signs that people had noticed or started to care about his presence. The bench didn't creak under his weight, which I could assume was more due to Tokiwadai construction than his lack of weight given his height and the weight of that coat of his.
We sat there, and he exhaled.
"I don't understand why you're being so reckless," he growled. "You're not making anyone else's life any easier, you know. Are you trying to cause problems or something? You can't even blame reading from a grimoire, so perhaps you should just give up with magic entirely, huh?"
Yeah, he definitely wasn't happy. I considered what could have brought this on. "Given the time slot you've picked, I'm guessing it's this afternoon's session that's got you up in arms…" I surmised.
His eyes narrowed. "That, and everything else," he said. He leaned forwards, over the table; I found myself sitting taller in response, though still mostly relaxed. "What do you think happens when people find out about what you're doing?"
I huffed. "The same thing that happens to everything else new and shiny in this city, is my guess," I said. "Some idiot strolls up, tries to benefit from it, and ruins it for everyone."
Magnus stood up- his trenchcoat swayed from the suddenness of the movement. I'd gone tense. "And have you taken a moment to think what 'ruining it for everyone' actually means, Shokuhou Misaki?" he uttered. "What sort of damage it could cause? You just have to keep bringing more and more people into it, don't you? Today you brought another of your 'Level 5 espers' into it, just because you thought it was slightly more convenient. Have you actually questioned your judgement here, or are there no brains at all behind those sparkly eyes of yours?"
My nostrils flared. I got to my own feet. "That's what this is about? Do you think I haven't thought this through?" I snapped back. "Here's what I think- 'making it worse' looks something like four killer robots and an attempt at godhood, all pointed at my friends! And at me! If someone else is going to get there first and do something that dangerous with it, what do you expect me to do?"
With a flash of steel he shouted, "I expect you to stop making things worse!"
Bravado was all well and good, but no matter how powerful you were, a sword being pointed at your neck was a great way to take the wind out of your sails.
It was the sort of visceral thing that a blob monster, or a war machine, couldn't quite match. There was an angry human being on one side, and my jugular on the other, and I suddenly found myself really, really wanting to be somewhere else. My breath hitched.
In her room, Hokaze found herself standing by the closed window, tense and waiting. She knew what it meant.
The silence crept forwards. Then, frustratedly, Magnus lowered his blade away from me- he was furious, not murderous. My heart was thundering. "Business owners? Scholars? Believe me when I say that they are the least of you and your friends' problems if you can't keep your stupid mouth shut," he informed me. "Do I even want to know what Chairman Aleister has been telling you, if you think acting like this makes any sort of sense?"
My fight-or-flight instincts were on full power, but the complete non-sequitur drowned them out. "...What?" I asked.
That was just as much a non-sequitur to him. Something slow and unsteady crept up behind his eyes. "...Chairman Aleister," he repeated. "What orders have you gotten from him, you idiot?"
"What does he have to do with anything?" I asked, legitimately confused. "I don't even know if he's alive, let alone if he actually governs anything in this city. What's some weird rich recluse to do with this?"
Slowly, Magnus sheathed his steel. When I met his eyes, I didn't see rage; just dawning horror, poorly hidden behind glaring eyes and gritted teeth. "...God," he said, not taking a seat. "You're serious. You don't even know who he is?"
Up in her room, Hokaze relaxed, my alert fading now that the risk of a surprise jugular inspection was starting to pass. "I- okay," I said, closing my eyes. "Look… Clearly there's some sort of miscommunication here. Let's both just… sit down, okay?"
He sat down. I massaged my forehead, trying not to grit my teeth.
"...Tell me everything you know about why Index is here," he ground out.
I thought it through. I'd heard a lot of little tidbits, but I'd filed them away under the same box as why she ate so much, or why I'd seen her gnawing on Touma's head that one time. So I hadn't really taken the time to put it all together.
"...She has a large number of grimoires in her head, which aren't harmful because she can't do magic to cause them to activate," I said. "She's part of, or has influence in, some sort of group called Necessarius. Probably an Anglican group given the context. And she has a group of people that protect her from sorcerers- Miss Rosenthal mentioned you're a famous 'witch-hunter', so I take it that you're one of them?"
He glanced to the side for a moment when I mentioned 'people that protect her', the first real crack in his mask. "...Hmph. That's all you know?" he asked. "Seriously?"
"That's all, yes..." I was having to physically restrain myself from letting my knee bob.
"...Ugh. What do you know about magic?" he asked, sounding like he regretted even having to think of the question.
"If you want a question like that answered, you should ask the Nihilists," I said. "They-"
He held up a hand. "That's not what I mean, idiot," he said. "I mean… institutionally. What do you know about the institutions of magic? I've spent years learning sorcery; you're just going to give me a headache trying to explain it with all your science bullcrap."
"Ah, I don't know…?" I replied, starting to see where his problem might be, and not really liking where this was going.
"What have you been told about it?" he pressed. "The politics? You can't just start doing magic research in a place like this and not know anything about it."
"Miss Rosenthal said she got her techniques from her family," I said. "Someone's guarding Index. She'd be willing to ask Necessarius to help with a magical problem. That's… just about everything I've heard. And I'm guessing there's a problem with that."
He buried his head in his hands. "God help me," he said, sounding… young, for just a moment.
Then he raised his head.
"Shokuhou Misaki," he said. "There are four major players in the world of science and magic. Academy City is just one of them."
My gut started to fall, as I realised where he was going with this. "...The City keeps all its best technology for itself," I voiced, starting to cotton on. "So if there's four major players…"
Perhaps it was his bias as a man of God speaking- it really didn't make sense for magic to be anywhere near the power of technology. Conventional technology, I mean. The strength of technology was its ability to be mass-produced, to affect nations rather than people. If magic was unknown, then it didn't have anything near the destructive potential of technology- there was no point in a weapon like a Bronze-age chariot, or an Early Modern machine gun, or a Nuclear-age bomb, if nobody knew about it, and if it couldn't fight an army off. The only real niche that made sense, then, would be the sort of thing that Magnus was doing right now to keep our conversation from being noticed. And Academy City already needed countermeasures for that sort of attack just because myself and other subterfuge-based espers existed.
…But if he was right, and rather than Academy City being an economic hyperpower, it was one of four superpowers of a far more insidious balance of power… What would that mean, if it started to encroach on the other three, and those three weren't complete pushovers…? The answer was obvious.
"The same is true for magic," said Magnus. "But rather than relying on constant progress to stay ahead of the rest of the planet, the Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox Churches each carefully steward and hone what power they have." The way he spoke- like I was a child- made me think he was massively oversimplifying things. "I don't know what I can tell you- if you haven't been told, there must be a reason. The only reason I'm risking telling you this? It's because it could put Index in danger if the people in charge are wrong, whatever they're planning. And I would rather die than risk her coming to harm."
He stood; I felt a little light-headed just watching him move.
"They know what you're doing," he told me. "And I can't even begin to fathom why you haven't been told anything about the problems…" He snorted. "But that's not my problem, is it? I'm just here to make sure nobody abuses the Index of Forbidden Knowledge. Maybe you'll be hearing from someone soon; maybe you won't."
"And- if I do hear from someone?" I asked. Given everything I knew about the sort of people Academy City left in charge-
"Hmph! The only reason things haven't broken down already is because you have an excuse," he said, not turning to face me. "Index had to bring you in because she risked driving a powerful asset of science to madness if she said nothing; so far, all she's given you is parlour tricks. That can be chalked up to poor judgement. Your own city isn't going to mess with a powerful asset when they already have excuses like that," he said. "That you had to fight something which crossed science with magic? That raises a lot more questions, if word gets out. And the Catholic Church was outside the city on the same night- they know something happened, even if they don't know what. It's only dumb luck that's kept you safe from them."
"And… if I were to ask how to be a little less reliant on luck?" I said. Ordinarily, the Catholic Church would sound like a complete non-issue. The heightened pitch of my voice was indicator enough that this wasn't an ordinary conversation.
"If you want my advice? Whatever you do- for any reason- don't teach a normal human magic," he said. "Letting them do it near Index… that's even worse. What you're doing right now? If you had reason to be truly afraid, you would have been told. The only explanation… you're part of somebody's plan."
A full-body shudder went through me. "I… have a bad history with other people's plans," I said.
"Hmph… So do I," he drawled. "But if Chairman Aleister keeps you out of it, you should be glad. Any powerful individual is part of any number of plans- it's how many other powerful people that cross you that matters."
He paused, still not facing me. After a moment, he pulled something out of his pocket- a cigarette, fumbling briefly with the lighter he used to light it.
"...Also? If you tell any of the older kids I lost my nerve, I'll be forced to silence you," he blustered calmly. "Especially not Index."
That said, he walked into the night.
I stayed there, silent and somewhat shellshocked, save for the tap-tap-tap of my heel against the paved floor below the bench.
"...Wait," I said. "Did- did he just imply that Index is older than him…?"
"It wouldn't surprise me, my Queen," said Hokaze- I yelped, basically jumping out of my skin when I realised she was standing right next to me.
"Jeez, don't scare me like that!" I complained, batting her shoulder in irritation. "And- what do you mean it wouldn't surprise you? He's two metres tall, and apparently he's some sort of secret agent or something! Index is our age, your age at the most- why would Magnus be my age?!"
"He is a foreigner, though- they tend to be quite tall- and his face is rather boyish," she replied, in a manner that suggested it was obvious to her. "I would have guessed he's a little younger than me, but being your age also makes sense."
"Oh, next you're going to tell me that 'Stiyl Magnus' is a perfectly ordinary english name," I muttered. She tilted her head in confusion, but refrained from speaking further. "...Well. I don't know how much I can believe anything he said, but I really don't see the point in risking it," I said. "You should go and- ah… Hokaze, could you ensure Tatsuki knows that we're not to let non-espers use magic, and not in Index's presence in particular?"
"Of course, my Queen," said Hokaze, sitting down next to me on the bench. "...You seem worried. More worried than when you had a sword pointed at you, Misaki." She sounded somewhat terse.
"It's just been implied that the Vatican is more like Academy City than I thought- and maybe London and St Petersburg or Moscow, too, and my only source is a massive chuuni when I can't even trust his age," I said. "Ya think?"
I paused.
"Wait, damnit- did he even account for psychometry with this secrecy spell thing?!" I realised.
__________
After Hokaze caught us up to check, he had, in fact, accounted for psychometry- as had the lab, which was apparently what the runed tape I'd seen them putting up on an earlier trip had been for. He had not accounted for our curfew, so me and Hokaze both got a few points docked for that. Jackass.
We ended up having tea and biscuits under the watchful eyes of Hokaze's Gekota collection, trying to figure out what on earth an angry Vatican would look like. Like… did they have a holy hand grenade or something? Magnus was apparently famous, so if he thought we were safe for now then we were probably safe for now, but… neither of us could really figure anything out other than 'mind control wizards', and we had at least one hard counter for that. Hokaze suspected that she might be able to pull off a second, if electromagnetism could interfere with magic in the same way that it interfered with Mental Out; I mentioned that Mugino might be able to help with that.
Fortunately, nobody else decided to drop any further bombshells on me by the next morning, which meant I could get on with my plans for the day- because yes, the all-consuming to-do list was still active. And I was doubly motivated to do so, because apparently there was a non-zero chance I was on the Pope's shit-list, and I couldn't exactly have a stroll around St Peter's Basilica to smite people on God's behalf in the same manner I smote people on Science's behalf in Academy City. Which meant I really, really needed a distraction.
I dialled up the relevant number on my phone, flopping over on my bed, while the weekend sunlight streamed through the window. "Hey Uiharu," I said. "I still needed to do that revision se-"
"Miss Shokuhou!" said Uiharu, a pout clearly audible in her voice. "You can't just get in a fight on the news and go straight to talking about revision session! We're taking you to the fanciest dessert place we can afford first, okay?!"
"...Okay?" I agreed, somewhat bewilderedly.
"Harrumph!" she replied. "...I would have called earlier, but Miss Hokaze says you like your space, and you had Shirai to check on you, too." Shirai…? Oh, right, she was there when Hokaze was buying shoes and having her romantic fiction crisis. "But Miss Misaka was moping until Hokaze had lunch with her, you know? You're lucky you already organised something with her!"
I cringed- right, I probably should've contacted them earlier… even if it would have been a massive hassle making sure I didn't forget anyone… "Sorry?" I replied.
"You can feel sorry once you have ice cream and you've talked to Misaka tomorrow," she responded. Then she reverted to her normal cheerful tone of voice. "Ah, you said you wanted to do one of your training sessions?"
"Ah! Right, right," I agreed. "Yeah, I promised you and Saten I'd help you out, and then I got myself a concussion the whole time afterwards… Would you mind if I invited someone from school, too? Her name's Onizuka; she has a similar power to yours, and I needed to see if I could figure out a particular trick for her power."
"Oh, I'd be happy to meet more of your friends!" said Uiharu cheerfully. "I bet they're even fancier ladies than you are…"
"That's not a very high bar, Uiharu… She's more a coworker, but she definitely fits the ojou-sama cliche better than most of her part of the faction," I said. "She's sort of like Hokaze, but intense and sciencey instead of… Hokaze." In fairness, Hokaze was entirely capable of being intense, but even then it was usually limited to friendship and Gekota.
"Uwaah… Does she like tea?" Uiharu asked hopefully. "At snack times?"
I scanned my memories to see what I'd seen her drinking at the lab, and came up with a negative result. "I've only seen her drink straight black coffee," I replied, to which I heard Uiharu dying inside a little. I was pretty sure I could hear her flowery headband shrivelling over the phone. "Her power's a resetting power that she uses to restore herself- her hair included, so it's easy to test- and I suspect it has some overlap in regards to stasis." I hummed. "...Actually, do you know if Saten has any tricks or notable System Scan scores? I could see if anyone else I know has similar powers, so we're training to her strengths instead of just doing generic aerokinesis."
"Oh! Her best score is Clairvoyance," Uiharu replied. "Our teachers think it's mostly her AIM field, but she can do a little herself- she's not strong enough to move anything, but she can make sure her nose is always getting fresh air when she's sniffing around for things! She's trained her sense of smell so she's always motivated to try using her power; did you know that humans actually have a very good sense of smell compared to many other animals?"
"Really?" I asked. "I've heard it's stronger than most people think, just because it's not trained-" I'd heard a story of a man and his young daughter both pretending to live like badgers as a fun learning experience about nature, and being able to track a piece of cheese across a room, or something like that. "-but stronger that other animals…?"
"Yeah!" replied Uiharu. "Humans are hyper-omnivores, so we have to be sensitive to a lot more smells than most animals do! It's not very strong, but it's very detailed! And Saten's learned how to use her nose like that, so she can sniff out things that other people wouldn't even start to think about using."
"I didn't know that, actually," I said. I wasn't exactly enthusiastic to start researching the human sense of smell, given my AIM field's possible purpose. "She might have to keep an eye out for my AIM messing with hers if we're in close range, then- mine tends to overstimulate scent cells a little if I'm next to people. It's how the whole 'using water control as telepathy' thing got started, actually…"
"Hmm, well, she did say you smell nicer than most people…" she said. "And you don't smell of scented shampoo or anything, either…"
I decided not to comment on that, feeling my cheeks flush a little. Why did Railgun's half of the social sphere have to be like this…? Saten, Shirai, Kamijou's two friends…
"Oh! Have you thought about wearing perfume?" she asked me. "Shampoo might smell a bit strong if your AIM field makes it stronger, but perfume would fit you perfectly!"
"Huh. Funny thing, I did actually impulse-buy some perfume recently…" I said. "Not that I actually know how to use it, so it's just been stuffed in a drawer."
"Make sure you take it with you, then!" Uiharu responded immediately. "If you need an excuse, then it's helpful for Saten's training! I'll text you the address for the desserteria- I'll let Saten know, and you can call your other friend. See you there!"
Then she hung up. "...Oh you squirrely little rascal," I said, narrowing my eyes at the phone. I'd clearly just been played into doing something incredibly stereotypically girly… and given that Uiharu might not actually know me well enough to note that 'it might be helpful' was an excellent way to convince me to do something, one of my other friends was probably involved in it.
Given Hokaze's patience had run thin enough due to the constant stream of bullshit coming her friend's way to actually be a little snippy (by Hokaze standards) last night, and she'd clearly been in contact with the Railgun friend group while I was occupied with other things… Well, there were a few obvious flags there.
Onizuka was very pleased to hear that it was time for her power training, and she and Uiharu were already chatting outside the desserteria by the time I got there. They were surprisingly similar in appearance, actually- Onizuka was older, sure, but she wasn't exactly a towering individual by any means, so if you gave her a bowl-cut and put a flower headband on top, she'd look rather similar to a palette-swapped version of Uiharu.
"Lady Shokuhou," said Onizuka. "It's very odd to see you outside of school!"
"Eh, I do things occasionally," I replied. "Uiharu, it's been a while. How are you doing?"
"The exchange trip went very well!" she said. "Apart from the island exploding… I was telling Miss Onizuka about it when she asked. Are you doing better?"
"Honestly? The universe seems to be actively conspiring against me at the moment…" I said. "That said, I've done about ninety-five percent of my to-do list, so I'm feeling a lot better about it. And I think Hokaze is planning to tie me to a chair and make me watch Gekota shows if I don't relax, so I should be good on the stress front."
"Miss Hokaze's a good friend," she said. "Miss Onizuka thinks she's scary!"
I blinked confusedly at Onizuka, who shuffled self-consciously. "Well, she's very tall…" said Onizuka.
"That… is true," I agreed, not pointing out that I was both taller and wasn't someone she'd considered 'scary' by any stretch. "Say, do either of you go to these sorts of places frequently? I usually only eat out when Hokaze wants to talk at a cafe, and that's usually tea and snacks instead."
"I like to!" said Uiharu. "But Shirai keeps dragging me away for Judgment business whenever I'm about to eat…"
"That sounds inconvenient," said Onizuka, quietly empathetic. "My friend, Miss Tatsuki, often does the same when I want to get ramen and there's science to be done…"
I was pretty sure that 'science to be done' was a turn of phrase that Tatsuki had picked up from me.
"And to speak of friends," Onizuka continued. "Where would this other friend of yours be, Miss Uiharu?"
I didn't say anything, as Saten was already here. Her arrival would be made known imminently, and it was already too late for Uiharu to stop it even if she noticed Saten's arrival… I could totally stop it, but this was either flirting or trolling, and both of those could be solved by basic conversational skills given their friendship if so desired.
"U~i~ha~ru~!" came the obligatory cry. Whumph, went the skirt. "Oh, extra cute today!"
"M-m-m-miss S-s-saten!" complained Uiharu, making distressed marshmallow noises. Onizuka watched, before nodding to herself, presumably to neatly file Saten into the same box that any Tokiwadai student already had for Shirai's general existence.
"Hi Shokuhou!" said Saten, stepping beside the red-faced Uiharu she'd created. "And you must be Shokuhou's buddy, right?"
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Saten," said Onizuka. "Some might call me Lady Shokuhou's minion's minion?" The white-haired girl giggled when she noticed me giving her a side-eye.
"It's weird to think that your school has so much politics in it," said Saten. "It makes my head spin…! So what do you do in Tokiwadai?"
"Lady Shokuhou knows me and my friends best as a part of the school's Scientific Research Club," she said. "I'm part of the group that's trusted to work privately, as people often don't want information on their powers to spread… People are often afraid that other people benefitting from their knowledge will make them worse off," she sighed. "Many of us in the research club used to think that way- myself and Miss Tatsuki certainly did, before we joined her clique- but Lady Shokuhou cited enough papers to convince us otherwise."
"Ah, I remember Miss Shirai saying that there were many factions in Tokiwadai," commented Uiharu. "I want to hear more over a nice big sundae!"
We set ourselves up inside, and ordered our food. I wasn't quite in the mood for something excessively sweet, so I ordered dark chocolate ice cream and brownies. Uiharu got her promised vanilla sundae, which was probably bigger than her stomach. Saten and Onizuka went half-and-half on a deluxe mochi platter, and I could practically hear the sparks crackling between them when they realised they both had the same favourite mochi flavours. I was pretty sure some of the mochi were avocado-flavour, and that those were a subset that were being mentally duelled over. Avocado and escargot lasagna, avocado and mint sherbet straws… What was it with this city and weird applications of avocado?
Seeing that her promised information-provider was busy occupied by a mexican standoff with her best friend, her burning eyes turned to me. "I've asked Miss Wannai and Miss Hokaze about all the fine young lady things you do in Tokiwadai," she said. "But I haven't remembered to ask you, Miss Shokuhou- and that's going to change here and now!"
And then she produced a little clipboard that, presumably, had all her questions listed out thereupon. I immediately realised I wasn't getting out of this easily.
We went through the questions, Saten and Onizuka starting to contribute once their epic mochi battle over their favourites had come to a conclusion. This was mostly a contrast between me eagerly taking the opportunity to complain about literally everything, and Onizuka being a dastardly traitor who kept providing reasonable reasons why things were so, or why they were very fancy and thus good.
She saved the faction questions until the end of the list. "Ojou-sama food, ojou-sama transport, ojou-sama decorations…" she hummed, reviewing a few items she'd already asked about. "That's almost everything- what are these mysterious 'factions', then, Miss Shokuhou, Miss Onizuka?" Uiharu asked the two of us.
"Factions are the heart and soul of the Tokiwadai experience!" said Onizuka. "They're fields where the finest of our already-fine roster of students can let their influence be felt throughout the whole school, uplifting the people around them, showing off their pride, and letting their ideals resonate through the whole school!"
"They're a pain," I grumbled.
Onizuka looked towards me. "What do you mean, my Queen?" she asked me.
"Well, me and Hokaze founded the Constitutionals because Hokaze really, really liked the idea of a friend club that you could just volunteer to join and then you're a friend," I said. "Which, like, fair. People make relationships more complicated than they need to be- a relationship that you've volunteered and worked for is no less real than a friendship that just happened, as long as it's mutual, right?" I suggested.
"That's very true," Onizuka noted. "The respect between you and Miss Tatsuki is like that, is it not?"
"Who's Tatsuki?" asked Saten.
"Ah- she's the leader of the Scientific Research Club, and the subfaction in the Constitutionals known as the 'Nihilists'," I said. "Looks sort of like Saten, but with glasses." There were some other differences- her hair was more red-brunette than black, and her facial features were a lot sharper- but my summary wasn't too far off. "She's incredibly perceptive, and very intelligent besides. If we hadn't decided teaming up was more productive for everyone involved, she'd probably be leading her own faction by now."
"Miss Tatsuki first joined the Shokuhou Clique back when it was known as 'the Dollhouse'," revealed Onizuka.
Uiharu looked at me. "The Dollhouse?" she repeated questioningly. "Miss Shokuhou doesn't really…"
Saten said what she was thinking. "Shokuhou's boobs are too big to be called a 'doll'," she said. I facepalmed. "Plus she's got those runners' thighs, and-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," I said, mostly just to cut her off. "But… hey, do you happen to have any pictures from last year, Onizuka?"
"Certainly," Onizuka replied in that soft voice of hers, and pulled out her phone to start scrolling. After a minute, she pulled out a picture from September, last year.
It was a picture of me and Tatsuki, from behind, in our gym uniforms. I raised an eyebrow at Onizuka. "Miss Tatsuki has trained intensely to recognise people's thoughts from their body language," she explained, mostly to Saten and Uiharu. "Originally, she was quite antagonistic towards Miss Shokuhou; she joined her faction to try and acquire resources to start a faction of her own. I took this so she could observe that she was relaxed rather than hostile towards our Queen at that point."
"Oh, I see why… Hey, what's with all the bandages?" asked Saten.
I'd told Uiharu before, and the information- minus the damage done to the aggressors rather than the intended victim- was public information. "I had some personal trouble with terrorists last year, too," I said. "They got me pretty good; the scarring was almost done by the time this picture was taken, I recall the conversation we were having, but I still needed the bandages to actually finish healing."
"Was it DA back then, too…?" asked Saten, eyes full of concern.
"Similar, but different," I replied. "Both anti-Level 5, at least. They were basically an early branch of Skill-Out, back before Level Upper really split the level lines… A bunch of people under the impression that Level 5 AIM suppressed lower-level AIM decided I was an easy target, found a bunch of robot suits, and then attacked me. I got out in… not quite 'one piece', but I still have two working legs and two working kidneys despite their best efforts."
"You said it was mostly cosmetic last year," Onizuka commented, frowning.
I paused. "Uh," I said intelligently, trying to think up a reasonable response to that.
I had a tendency to downplay at the time and to snark in full (minus the crime parts) at a later date, and nobody had really called me out on it before… Though, granted, 'a later date' was usually 'never' given the relatively few times I'd been asked about things like Deadlock after the fact.
"...Well," I suggested, "do you really need two kidneys?"
"Yes, Miss Shokuhou!" Uiharu responded, pouting at me in disappointment. "You definitely need two kidneys!"
"Which is why it's a good thing that I still have two working kidneys," I said sagely, to a thoroughly unconvinced audience. "...Umm, where were we?" I blatantly deflected.
Saten huffed, but decided to throw me a bone. "Well, first we were talking about why factions were a pain," she said. "Then it was who Tatsuki was. And now it's about why your group used to be called the Dollhouse, but I think that one's actually been answered." She looked down at the last-year picture of me. "Wow… Did you use your powers to mind-control the puberty fairy?"
"...What?" I asked, followed by Uiharu turning red at the implication, and Onizuka tilting her head curiously.
"Your power works by controlling stuff that's similar to hormones, right?" said Saten. "So… wait, no, you're as shy as Uiharu is when it comes to that stuff," she decided, mercifully shooting down her own theory. "...But if someone else asked, could you use it on the stem cells in their-"
My face went red when I realised where she was going with this- "Moving on!" I interrupted, leaving Saten even more amused, Uiharu as a tomato, and Onizuka nodding thoughtfully. "Umm- No, Tatsuki's already been explained… Ah! Well, I get a bit self-conscious about people calling it the Shokuhou Clique," I explained. "Someone called it the Dollhouse, people used to call me the Doll of Tokiwadai before I got the 'Queen' title, and I was honestly more willing to call it the Dollhouse than the Shokuhou Clique, so it stuck for a while. Tatsuki making her own mini-clique inside ours happened at basically the same time as I got the Queen title-"
"-and the same time as when her-" Onizuka tried to interject.
"-and at the same time as my figure changed," I preemptively corrected, "therefore 'the Dollhouse' stopped fitting the clique roughly at around the time we rebranded to 'the Constitutionals', since we set up a whole bunch of rules so the clique would be stable, polite and functional, even if there were multiple competing bases of power."
"I believe it's one of the largest contributing factors to our Queen's influence within Tokiwadai," Onizuka said. "By leaving room for multiple competing personalities to separate out within the clique, she can much more effectively use her unique talents and resources to have people join or appreciate the Constitutionals- her booking list for the esper training sessions, the various associated clubs, and other such useful things…" She nodded to herself at that. "It promotes in her faction a cooperative, constructive view on things that the other factions lack- which is why they've failed at consolidating power, and Lady Shokuhou has succeeded."
"You make it sound like I'm some scheming mastermind," I grumbled. "If they accepted being buddy-buddy as a valid solution to problems, I'm sure the other cliques would catch up…"
"But they have not, and you have, my Queen," Onizuka said sagely. "And yet they still attempt to compete with such unconstructive methods… I think I understand why you say they're 'a pain', Lady Shokuhou. Their ignorance frustrates you?"
"Eh… I wouldn't really say 'ignorance'..." I hedged.
"Their hubris?" asked Uiharu innocently, seeing an opportunity to tease me and deciding to put her concern on hold for long enough to take it. "Their pride? Their folly? Their inability to see the foolishness in their refusal to consider such basic solutions to such simple problems, Miss Shokuhou?"
"...Those words are technically correct," I admitted, "but they all give completely the wrong impression about what I'm thinking." I paused. "Except not for Kobayashi's, she just likes having her own budget and social circle, I think. I like her. And a few others aren't that bad, either. Most of them see being in charge as an end in and of itself, too- it's not like my own goals in running a clique are any more or less valid than theirs, I just can't follow their opinion long enough to acknowledge their feelings on it, y'know?"
"Ah," said Saten, grinning. "So it's like they're all Shirai and being in charge is Misaka, right?"
"...I hate that you're basically right, Saten," I informed them all.
"Now, now, my fellow young ladies!" said Uiharu. "We're supposed to be helping Shokuhou relax after she got into all that trouble. We shouldn't be making her blood pressure rise as much as she makes ours rise!" I gave her a grumpy look. "Why don't we finish our desserts and let her do something esper-related instead?"
__________
"We didn't end up making any exceptional progress, alas," I told Michan, who was currently folded up on a beanbag as she held her tablet in font of her, somewhere in wider Tokyo. "But we did get a lot of useful information. Saten's powers work best when they're directed cones or air-spouts; she's been doing it semi-consciously with her sniff-'em powers. I think the new girl has something like that? And while there's a difference in the ranges it's affecting, Uiharu and Onizuka definitely seem to have the same powers."
We'd been chatting for a good half-hour by now. I'd been eager to hear about Michan's time with her family; I'd heard a lot of them from her talks with Dolly, and her recollections of them had been very fond. The two of them had even popped by to say hello, once or twice- I'd ended up getting a bit self-conscious under their gazes, so it hadn't been for long, but it was a pleasure to see them. She was an only child, so there were no mini-Michans to coo over, alas.
"You said something about smell stuff being an opportunity to test out that perfume you bought?" asked Michan. "Did you try it out? I was wondering what you thought of it, actually."
"Uh, yeah- I think they tried out more than I did, though," I said. "Apparently test strips are something you apply perfume to, rather than something you buy that already has the perfume on it? Saten had some of them that she's been using to practise with her sense of smell. I was thinking it was like spray deodorant or something where you let it float in the air a little, but apparently not." I hummed. "I did end up finally learning how it's supposed to work, though…"
Michan grinned. "Y'know, you put yourself on these great big adventures trying to help people, and then you get self-conscious about something little like this," she said. "You really are a dork sometimes, bestie dearest. Did you enjoy it?"
"...Actually, you know what?" I said. "I think I did, sort of. I thought it'd just sort of end up annoying me if I left it on too long, or if my mood changed, but wearing the- it was the papaya and sandalwood one… It was sort of relaxing, kinda?" I shrugged. "I dunno. I could see myself doing it again? Trying it in different situations."
"I'm glad to hear you weren't wasting your money!" she said, pleased. I snorted- she was certainly one to talk about wasting money, whatever she was doing with that Level 4 budget of hers… "So, that's something you've enjoyed doing this week, other than the usual busywork. I'm glad! And Junko says you've got something lined up for tomorrow, too?"
"Well, it wasn't all relaxing these past few days," I huffed. "A friend of a friend ended up giving us both panic attacks when we realised someone else had messed something up… and the whole problem was about who I was telling about things, so I've only been able to complain about it to Hokaze."
"Oh… Nothing too bad, I hope?" asked Michan.
I snorted. "I hope so too… I don't think anyone has all the information, but we're taking the advice of the person who knows the parts we don't. The advice is basically 'continue as you were', so it's not too bad, just… stressful." After a moment, I sighed. "But… yeah. Not much we can do about that," I said. "So Hokaze's got her work cut out for her… We've got the spa thing all set up for tomorrow. I'm still not sure about it, but it's certainly a thing."
"Humm… You weren't certain about the perfume either, and that turned out all right, didn't it Misaki?" she commented. I hummed; she wasn't exactly wrong about that. "So tell me all about your plans for it, okay?"
"It's pretty standard stuff, I think?" I said. "I'm not doing any of those pedicure or manicure things, my feet would be stinging if I went out for a proper run with my feet like that… There's stuff like reiki-" A sort of laying-of-hands that supposedly worked like the less realistic interpretations of fengshui. "-but I think I'd just feel silly doing something like that. So I think the list is one of those body wrap things, some massage stuff, and then the sauna and pool stuff…?"
"That does sound very relaxing," agreed Michan. "Let's hope you can keep Misaka's friend from doing anything silly!"
I nodded. "Yeah, she can be a handful at times," I agreed.
"Man, I'm almost disappointed I'm missing it…" sighed Michan. "But you've got me other presents for when I get back! Everyone's gonna know that Mental Out is my super-sweet little kohai…!"
"Yeah, yeah, don't break your voicebox making those sounds," I snarked, as she made various 'squee' noises to herself. "Man, you've been so excited, I bet you're going to get your secret cornstarch vault discovered by nosy middle-schoolers on the first day or something."
"Ah, my secrets are far too well-hidden for things like that to happen," Michan replied. "And besides, it's way too hard to stay under the radar when you get into trouble so often, eh, Misaki? Don't sweat it!"
"I guess you're right on that front," I sighed fondly. "Next time I'm going to have to pull Hokaze from nowhere, just to make sure it's fair."
"You make sure to do that, you're allowed to have more than one bestie, y'know?" she replied. "In fact, I actively encourage it! We've been taking the time to chat ourselves… She said something about a guy called 'Kamijou'?"
"Ah yeah, I owe him lunch after I tried to get him lunch for punching a delinquent," I said. "The card reader was broken and I wasn't carrying cash… Why?"
She was muttering something about 'flags' and 'wrong route'. "Ah- nothing!" she said. I raised an eyebrow at that. "But you enjoy your spa day, okay? Senpai commands it!"
"How could I deny my glorious, beautiful and intelligent senpai in such a vital mission," I deadpanned. "I shall try my hardest to be as relaxed as possible then, Michan. See you when you get back!"
"See you then, Misaki!" she replied. "Enjoy your trip!"
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Of course this raises the question of whom Mitori considers to be the right route upon which to raise flags.
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- Pronouns
- Reader
Getting a pet is all well and good, power to MisaSI, but there isn't anything wrong with a plainish room. Some people just don't invest themselves in the layout of there room emotionally enough to ever decorate it. If someone gifted me a poster, or some nicknack, I'd find a place for it out of obligation, but forget about it after, because ultimately the decor of a room isn't something I can pay attention to or even really appreciate beyond whether it's cramped, comfortable, or smells weird.
Magnus you ignoramus, is the sum of your worth a dangerous mage roleplay to run roughshod over anyone around Index in the name of her safety? This is why a pair of teenager bodyguards with little in the way social skills is just epic failure waiting to happen.
Hmm, glad MisaSI is learning usefull details, but it feels like Index should have been able to hint enough for someone to infer the existence of the three major magic organizations given the amount of time she had to consult while they were on a no further experiments phase after Onizuka's accident.
This was a nice little social, until MisaSI out her foot in her mouth. She ignores the possibility of sharing alarming information so much she has no proper frame of reference for dealing with an overly honest moment provoking an inquiry from her conversation partners.
Right routes? Hmm. Hmm. I'm sensing that Shirai won't get what she wants from the Sauna visit, so maybe Misaka and MisaSI? The two have been bonding recently, and someone she has to build a natural trust with is more romantic and emotional than someone who can just give MisaSI permission to read her mind and prove it. It would also make double sense for flags and wrong routes, since Hokaze naturally wouldn't fail to mention that Misaka has displayed interest in Touma, which could Michan is saying that both girls are on the wrong route.
Magnus you ignoramus, is the sum of your worth a dangerous mage roleplay to run roughshod over anyone around Index in the name of her safety? This is why a pair of teenager bodyguards with little in the way social skills is just epic failure waiting to happen.
Hmm, glad MisaSI is learning usefull details, but it feels like Index should have been able to hint enough for someone to infer the existence of the three major magic organizations given the amount of time she had to consult while they were on a no further experiments phase after Onizuka's accident.
This was a nice little social, until MisaSI out her foot in her mouth. She ignores the possibility of sharing alarming information so much she has no proper frame of reference for dealing with an overly honest moment provoking an inquiry from her conversation partners.
Right routes? Hmm. Hmm. I'm sensing that Shirai won't get what she wants from the Sauna visit, so maybe Misaka and MisaSI? The two have been bonding recently, and someone she has to build a natural trust with is more romantic and emotional than someone who can just give MisaSI permission to read her mind and prove it. It would also make double sense for flags and wrong routes, since Hokaze naturally wouldn't fail to mention that Misaka has displayed interest in Touma, which could Michan is saying that both girls are on the wrong route.
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- Location
- Santiago de Chile
Ah but you forgot one possibility. Consider for a moment that Hokaze is as subtle as Touma's right fist, and that only dunderheads on the level of Misaki and Hokaze herself would miss the obvious signals.
Besides, the Hokaze route would left Mitori as the sole claimant to the tile of bestie! Win-win!
- Pronouns
- Reader
I don't know, Michan feels awfully supportive of an expanded buddies list, maybe even beyond Hokaze and herself.
Though I'm not actually dismissing the possibility, just stating the one I see as more likely. Frankly, have you considered the possibility that Hokaze also told Michan about MisaSI issues with Misaka and some of there interactions, and how they could come across as an awkward tsundere delinquent not knowing how to behave around the schools pretty princess, and vice versa?
SV5195R
C-Weapon
- Location
- Russian Federation
Ultimately, this could just mean that Michan needs more information.
I wonder if they have actually been that obvious at this point in the story, besides Hokaze princess-carrying MisaSI out of school for relaxation time, the "romantic fiction crisis" and – in retrospect – the Shirai overlay incident from the very first chapter. Of course, we the readers only see what ShokuSI sees, filtered through her opinions and biases (but can notice things that she doesn't), so who knows. As per later chapters in the SB thread, of course, the signs that Junko is developing romantic feelings for Misaki become increasingly obvious, but our heroine still manages to miss them. The only evident MisaHoka shipper in the story has so far been Shirai.
Of course, MisaSI herself is also as romantic as a box of rocks, by all indications, although she apparently isn't blind to blatant flirting. This is made more complicated that it's sometimes hard to tell how she feels about anything or anyone if it isn't explicitly stated (either in the dialogue or via the description of her body language or sentence structure), and she probably doesn't have the best grasp of her own feelings either (due to many, many factors).
God help her if she falls for someone.
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- Pronouns
- Reader
That was a shoulder carry, like magnus had done to index in an earlier chapter. Shirai overlay can't be trusted entirely, because remember the overlay wasn't complete.
I can't comment on future chapters, but right now I'll just say that things are up in the air.
Chapter 29
- Location
- England. Tea and scones, wot wot!
I strolled along, positively jaunty, having finally got the last of the bandages and casts off of me. Freedom at last!
I'd give it a few days before I got back to jogging. A walk in the park, on the other hand, was… well, still a walk in the park, but in the metaphorical sense. It was quite lovely to be out and about at distances longer than a few minutes' walk from the nearest bus stop, and the end of Summer wouldn't quite come around until after the Daihaseisai, it was still close enough that I wanted to make the most of the heat we had left.
And I did actually have the free time to be wandering around like this! My to-do list was basically complete, thankfully. I couldn't really get into the spirit of Daihaseisai given how skewed it was towards the high-power schools, and how much it was reliant on medical standards instead of safety standards, I was looking forwards to plotting how our team could do our best anyway. I had another System Scan after the weekend, and I'd probably be confirming my availability for that 'athlete's pledge' thing, but neither of those were really chores all things considered.
The only major concern remaining was what Magnus had meant specifically, about Academy City having magical equivalents in the major Churches.
The response I'd got from Index had basically been 'don't worry about it!'. Well, not quite in those words- she'd been rather angry at the situation I'd ended up in. She'd ended up giving me the contact details for both Magnus, as well as another of her bodyguards called Kanzaki Kaori (who had apparently arrived shortly after Magnus had reported in about the Taowu). As far as she was concerned, it would be more problematic to suddenly change what we were doing than anything else, but they'd try to get us permission for an explanation as soon as possible… In the meantime, both her bodyguards would still be in the city, so if she'd unknowingly dragged us into trouble, they would be there to help pull us out of it.
How much help they'd be was something she hadn't been able to explain over the phone, alas. After establishing what would be appropriate usage of the phone numbers, since boundaries were important, I'd distributed the information to Tatsuki and Hokaze.
Granted, it was Index establishing those boundaries, so Hokaze was probably going to call Magnus and try to guilt him over pointing a sword at me until he was chastised enough to be befriended.
I, for one, was going to stay out of that… Given my behaviour back in my first encounter with ITEM, I'd be a hypocrite for calling someone out for pointing deadly weapons at people during an emotional crisis. Despite being an asshole, his brief interactions with Index were plenty enough to tell that the 'idiocy' he'd accused me of was 'putting Index in danger'.
…In retrospect I wasn't quite sure why Misaka had forgiven me for the particle beam incident. I certainly wasn't feeling eager to interact with him after behaving similarly.
Either way, Index had made clear her intentions to bail us out if anything went wrong, and Hokaze had probably already either given Magnus a Mister Rogers-level earful on his behaviour or had made plans to hunt him down after she'd been hung up on, so everyone seemed satisfied for now. We'd been reassured that we were both on the same side (at the ground level, at least), and neither group had any reasonable means of speeding up the timetable on getting the full picture (as far as I was aware). So I'd take what was offered on that front, though I wasn't sure whether that was the trust or the crisis exhaustion speaking.
"...I really need to stop musing about all the ways that things could go horribly wrong," I muttered to the whirligig beetles I'd been staring at, having stopped my walk to look at them while I did some intensive pondering. I wasn't putting my faith in Academy City. Admittedly, I was instead putting my faith in an all-consuming nun, an edgelord with atrocious manners, and somebody I'd never even met, but I wasn't exactly trying to clear a very high bar here.
I pushed myself off, and took a deep breath of fresh parkland air. My nerves were still shot, but otherwise I was feeling pretty good about myself this morning- it was the afternoon, specifically, where the spa meeting would be happening. We'd be meeting up around lunchtime, and I'd called dibs on getting falafel pittas for lunch, because you could never go wrong with a good falafel pitta.
Actually, wouldn't it be getting close to the meeting-time anyway? I checked my mental clock- another bit of passive code I had for convenience and practise, set to recalibrate every half-hour on the times seen by people around me- and noted that I still had some time to burn.
A passive alert pinged me; taking a look over in that direction, I noted there were two familiar faces- well, a semi-familiar face and a familiar hand, at least- who seemed to have gotten into trouble. "Ah, such misfortune," I sighed- though from the looks of it, this wasn't really a situation I needed to feel all that stressed about.
While normally their escape route from the thugs that were chasing them would be perfectly viable, a partially-repaired suspiciously-melted hole to the subway below was blocking their path (those in the know would say 'melted-down', if they looked at the details of the morning news), surrounded by an Anti-Skill cordon just secure enough to block their passage. They probably wouldn't be having the best of times if they got caught out alone in there. I was in a good position to intercept when they reached it though, and the group in question were rowdy high-schoolers rather than Skill-Outs- though probably not any more pleasant for it. I took my stroll in the direction of their pursuit, towards one of the alleyways at the edge of the park.
In the meantime, I tapped a few optic and auditory lobes, to get an idea of exactly what was going on.
"Get back here, you idiots!" hollered their leader, flinging rocks and sticks from the park ahead of him as he ran. Kamijou yelped as one of them threw a heavy-looking baseball bat, spinning through the air; he ducked rather than try to block it, letting it whizz over his head and back to another delinquent's hands.
While a noticeable majority of gangs were Skill-Out, a lot of the more influential were led by powerful espers; this was one of them, being a bone-chillingly strong Level 3… at least, by Level 0 standards. He was a fairly bog-standard telekinetic, one of those types of espers that were a dime-a-dozen, if somewhat less likely to reach the higher levels than other types. Two more of his followers were also telekinetics of not-insignificant strength, including one that was restricted to throwing his attuned baseball bat like a boomerang, as I'd already seen. They were wearing school uniforms with the identifiable parts removed, which was common for esper gangs; they were often drawn along school lines, and since schools and power were associated, recognisable school uniforms were something of a mark of strength among the city's less reputable population.
A cluster of similarly-powered Level 3s or 2s leading a gang of 1s and 0s was a fairly common structure, since the more common powers were more likely to feel sidelined by more unique or powerful espers, and they tended to have personality traits in common. "Damnit, stop running!" another one yelled. "You'll pay for stepping on our turf!" A gang with this sort of structure was more likely to have the prime real estate like this park; their presence usually kept Skill-Outs to the alleyways for fear of their own safety, and the security bots were a lot less likely to mess with someone in uniform.
In a lot of ways, despite their higher status in society, guys like these were worse than Skill-Out. They tended to be at the top of the normal gang food chain through raw power; Level 3s were rare in gangs like this, and Level 4s were basically unheard of. There were three main reasons this was the case, I suspected.
First was piranha theory- my own pet term for what was going on. Piranha didn't shoal because they were stronger together; they shoaled because they'd get picked off alone. Power scaling wasn't linear, so a Level 4 was basically immune to Level 0 thugs, and there just wasn't enough concentration of force for your average Level 4 delinquent to need to team up with anyone save their friends. Railgun and I could wander pretty much blindly, but that was laughable for a Level 2 who wanted to roam the quiet streets during school hours.
Second was that higher-levels tended to have alternative outlets for their aggression. Take the Tokiwadai factional system. While I was mostly leading a faction because I much preferred a cooperative environment to an antagonistic one (and because Hokaze had made puppy-eyes at me), and the funds and prestige from a faction were a massive boon to that goal, the prestige was a goal in and of itself for others. Their approaches varied, but a number of faction leaders in Tokiwadai might've fallen into delinquency themselves if their aggression and pride hadn't been turned inwards on the school system rather than left to roam freely- which was very good for Judgment's sanity, Tokiwadai's reputation, and Academy City's repair bills.
Third… well, people like Mugino had to have ended up where they were somehow. Their sheer power meant that high-level through-and-through delinquents stopped being nuisances, and started being valuable pawns. They basically stopped being street gangs and started being Yakuza.
Granted, all this musing was completely irrelevant to Kamijou and Aogami, the latter of which was obviously less used to being chased by delinquents than Kamijou.
"It wasn't even for a cute girl… this time, Kami!" gasped Aogami. "And I ended up getting dragged… into it too…! Aren't you supposed to be… a good luck charm?!"
"You butted in to help that guy just as much as I did!" wailed Kamijou as he sprinted, just a bit ahead of Aogami. "And haven't you noticed that it's me that has to dodge everything, too, rather than you?! Kamijou-chan's face is going to be caved in by a baseball bat at this rate! Agh… such misfortune…!"
Case in point- he had to duck the flying baseball bat once again, and got a reasonably-sized stone narrowly missing his kidney in favour of hitting him in the butt, making him yelp. Aogami had a small stick deflect harmlessly off his vibrant blue hair, bouncing over his head in the process. "Oh, you're right… Way to go, Kami…!" he panted. "...Wait, if we rescued a guy… Does that mean he's going to catch Kami-yan disease too…?!"
"That's not a real thing, you idiot!" Kamijou retorted. "Next you're going to tell me that some Tokiwadai girl is going to show up and make all this running useless in the first place!"
…I grinned. Well, far be it from me to ignore such a polite invitation as that!
It took me a few seconds of planning and pre-adjustment to set it all up, given that there were like ten guys chasing after the two idiots- too many to do at once for a complex operation like mid-movement pausing, even if running on a straight line after a single target at the moment made it much easier. After the setup was done, though, I paused them all at the same time- they all stopped abruptly in their tracks.
Apart from baseball-bat guy, who fell over first, to make sure he didn't get bowled over by that bat of his.
The two boys looked behind themselves, staring in confusion; the baseball bat clattered to the ground behind the frozen horde of delinquents. Then, with a resigned expression, Kamijou stuck his hand on his head again.
I suppressed my rising giggles.
Seeing that the danger was no longer actively chasing them, Aogami folded in on himself, gasping for breath. "You know… I'd be laughing like hell right now if I could breathe…!" he commented. "What's that, Kami? It's the sound of me calling it like it is…!"
"Shut up…" Kamijou grumbled.
They stood there gormlessly a few moments longer. "...Hey, isn't this the moment where the girl suddenly reveals herself?" asked Aogami, somewhat confusedly.
I put two fingers to my ear, in a fairly common gesture to let people know you were actually talking to someone instead of just talking at air or staring into space. "Oi, I was gonna show up at the giant hole you mistook for an escape route, but I couldn't refuse a comedic opening like that!" I responded, beaming my words over as I said them. "It would've been much less of a hassle if I played overwatch for a bit longer; Judgment gets annoyed if I use my powers like this, and I'm going to have to keep walking for a bit longer to actually reach you."
"Hey, it's the cute Tokiwadai girl who called you on the phone and iced all our drinks!" Aogami said, for Kamijou's benefit, his hand clearly signifying that he wasn't returning any calls. "Hi there," he said to me, "Shokohou-chan, wasn't it?"
"Yup," I replied. "Aogami, right?"
"Ah, the ojou-sama remembers me!" he replied. "Man, it's a shame that Tsuchimikado is never around when you're here… No matter how much we tell him, he doesn't buy a word we say about you! Maybe it's because you're too busty to appeal to his imouto-loving instincts? He's a total-"
"If you finish that sentence I'm going to use my incredible psychic powers to make you dye your hair bright orange," I responded.
He didn't reply for a moment. That moment lingered… and just as I was about to apologise, he started, "I've thought about it, and while I'd usually do anything a cute girl says, that sounds like too much of a commitment-"
I dope-slapped him with his own hand before he could finish that sentence.
"Please… get a verbal filter?" I complained, pinching the bridge of my nose. "If only for the sanity of the people around you."
"What the hell are you two talking about?" asked Kamijou, only able to hear Aogami's side of the conversation. "Wait, is she asking you out?" I dope-slapped him with Aogami's hand, too. "Ow!"
"Hmm, does this sudden outburst of violence mean that she's a stony tsun-tsun of the same kind as our beloved Iron Wall?" commented Aogami, mostly to himself. "Or is it that she's a dere-tsun-yan-dere that's unfailingly polite in public, but becomes increasingly violent as-"
I dope-slapped Aogami again- perhaps a little harder than necessary- and turned on my heel in the opposite direction. "Just for that, I'm knocking all these people out and leaving you to explain it to Judgment," I informed him. "And you're not getting promised a free lunch out of it, or being invited to the ojou-sama lunch date on behalf of Kamijou's lunch that I promised him for exactly the same thing, as you might have been otherwise, either. …Bemoan thy misfortune, thou art commanded," I added, because I was fairly sure I'd sounded a little too frosty.
"Man, I can't tell if that's a tsuntsun thing to say or a tsundere thing to say!" Aogami complained, as the delinquents all dropped to the floor semi-abruptly. "Hey, Kami she said-"
I promptly cut the audio connection, more than a little ticked off at the idiot.
But a part of me was glad to have established a filterless teenaged boy as my archnemesis of the day, instead of hyper-organised Skill-Out gangs, enraged faction girls, or angry magicians. Today's shoe had dropped, and it was a harmless, squeaky, comically-small clown shoe bopping me lightly on the forehead, instead of a steel-toed boot to the face.
As I walked away, I vaguely heard a cry of- "...and now I still have to feed Index myself today! Such misfortune…!"
I found my lips quirking upwards. I'd have to see if Aogami actually listened to the 'Judgment is your job' part; otherwise, I might actually owe the guy two lunches…
Anyway, that was a thought for later. I'd successfully burned my time, and helped out a positive acquaintance in the process- which meant the only lunch I needed to focus on right now was my own.
Which meant freshly-cooked falafels and a bajillion kinds of diced salads, shredded salads, and pickles, all shoved into delicious toasted bread pockets until they were overflowing with crunchy and flavourful vegetable and falafel goodness, lined with hummus to seal up the sides of the pitta against excess liquid or overstuffing-induced holes, and with tangy garlic sauce on top… If Railgun or Shirai disapproved of my lunch choices- I'd already eaten this with Hokaze a few times before, being my preferred eating-out lunch choice when left to my own initiative- then they were being burned as heretics for their blatant heresy against good taste.
__________
"Miss Shokuhou, are you entirely certain that these pittas are the right size for girls as refined as us…?" asked Shirai, staring at her pitta dubiously.
While my pitta wasn't as big as my head, it was probably closer than it had any right to be. "Yes," I replied with conviction. "The larger a pitta is, the greater the ratio of vitamin-rich and delicious fillings to chewy and delicious but calorie-dense bread; the ideal pitta is as large as you can reasonably stomach. Back me up here, Hokaze."
"I don't eat pittas often, but they're very delicious whenever my Queen and I visit," she confirmed. "I don't eat here regularly, and I wouldn't want to if I had an ability less calorie-intensive than Rampage Dress, but for an active Judgment officer like yourself there's nothing to be concerned about!"
Shirai glanced to Railgun, who was still staring herself. "...We don't need a knife and fork for this?" she asked, a little uncertainly.
"...No, Misaka," I said. "You do not need a knife and fork for a pitta."
Her own concerns assuaged- pittas were not exactly common fare in Japan- Misaka took her first bite.
Shirai, seeing her Onee-sama take the lead, promptly followed, pecking daintily at the salad filling in a few places. "...How does one get one's mouth around it?" she said, looking up to see how others were doing.
Hokaze and Railgun were taking reasonable bites in a few places. I, meanwhile, was trying to eat enough of the filling to get my teeth around one edge properly, so that I could then alternate on the other side, with mouthfuls large enough to shamelessly stuff my cheeks like a hamster. Our home economics teacher (who was somewhat biassed towards fancy things like fixing persian rugs and setting the correct cutlery out in a fancy meal) would be weeping with shame at having such a hoover-like child in her class if she saw me now.
Shirai stared for a moment, before resuming her pecking, if now in a somewhat more systematic manner that would let her follow a similar approach in a more ladylike fashion.
Railgun swallowed. "You know, I was thinking this might be bland, but I really like this," she said. "A lot of other western food skimps on the pickled flavours…"
"I would certainly agree with that, Miss Misaka," said Hokaze, given that I had too much food in my mouth to respond to the conversation with any sort of alacrity. "And the crunchy falafels combined with the sauce and the more watery cucumbers, tomatoes and pickles in the salad… It reminds me of katsudon! Wouldn't you agree?"
"Ah, right," said Railgun with a smile. "I didn't think of that, but I get what you're saying! It's got that crunchiness and moistness in its texture when you're eating it, right?"
"Rrmhph," I commented, keeping my mouth politely closed in the process
Shirai swallowed. "I don't disagree, but it's rather hard to eat this in a lady-like manner, wouldn't you say, Onee-sama?" commented Shirai.
Railgun gestured towards Hokaze, who was currently in second-place for how much she'd eaten, providing no further explanation. I nodded vigorously in agreement.
When I came to a pause, I spoke up. "Oh, I saw Kamijou today," I noted. Hokaze made immediate sparkly eyes, Shirai was suddenly very invested with a face that told me she was plotting something Railgun-related, and Railgun's expression turned mildly peeved, the big tsundere. "Well, not really 'saw'- he and his pervert friend were being chased by an esper gang; I knocked out the people chasing them because they were about to get blocked by some of that damage from whatever happened yesterday night, and then wandered off before we got there because his pervert friend got on my nerves."
"...You're saying you stumbled into a fight with another group of ruffians today, my Queen?" said Hokaze, with a concerningly serene smile.
"Well it wasn't really a 'fight'," I justified, "and I ended up letting Kamijou's friend explain it to Judgment instead of me, but, uh…"
"Fortunately, I've already organised some of our faction members and associates to ensure that our nice relaxing day at the spa isn't interrupted," she said. "You know, when I was a young girl, I used to menacingly tell people about 'my inner urge to destroy', and make silly gestures over my face. I've matured significantly since then, fortunately, ahahah… So I'm very glad that we have so many friends to take this burden off my shoulders! It's very kind of them."
"Oh, is that why you were on the phone to that Tatsuki girl earlier…?" questioned Railgun cautiously, while Shirai muttered to herself about the temperature suddenly dropping.
Read: in sheer frustration over my inability to stay out of stressful situations for more than five seconds at a time, she'd dragged the Nihilists out to… set up a defensive perimeter in our general area against shenanigans, according to a quick Mental Out search for nearby Constitutionals. If anyone dared to violate this perimeter with anything but peace and tranquillity being directed towards my general vicinity, my best guess was that she'd spontaneously develop into a Level 5 for the sole purpose of going Nanoha on the asses of anyone that dared get between me and a relaxing situation.
Hokaze took a deep breath, and took another bite out of her pitta. "But enough about that," she said. "I'm glad you're enjoying lunch, my Queen!"
"I didn't even do anything…" I grumbled, and followed suit with the pitta-chomping. "It wasn't even stressful! Apart from Kamijou's friend not understanding that his overactive communication should be left firmly inside his head for the sake of me not having to hear it…"
"I'm not surprised that the idiot's friends are just as annoying as he is," grumbled Railgun.
"Honestly, I don't get what gives you that impression of him," I said. "He seems pretty non-confrontational to me, minus the butting-in if he thinks someone's in trouble."
"The butting-in is exactly it!" she complained, sparking a little. "He doesn't take credit for anything, he doesn't accept favours- he just goes, 'oh, this seems like a job for Kamijou and his weird power'- they don't even label it a Level 1, even when it's blocked at least three different Level 5 powers… Grr, he drives me up the wall!"
"If you used a tsundere translator that'd be a lot of compliments," I said conversationally, and then immediately took another bite out of my pitta.
Railgun went red. "I- you- sh-shut up!" she countered intelligently, her pitta only remaining in her grip through long-trained reflexes as she stood up and slammed her free hand on the table. "Like I'd ever think of that idiot like that!" I just smirked in reply.
"I have to say, I do agree with Miss Misaka," said Hokaze. "Constant fighting doesn't seem like the basis for a stable relationship…"
Given that a good fifty percent of her interactions with Railgun were getting zapped, Shirai was obligated to provide a counterargument. "Is that really true though?!" she demanded. "They say that shared adrenaline-filled experiences only make love stronger- so while an ape such as him is entirely unbecoming of a lady as fine as Railgun," she explained, in full gremlin mode now, "I must protest that violence such as that is inherently hopeless for a situation in which true love may be expressed!"
"But Mister Kamijou isn't an ape!" said Hokaze, sending an earnest and mildly sad look in Shirai's direction- the gremlin reeled as her heart was pierced through the overwhelming force of Hokaze's puppy-dog eyes. "I've only met him a few times, but he's wonderfully kind, courageous and motivated!"
I kept chewing my pitta contentedly. It was always fun dropping something into a conversation and watching it spiral wildly out of control.
"Ghk!" said Shirai, as she recovered her composure enough to respond. "That… you may believe that, Miss Hokaze, but if that's the case, should it not be you- rather than my lovely Onee-sama- for whom it would be a preferable match?!" she accused. "As the fair maiden who knows Onee-sama's heart best, it is obvious that it pleases her to be the more assertive partner in any relationship! That troglodyte tramples all over such a statement, does it not?!"
As usual, she ignored the crackling electromaster beside her, because this was Shirai we were talking about. "What are you saying about my preferences…!?" she growled. I refrained from taking another bite of my pitta while I watched the conversation progress.
Hokaze responded with a miserable look. "I keep waiting for my heart to be taken, but even a gentleman like that doesn't inspire me in the same way that the girls in the manga would see such a gentleman…!" she complained.
"Ahah! Then the answer is clear!" announced Shirai. "Either you must wait and see if the wonders of romance are to be inspired within you or not… or you are looking in the wrong direction, perhaps?! Do you not recall our prior conversation, Miss Hokaze!?"
"Hmm?" said Hokaze. "Eh?" Then her hands flew to her face in a flustered expression, orders of magnitude more flustered than what we'd managed to do to Railgun. "Eh?! B-b-b-but, Miss Shirai…!"
She clearly needed a second to get her thoughts in order. I decided that this was a perfect moment to make another contribution to the conversation. "Wouldst thou be taking an interest in mine bestie, Lady Shirai?" I commented.
"W-w-what?!" cried Shirai. "I-I mean, Miss Hokaze is perfectly beautiful and refined," she said, immediately starting to dig a hole for herself (mostly making eye contact with me and Misaka rather than with the person she was describing) while Hokaze quietly achieved an embarrassment-induced melting point in the background, "and the attention she pays to her hairstyle is marvellous, of course- she's terribly pretty- but I must remain faithful to my precious Onee-sama…!"
The sparks on said onee-sama receded somewhat as she realised there were other ways to get her own back than zapping her roommate for the bajillionth time. "But Kuroko," said Railgun, blinking innocently and putting on a somewhat posh voice, "wouldn't it add a refined symmetry to our relationship if the best friend of one of Tokiwadai's Level 5s was in love with the best friend of the other…?"
"Ack!" declared Shirai. "Such cruel words… from my precious Onee-sama… and yet would it not be the noblest of sacrifices if I were to prove my love through- no!" she screamed. "My love is pure in its single-minded pursuit of my one true love, and I shall never falter!" With a rush of air, she appeared directly above Railgun, and screamed, "Oneeeee-saaamaaaaaa!"
"Kuroko-?!" yelped Railgun, and promptly let go of her restraint, sending their pittas flying through the air as Kuroko simultaneously landed and received the inevitable zap.
The sight of two pittas flying through the air was enough to break Hokaze from her flustered stupor- her finely-honed labrador instincts were not just for friendship, and with a burst of electrical power she flung herself from her seat in pursuit. Her foot made contact with the table, a perfectly-balanced landing that turned quickly into a pirouette with one arm and one leg extended.
Her own pitta filled one hand, so only a single hand was free to catch Shirai's pitta just as it started to tumble. Any ordinary person would have been forced to make a sadistic choice between the two pittas, being unable to catch both, but Hokaze was no ordinary person. With her free leg, she hooked Railgun's pitta with the crook of her ankle as it passed- the movement halted its spin before its filling could spill.
The pinch of her shoe was just enough friction to keep it from falling as she came to a stop, leg extended just over Railgun's head. "...Huh," questioned Railgun. "Is this how Saten feels?"
Then she promptly realised what she was doing, as did Hokaze- the two electromasters quickly found themselves red-faced and seated, almost teleporting back into their pre-crisis positions, pittas safely returned to all beloved idiots involved.
I hummed contentedly. "You know, these pittas are really good," I said innocently, not quite sure how I'd managed that degree of chaos, but entirely satisfied with it nevertheless.
"Well-played… As expected from Lady Mental Out…" groaned a somewhat crispy Shirai, who promptly took a distinctly un-ladylike bite from her pitta. She blinked. "...Huh. These are actually better when you toast them," she commented, and took another bite.
"I'm glad you like these," I agreed, with a grin. "They're my favourite!"
The two of us ate our pittas. The other two, meanwhile were both trying to descend to a lower plane of existence, where they could become one with their own self-consciousness. Fortunately, they'd reboot themselves before the spa trip could start.
__________
While it wasn't the case for every such facility in the city, a fancy place like this spa generally had the ability to reserve a room for power usage, for a fee. Not too large a fee- the city subsidised any building which offered voluntary esper power usage with what was basically governmental esper grants and insurance, so it was ninety percent privilege that had the extra cost existing. Me and Railgun- being fairly limp noodles by now due to the various massages and whatnot that the spa had offered- were both sitting in the corner of one such room, in a sauna.
Shirai and Hokaze were in the main pool room, doing whatever our two shadows did when left to their own devices together. The former's romantic fantasies had been denied by the safety rules; a certain degree of AIM strength was needed for unrelated power usage in an room like this with other espers using their powers.
All things considered, Shirai's AIM field strength was probably on the lower end for her given level. As a general rule, you could approximate AIM strength by how much force they could output; being a teleporter, her speciality was mathematics rather than strength, being able to move about 130kg of mass with a high impulse but a low duration. This was a lot of force with which to embed a small object, like the lengths of metal she used to pin clothing to walls and whatnot in her time as a Judgment officer, but it rapidly fell short even to a Level 3 like Wannai when it came to sustained force output. So her status as a Level 4 was primarily mathematical; she could calculate in eleven dimensions with extremely precise results, even being able to affect orientation with incredible finesse.
This was very good for Judgment work, but left her wailing in torment when she realised she wasn't allowed in the sauna with her beloved onee-sama.
Between the pampering and the lovely cups of tea (and cold water) we were having between sessions, I was in an excellent mood. Railgun appeared to be in an excellent mood as well. Technically, we weren't actually using a sauna. As a general rule, saunas were dry heat, using sweat and the differences in condensation point to make the skin feel wet; this was more a steam bath, specifically a hammam, or a turkish bath, as the air was steamy and water-saturated rather than a dryer sort of heat.
One of the research areas of Academy City- as I'd noted on my trip to the religious studies district- was taking tradition, and figuring out how to box it up as efficiently as possible for commercialisation and other such things. Within Academy City's grounds, the most common usage was to fit traditional-style architecture into awkward spaces. This spa was actually underground. Rather than hiding it, the rooms around us were lit with relaxing yellows and oranges, and the decorative tiling was made to gleam in the pseudo-firelight. The lighting in the cooler rooms- with streams of running water coming down the walls- was a bit more on the blue side of things.
Our experimentation with poltergeists had been fairly relaxed; the whole point of the testing was to get an idea of what it felt like, and try to apply that to other concepts. It was quite literally just playing around when it came down to it.
So far, the majority of what we'd learned- other than steam baths being rather relaxing, and that the spa had an excellent supply of tea- was that poltergeists seemed to function at the limit of my psychokinesis. I was making a fair play at mimicking the matter generation aspects, but I couldn't compare to the speed and scale of a block of ice forming when I was interacting with Railgun's own field. It wasn't completely uncontrolled, either; while I hadn't provided my specific technique to anyone but my trusted pseudo-medical professional, I was willing to share the basic 'state of mind' advice with her, and she'd been experimenting with her own powers in a similar manner to mine, albeit more carefully due to her abilities being more forceful by default.
So far, I'd managed to make both ice and steam, while Misaka had created pops of electricity and magnetism both. The main part of interest in her half of the experiment was that usually, her electricity and magnetism had a 'link' to her person; by using a poltergeist, however, she could effectively flicker a magnetic link into an electrical output at a distance. She'd been trying to replicate the effect consciously during our time in the cooler room, when I hadn't been trying to get a purely hydrokinetic poltergeist to move the running water (which hadn't been particularly successful).
I leaned forwards. "Alright, one more try at liquid water," I said. I could probably try for other substances, like oils- metals were also an obvious possibility, but filling the sauna with mercury was a terrible no-good idea- but that didn't seem to play to the strengths of poltergeists, which was all about your default abilities.
The result of this attempt produced yet another lump of ice, adding to the growing pile of ice-lumps that were melting in one corner of the room. "Darn," I said.
It didn't look particularly successful to me, but Railgun seemed to notice something. "Hey, could you hold up your power, Shokuhou?" she asked, frowning thoughtfully.
I nodded, and did as she requested, focusing on the steam in the air. She raised her hand, to no apparent effect, but I could feel she was doing something. The sensation of a poltergeist was hard to explain; it was sort of like a mix between an itch and looking through a Where's Waldo page. At first I thought it was just magnetism, but then I noticed the water on the ice's closest surface starting to slowly bubble.
She smiled, and lowered her hand. "I thought so," she said, her smile widening with the expression of someone who'd just realised they could do something. "You've been trying to work with different states of water, so I thought… what about different states of electromagnetism?"
I tilted my head. "Weren't you already doing that?" I asked her.
Railgun shook her head. "No, magnetism and electricity are both electron-based," she said. "But microwaves, and other types of photons- they're electromagnetic too, aren't they?"
"Oh," I replied. Then I paused. "Oooh. Wait, does this mean that you can fire lasers if you practise? Man, that's going to irritate Meltdowner like all hell…"
She cocked her head back. "I guess she'll just have to deal with being a one-trick pony," she said smugly. "There's a reason I'm rank 3 and she's not!"
"Right… now we just have to make sure she doesn't hear you saying that," I responded, a little sheepishly.
"I noticed that it looked a little off with the ice when I was trying to suppress my powers- it looks like your theories about poltergeists are paying off," she said. "But I guess I should wait until I've got a proper testing environment for this…" added Railgun, scratching her head with a nervous grin. "I'm definitely using microwaves for this- maybe infrared and radio too, since there's no visible light- but it'd ruin the whole spa treatment if I started messing around and bathed us in UV, right?"
"Given what your powers are like, I think UV would be the least of our problems if that happened," I noted. Then I had a thought. "Wait, your sisters use Radio Noise- is this something to do with that? I thought it was just a metaphor."
She paused. "I'm… not sure," she replied. "It's why I thought to try, but I haven't asked? I should call Little Misaka about it…" She sighed. "I don't know if it's selfish of me or not to wish we'd planned something while they were out of the city- if they hadn't been caught on camera with my hair and uniform, you wouldn't have had to spill the cover story…"
I shrugged. "Honestly, I think it's for the best," I replied. "Just living their lives is going to have people start to know about them- Shirai and her friends already met Nickname-chan, after all. Granted, it would have been better if it were in better circumstances…"
With a nod of her head, Railgun sighed. "Yeah," she replied. "That frog-faced doctor has been organising something to bring my parents into the loop, I was hoping to introduce them all properly to everyone at the Daihaseisai… I guess it's not going to be a surprise."
"That's disappointing," I agreed. "It would have been ideal if the beans remained thoroughly within the bag for a bit longer then, yeah." After a moment, I paused. "If you're the older sister, and there's- I think it was nine, plus Last Order, in the city… Does that mean the excuse is that they're nonuplets?"
"I guess so," replied Railgun. "I mean, don't test-tube babies come in large numbers sometimes, anyway…?" After a moment, she realised what that implied. "...Ouch," she said with a wince.
"Ouch, indeed," I replied. "So… your parents are coming to the Daihaseisai?"
"Of course! Why- erk," she commented. "E-ahem… Yeah, my mama's coming." Aww, she called her 'mama'? That was surprisingly cute by Railgun standards. "She's the most embarrassing parent you've ever met… If she hears what you and Shirai think about that Kamijou guy, I'll never hear the end of it!"
"What do you think of him, by the way?" I asked. "Like, outside of the whole teasing stuff."
"...Well, I guess I do exaggerate about how bad he really is," she admitted with a huff. "B-but that doesn't mean I like him!" Railgun quickly asserted, a moment later. "If I really was interested in anything like that, I'd want someone more reliable… didn't I hear a story about how you had to chase him down on your crutches just to ask him a question, or something stupid like that?"
I raised an eyebrow. "That's true- where'd you hear about that, anyway? The only people I saw were from Kamijou's school," I noted.
"Ehm- I think, it was from a girl on the Daihaseisai committee?" said Railgun, after a moment. "She mentioned one of the other girls talking about it when they were discussing who they wanted for the opening speeches. I was expecting I'd get an offer, but it seems they want someone else speaking."
"Wonder why that is," I noted. "Other than the casual vending machine abuse."
"Those machines started it and you know it…!" she complained. "...Anyway, my papa would've come too, but he's consulting on a different continent right now," she explained. "It was a close thing, though. They're pretty worried about the things they're hearing about Academy City right now, and not just that they suddenly have ten more kids to see on their visit…"
"I'm not surprised," I said. "I mean, if I had a nickel for every time a middle-school girl and her friends had to take down a giant, potentially-apocalyptic blob monster, I'd have two nickels… which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?"
"...You say the weirdest things sometimes, Shokuhou," deadpanned Railgun. "I'm not sure how much they know about that, outside the city. But the DA uprising made enough noise that people outside of the city definitely know about it. She's worried that it's not safe inside the city."
"In fairness, that's not exactly wrong," I commented. "Most people consider one life-threatening misadventure to be 'too many', and you've been in at least two that I know of…"
"And you've been in at least four!" countered Railgun, a little heatedly.
"For all I know, my parents are just as worried," I responded, with a shrug. "I just don't have the means to check."
The steam hung in the air around us. "...Do you know if they're still alive?" she asked. "Or if…?"
"They were alive when I lost my memory," I said. "I read someone else's memory- saw them, briefly. One of the scientists; he saw them from the back, in passing." I paused. "My mother's ginger, and quite short. My father's a bit taller. I got my blonde hair and my height from him… I don't know if either of them have the same ocular starbursts I do, and I only know their names from the forms… Shokuhou Okiyama and Shokuhou Mukai, apparently."
"Do you know anything else about them?" she asked.
I shook my head. "No," I replied. "Just some decade-old contact details. You know how Academy City internet is- even without the technological mismatch, they don't like it when information passes through unofficial channels. Makes reading fanfics harder than it had to be, that's for sure…"
Railgun paused. "What if people outside could look for them?" she asked me.
"...For their sake, it'd probably be a good idea, so if you can manage it… I think it'd be a good idea," I said. "I… I dunno. I've moved on, and I've never really met them in the first place." I looked to her, and smiled. "Besides, I'm going to have a hard enough time escaping from Hokaze's parents when they're at the festival, right?"
"I guess I have a hard time imagining what it'd be like if I couldn't call up my mama or papa and talk," she said, playing with some sparks on her fingers. "I'll see if my parents can find anything."
"Thanks," I replied. The silence drifted. "I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to turn into a steamed bun if I stay in here any longer. Think we should go find Hokaze and Shirai in the pool?"
"Yeah, it's getting a bit heavy with just ourselves," she agreed. "Shirai's irritating sometimes, but she really does make me smile… If she's hidden my swimsuit, though, I'm going to electrocute her."
Shirai had, in fact, hidden Railgun's swimsuit. Fortunately for Shirai's continued existence, Hokaze had completely misinterpreted Shirai's muttered statements about what would happen if Railgun just so happened to lose her swimsuit, and produced a spare Gekota swimsuit that was somehow in Railgun's size- she seemed somewhat embarrassed at how childish it was, but was grateful nevertheless.
Shirai still got zapped, of course. We put her back into the jacuzzi to rejuvenate her afterwards.
"Have you been enjoying yourself?" asked Hokaze, sitting peaceably beside me, as Railgun carefully propped up a still-twitching Shirai on her side of the tub.
"Y'know what? I have," I replied. She smiled contentedly, and let herself sink a little deeper into the tub.
I'd give it a few days before I got back to jogging. A walk in the park, on the other hand, was… well, still a walk in the park, but in the metaphorical sense. It was quite lovely to be out and about at distances longer than a few minutes' walk from the nearest bus stop, and the end of Summer wouldn't quite come around until after the Daihaseisai, it was still close enough that I wanted to make the most of the heat we had left.
And I did actually have the free time to be wandering around like this! My to-do list was basically complete, thankfully. I couldn't really get into the spirit of Daihaseisai given how skewed it was towards the high-power schools, and how much it was reliant on medical standards instead of safety standards, I was looking forwards to plotting how our team could do our best anyway. I had another System Scan after the weekend, and I'd probably be confirming my availability for that 'athlete's pledge' thing, but neither of those were really chores all things considered.
The only major concern remaining was what Magnus had meant specifically, about Academy City having magical equivalents in the major Churches.
The response I'd got from Index had basically been 'don't worry about it!'. Well, not quite in those words- she'd been rather angry at the situation I'd ended up in. She'd ended up giving me the contact details for both Magnus, as well as another of her bodyguards called Kanzaki Kaori (who had apparently arrived shortly after Magnus had reported in about the Taowu). As far as she was concerned, it would be more problematic to suddenly change what we were doing than anything else, but they'd try to get us permission for an explanation as soon as possible… In the meantime, both her bodyguards would still be in the city, so if she'd unknowingly dragged us into trouble, they would be there to help pull us out of it.
How much help they'd be was something she hadn't been able to explain over the phone, alas. After establishing what would be appropriate usage of the phone numbers, since boundaries were important, I'd distributed the information to Tatsuki and Hokaze.
Granted, it was Index establishing those boundaries, so Hokaze was probably going to call Magnus and try to guilt him over pointing a sword at me until he was chastised enough to be befriended.
I, for one, was going to stay out of that… Given my behaviour back in my first encounter with ITEM, I'd be a hypocrite for calling someone out for pointing deadly weapons at people during an emotional crisis. Despite being an asshole, his brief interactions with Index were plenty enough to tell that the 'idiocy' he'd accused me of was 'putting Index in danger'.
…In retrospect I wasn't quite sure why Misaka had forgiven me for the particle beam incident. I certainly wasn't feeling eager to interact with him after behaving similarly.
Either way, Index had made clear her intentions to bail us out if anything went wrong, and Hokaze had probably already either given Magnus a Mister Rogers-level earful on his behaviour or had made plans to hunt him down after she'd been hung up on, so everyone seemed satisfied for now. We'd been reassured that we were both on the same side (at the ground level, at least), and neither group had any reasonable means of speeding up the timetable on getting the full picture (as far as I was aware). So I'd take what was offered on that front, though I wasn't sure whether that was the trust or the crisis exhaustion speaking.
"...I really need to stop musing about all the ways that things could go horribly wrong," I muttered to the whirligig beetles I'd been staring at, having stopped my walk to look at them while I did some intensive pondering. I wasn't putting my faith in Academy City. Admittedly, I was instead putting my faith in an all-consuming nun, an edgelord with atrocious manners, and somebody I'd never even met, but I wasn't exactly trying to clear a very high bar here.
I pushed myself off, and took a deep breath of fresh parkland air. My nerves were still shot, but otherwise I was feeling pretty good about myself this morning- it was the afternoon, specifically, where the spa meeting would be happening. We'd be meeting up around lunchtime, and I'd called dibs on getting falafel pittas for lunch, because you could never go wrong with a good falafel pitta.
Actually, wouldn't it be getting close to the meeting-time anyway? I checked my mental clock- another bit of passive code I had for convenience and practise, set to recalibrate every half-hour on the times seen by people around me- and noted that I still had some time to burn.
A passive alert pinged me; taking a look over in that direction, I noted there were two familiar faces- well, a semi-familiar face and a familiar hand, at least- who seemed to have gotten into trouble. "Ah, such misfortune," I sighed- though from the looks of it, this wasn't really a situation I needed to feel all that stressed about.
While normally their escape route from the thugs that were chasing them would be perfectly viable, a partially-repaired suspiciously-melted hole to the subway below was blocking their path (those in the know would say 'melted-down', if they looked at the details of the morning news), surrounded by an Anti-Skill cordon just secure enough to block their passage. They probably wouldn't be having the best of times if they got caught out alone in there. I was in a good position to intercept when they reached it though, and the group in question were rowdy high-schoolers rather than Skill-Outs- though probably not any more pleasant for it. I took my stroll in the direction of their pursuit, towards one of the alleyways at the edge of the park.
In the meantime, I tapped a few optic and auditory lobes, to get an idea of exactly what was going on.
"Get back here, you idiots!" hollered their leader, flinging rocks and sticks from the park ahead of him as he ran. Kamijou yelped as one of them threw a heavy-looking baseball bat, spinning through the air; he ducked rather than try to block it, letting it whizz over his head and back to another delinquent's hands.
While a noticeable majority of gangs were Skill-Out, a lot of the more influential were led by powerful espers; this was one of them, being a bone-chillingly strong Level 3… at least, by Level 0 standards. He was a fairly bog-standard telekinetic, one of those types of espers that were a dime-a-dozen, if somewhat less likely to reach the higher levels than other types. Two more of his followers were also telekinetics of not-insignificant strength, including one that was restricted to throwing his attuned baseball bat like a boomerang, as I'd already seen. They were wearing school uniforms with the identifiable parts removed, which was common for esper gangs; they were often drawn along school lines, and since schools and power were associated, recognisable school uniforms were something of a mark of strength among the city's less reputable population.
A cluster of similarly-powered Level 3s or 2s leading a gang of 1s and 0s was a fairly common structure, since the more common powers were more likely to feel sidelined by more unique or powerful espers, and they tended to have personality traits in common. "Damnit, stop running!" another one yelled. "You'll pay for stepping on our turf!" A gang with this sort of structure was more likely to have the prime real estate like this park; their presence usually kept Skill-Outs to the alleyways for fear of their own safety, and the security bots were a lot less likely to mess with someone in uniform.
In a lot of ways, despite their higher status in society, guys like these were worse than Skill-Out. They tended to be at the top of the normal gang food chain through raw power; Level 3s were rare in gangs like this, and Level 4s were basically unheard of. There were three main reasons this was the case, I suspected.
First was piranha theory- my own pet term for what was going on. Piranha didn't shoal because they were stronger together; they shoaled because they'd get picked off alone. Power scaling wasn't linear, so a Level 4 was basically immune to Level 0 thugs, and there just wasn't enough concentration of force for your average Level 4 delinquent to need to team up with anyone save their friends. Railgun and I could wander pretty much blindly, but that was laughable for a Level 2 who wanted to roam the quiet streets during school hours.
Second was that higher-levels tended to have alternative outlets for their aggression. Take the Tokiwadai factional system. While I was mostly leading a faction because I much preferred a cooperative environment to an antagonistic one (and because Hokaze had made puppy-eyes at me), and the funds and prestige from a faction were a massive boon to that goal, the prestige was a goal in and of itself for others. Their approaches varied, but a number of faction leaders in Tokiwadai might've fallen into delinquency themselves if their aggression and pride hadn't been turned inwards on the school system rather than left to roam freely- which was very good for Judgment's sanity, Tokiwadai's reputation, and Academy City's repair bills.
Third… well, people like Mugino had to have ended up where they were somehow. Their sheer power meant that high-level through-and-through delinquents stopped being nuisances, and started being valuable pawns. They basically stopped being street gangs and started being Yakuza.
Granted, all this musing was completely irrelevant to Kamijou and Aogami, the latter of which was obviously less used to being chased by delinquents than Kamijou.
"It wasn't even for a cute girl… this time, Kami!" gasped Aogami. "And I ended up getting dragged… into it too…! Aren't you supposed to be… a good luck charm?!"
"You butted in to help that guy just as much as I did!" wailed Kamijou as he sprinted, just a bit ahead of Aogami. "And haven't you noticed that it's me that has to dodge everything, too, rather than you?! Kamijou-chan's face is going to be caved in by a baseball bat at this rate! Agh… such misfortune…!"
Case in point- he had to duck the flying baseball bat once again, and got a reasonably-sized stone narrowly missing his kidney in favour of hitting him in the butt, making him yelp. Aogami had a small stick deflect harmlessly off his vibrant blue hair, bouncing over his head in the process. "Oh, you're right… Way to go, Kami…!" he panted. "...Wait, if we rescued a guy… Does that mean he's going to catch Kami-yan disease too…?!"
"That's not a real thing, you idiot!" Kamijou retorted. "Next you're going to tell me that some Tokiwadai girl is going to show up and make all this running useless in the first place!"
…I grinned. Well, far be it from me to ignore such a polite invitation as that!
It took me a few seconds of planning and pre-adjustment to set it all up, given that there were like ten guys chasing after the two idiots- too many to do at once for a complex operation like mid-movement pausing, even if running on a straight line after a single target at the moment made it much easier. After the setup was done, though, I paused them all at the same time- they all stopped abruptly in their tracks.
Apart from baseball-bat guy, who fell over first, to make sure he didn't get bowled over by that bat of his.
The two boys looked behind themselves, staring in confusion; the baseball bat clattered to the ground behind the frozen horde of delinquents. Then, with a resigned expression, Kamijou stuck his hand on his head again.
I suppressed my rising giggles.
Seeing that the danger was no longer actively chasing them, Aogami folded in on himself, gasping for breath. "You know… I'd be laughing like hell right now if I could breathe…!" he commented. "What's that, Kami? It's the sound of me calling it like it is…!"
"Shut up…" Kamijou grumbled.
They stood there gormlessly a few moments longer. "...Hey, isn't this the moment where the girl suddenly reveals herself?" asked Aogami, somewhat confusedly.
I put two fingers to my ear, in a fairly common gesture to let people know you were actually talking to someone instead of just talking at air or staring into space. "Oi, I was gonna show up at the giant hole you mistook for an escape route, but I couldn't refuse a comedic opening like that!" I responded, beaming my words over as I said them. "It would've been much less of a hassle if I played overwatch for a bit longer; Judgment gets annoyed if I use my powers like this, and I'm going to have to keep walking for a bit longer to actually reach you."
"Hey, it's the cute Tokiwadai girl who called you on the phone and iced all our drinks!" Aogami said, for Kamijou's benefit, his hand clearly signifying that he wasn't returning any calls. "Hi there," he said to me, "Shokohou-chan, wasn't it?"
"Yup," I replied. "Aogami, right?"
"Ah, the ojou-sama remembers me!" he replied. "Man, it's a shame that Tsuchimikado is never around when you're here… No matter how much we tell him, he doesn't buy a word we say about you! Maybe it's because you're too busty to appeal to his imouto-loving instincts? He's a total-"
"If you finish that sentence I'm going to use my incredible psychic powers to make you dye your hair bright orange," I responded.
He didn't reply for a moment. That moment lingered… and just as I was about to apologise, he started, "I've thought about it, and while I'd usually do anything a cute girl says, that sounds like too much of a commitment-"
I dope-slapped him with his own hand before he could finish that sentence.
"Please… get a verbal filter?" I complained, pinching the bridge of my nose. "If only for the sanity of the people around you."
"What the hell are you two talking about?" asked Kamijou, only able to hear Aogami's side of the conversation. "Wait, is she asking you out?" I dope-slapped him with Aogami's hand, too. "Ow!"
"Hmm, does this sudden outburst of violence mean that she's a stony tsun-tsun of the same kind as our beloved Iron Wall?" commented Aogami, mostly to himself. "Or is it that she's a dere-tsun-yan-dere that's unfailingly polite in public, but becomes increasingly violent as-"
I dope-slapped Aogami again- perhaps a little harder than necessary- and turned on my heel in the opposite direction. "Just for that, I'm knocking all these people out and leaving you to explain it to Judgment," I informed him. "And you're not getting promised a free lunch out of it, or being invited to the ojou-sama lunch date on behalf of Kamijou's lunch that I promised him for exactly the same thing, as you might have been otherwise, either. …Bemoan thy misfortune, thou art commanded," I added, because I was fairly sure I'd sounded a little too frosty.
"Man, I can't tell if that's a tsuntsun thing to say or a tsundere thing to say!" Aogami complained, as the delinquents all dropped to the floor semi-abruptly. "Hey, Kami she said-"
I promptly cut the audio connection, more than a little ticked off at the idiot.
But a part of me was glad to have established a filterless teenaged boy as my archnemesis of the day, instead of hyper-organised Skill-Out gangs, enraged faction girls, or angry magicians. Today's shoe had dropped, and it was a harmless, squeaky, comically-small clown shoe bopping me lightly on the forehead, instead of a steel-toed boot to the face.
As I walked away, I vaguely heard a cry of- "...and now I still have to feed Index myself today! Such misfortune…!"
I found my lips quirking upwards. I'd have to see if Aogami actually listened to the 'Judgment is your job' part; otherwise, I might actually owe the guy two lunches…
Anyway, that was a thought for later. I'd successfully burned my time, and helped out a positive acquaintance in the process- which meant the only lunch I needed to focus on right now was my own.
Which meant freshly-cooked falafels and a bajillion kinds of diced salads, shredded salads, and pickles, all shoved into delicious toasted bread pockets until they were overflowing with crunchy and flavourful vegetable and falafel goodness, lined with hummus to seal up the sides of the pitta against excess liquid or overstuffing-induced holes, and with tangy garlic sauce on top… If Railgun or Shirai disapproved of my lunch choices- I'd already eaten this with Hokaze a few times before, being my preferred eating-out lunch choice when left to my own initiative- then they were being burned as heretics for their blatant heresy against good taste.
__________
"Miss Shokuhou, are you entirely certain that these pittas are the right size for girls as refined as us…?" asked Shirai, staring at her pitta dubiously.
While my pitta wasn't as big as my head, it was probably closer than it had any right to be. "Yes," I replied with conviction. "The larger a pitta is, the greater the ratio of vitamin-rich and delicious fillings to chewy and delicious but calorie-dense bread; the ideal pitta is as large as you can reasonably stomach. Back me up here, Hokaze."
"I don't eat pittas often, but they're very delicious whenever my Queen and I visit," she confirmed. "I don't eat here regularly, and I wouldn't want to if I had an ability less calorie-intensive than Rampage Dress, but for an active Judgment officer like yourself there's nothing to be concerned about!"
Shirai glanced to Railgun, who was still staring herself. "...We don't need a knife and fork for this?" she asked, a little uncertainly.
"...No, Misaka," I said. "You do not need a knife and fork for a pitta."
Her own concerns assuaged- pittas were not exactly common fare in Japan- Misaka took her first bite.
Shirai, seeing her Onee-sama take the lead, promptly followed, pecking daintily at the salad filling in a few places. "...How does one get one's mouth around it?" she said, looking up to see how others were doing.
Hokaze and Railgun were taking reasonable bites in a few places. I, meanwhile, was trying to eat enough of the filling to get my teeth around one edge properly, so that I could then alternate on the other side, with mouthfuls large enough to shamelessly stuff my cheeks like a hamster. Our home economics teacher (who was somewhat biassed towards fancy things like fixing persian rugs and setting the correct cutlery out in a fancy meal) would be weeping with shame at having such a hoover-like child in her class if she saw me now.
Shirai stared for a moment, before resuming her pecking, if now in a somewhat more systematic manner that would let her follow a similar approach in a more ladylike fashion.
Railgun swallowed. "You know, I was thinking this might be bland, but I really like this," she said. "A lot of other western food skimps on the pickled flavours…"
"I would certainly agree with that, Miss Misaka," said Hokaze, given that I had too much food in my mouth to respond to the conversation with any sort of alacrity. "And the crunchy falafels combined with the sauce and the more watery cucumbers, tomatoes and pickles in the salad… It reminds me of katsudon! Wouldn't you agree?"
"Ah, right," said Railgun with a smile. "I didn't think of that, but I get what you're saying! It's got that crunchiness and moistness in its texture when you're eating it, right?"
"Rrmhph," I commented, keeping my mouth politely closed in the process
Shirai swallowed. "I don't disagree, but it's rather hard to eat this in a lady-like manner, wouldn't you say, Onee-sama?" commented Shirai.
Railgun gestured towards Hokaze, who was currently in second-place for how much she'd eaten, providing no further explanation. I nodded vigorously in agreement.
When I came to a pause, I spoke up. "Oh, I saw Kamijou today," I noted. Hokaze made immediate sparkly eyes, Shirai was suddenly very invested with a face that told me she was plotting something Railgun-related, and Railgun's expression turned mildly peeved, the big tsundere. "Well, not really 'saw'- he and his pervert friend were being chased by an esper gang; I knocked out the people chasing them because they were about to get blocked by some of that damage from whatever happened yesterday night, and then wandered off before we got there because his pervert friend got on my nerves."
"...You're saying you stumbled into a fight with another group of ruffians today, my Queen?" said Hokaze, with a concerningly serene smile.
"Well it wasn't really a 'fight'," I justified, "and I ended up letting Kamijou's friend explain it to Judgment instead of me, but, uh…"
"Fortunately, I've already organised some of our faction members and associates to ensure that our nice relaxing day at the spa isn't interrupted," she said. "You know, when I was a young girl, I used to menacingly tell people about 'my inner urge to destroy', and make silly gestures over my face. I've matured significantly since then, fortunately, ahahah… So I'm very glad that we have so many friends to take this burden off my shoulders! It's very kind of them."
"Oh, is that why you were on the phone to that Tatsuki girl earlier…?" questioned Railgun cautiously, while Shirai muttered to herself about the temperature suddenly dropping.
Read: in sheer frustration over my inability to stay out of stressful situations for more than five seconds at a time, she'd dragged the Nihilists out to… set up a defensive perimeter in our general area against shenanigans, according to a quick Mental Out search for nearby Constitutionals. If anyone dared to violate this perimeter with anything but peace and tranquillity being directed towards my general vicinity, my best guess was that she'd spontaneously develop into a Level 5 for the sole purpose of going Nanoha on the asses of anyone that dared get between me and a relaxing situation.
Hokaze took a deep breath, and took another bite out of her pitta. "But enough about that," she said. "I'm glad you're enjoying lunch, my Queen!"
"I didn't even do anything…" I grumbled, and followed suit with the pitta-chomping. "It wasn't even stressful! Apart from Kamijou's friend not understanding that his overactive communication should be left firmly inside his head for the sake of me not having to hear it…"
"I'm not surprised that the idiot's friends are just as annoying as he is," grumbled Railgun.
"Honestly, I don't get what gives you that impression of him," I said. "He seems pretty non-confrontational to me, minus the butting-in if he thinks someone's in trouble."
"The butting-in is exactly it!" she complained, sparking a little. "He doesn't take credit for anything, he doesn't accept favours- he just goes, 'oh, this seems like a job for Kamijou and his weird power'- they don't even label it a Level 1, even when it's blocked at least three different Level 5 powers… Grr, he drives me up the wall!"
"If you used a tsundere translator that'd be a lot of compliments," I said conversationally, and then immediately took another bite out of my pitta.
Railgun went red. "I- you- sh-shut up!" she countered intelligently, her pitta only remaining in her grip through long-trained reflexes as she stood up and slammed her free hand on the table. "Like I'd ever think of that idiot like that!" I just smirked in reply.
"I have to say, I do agree with Miss Misaka," said Hokaze. "Constant fighting doesn't seem like the basis for a stable relationship…"
Given that a good fifty percent of her interactions with Railgun were getting zapped, Shirai was obligated to provide a counterargument. "Is that really true though?!" she demanded. "They say that shared adrenaline-filled experiences only make love stronger- so while an ape such as him is entirely unbecoming of a lady as fine as Railgun," she explained, in full gremlin mode now, "I must protest that violence such as that is inherently hopeless for a situation in which true love may be expressed!"
"But Mister Kamijou isn't an ape!" said Hokaze, sending an earnest and mildly sad look in Shirai's direction- the gremlin reeled as her heart was pierced through the overwhelming force of Hokaze's puppy-dog eyes. "I've only met him a few times, but he's wonderfully kind, courageous and motivated!"
I kept chewing my pitta contentedly. It was always fun dropping something into a conversation and watching it spiral wildly out of control.
"Ghk!" said Shirai, as she recovered her composure enough to respond. "That… you may believe that, Miss Hokaze, but if that's the case, should it not be you- rather than my lovely Onee-sama- for whom it would be a preferable match?!" she accused. "As the fair maiden who knows Onee-sama's heart best, it is obvious that it pleases her to be the more assertive partner in any relationship! That troglodyte tramples all over such a statement, does it not?!"
As usual, she ignored the crackling electromaster beside her, because this was Shirai we were talking about. "What are you saying about my preferences…!?" she growled. I refrained from taking another bite of my pitta while I watched the conversation progress.
Hokaze responded with a miserable look. "I keep waiting for my heart to be taken, but even a gentleman like that doesn't inspire me in the same way that the girls in the manga would see such a gentleman…!" she complained.
"Ahah! Then the answer is clear!" announced Shirai. "Either you must wait and see if the wonders of romance are to be inspired within you or not… or you are looking in the wrong direction, perhaps?! Do you not recall our prior conversation, Miss Hokaze!?"
"Hmm?" said Hokaze. "Eh?" Then her hands flew to her face in a flustered expression, orders of magnitude more flustered than what we'd managed to do to Railgun. "Eh?! B-b-b-but, Miss Shirai…!"
She clearly needed a second to get her thoughts in order. I decided that this was a perfect moment to make another contribution to the conversation. "Wouldst thou be taking an interest in mine bestie, Lady Shirai?" I commented.
"W-w-what?!" cried Shirai. "I-I mean, Miss Hokaze is perfectly beautiful and refined," she said, immediately starting to dig a hole for herself (mostly making eye contact with me and Misaka rather than with the person she was describing) while Hokaze quietly achieved an embarrassment-induced melting point in the background, "and the attention she pays to her hairstyle is marvellous, of course- she's terribly pretty- but I must remain faithful to my precious Onee-sama…!"
The sparks on said onee-sama receded somewhat as she realised there were other ways to get her own back than zapping her roommate for the bajillionth time. "But Kuroko," said Railgun, blinking innocently and putting on a somewhat posh voice, "wouldn't it add a refined symmetry to our relationship if the best friend of one of Tokiwadai's Level 5s was in love with the best friend of the other…?"
"Ack!" declared Shirai. "Such cruel words… from my precious Onee-sama… and yet would it not be the noblest of sacrifices if I were to prove my love through- no!" she screamed. "My love is pure in its single-minded pursuit of my one true love, and I shall never falter!" With a rush of air, she appeared directly above Railgun, and screamed, "Oneeeee-saaamaaaaaa!"
"Kuroko-?!" yelped Railgun, and promptly let go of her restraint, sending their pittas flying through the air as Kuroko simultaneously landed and received the inevitable zap.
The sight of two pittas flying through the air was enough to break Hokaze from her flustered stupor- her finely-honed labrador instincts were not just for friendship, and with a burst of electrical power she flung herself from her seat in pursuit. Her foot made contact with the table, a perfectly-balanced landing that turned quickly into a pirouette with one arm and one leg extended.
Her own pitta filled one hand, so only a single hand was free to catch Shirai's pitta just as it started to tumble. Any ordinary person would have been forced to make a sadistic choice between the two pittas, being unable to catch both, but Hokaze was no ordinary person. With her free leg, she hooked Railgun's pitta with the crook of her ankle as it passed- the movement halted its spin before its filling could spill.
The pinch of her shoe was just enough friction to keep it from falling as she came to a stop, leg extended just over Railgun's head. "...Huh," questioned Railgun. "Is this how Saten feels?"
Then she promptly realised what she was doing, as did Hokaze- the two electromasters quickly found themselves red-faced and seated, almost teleporting back into their pre-crisis positions, pittas safely returned to all beloved idiots involved.
I hummed contentedly. "You know, these pittas are really good," I said innocently, not quite sure how I'd managed that degree of chaos, but entirely satisfied with it nevertheless.
"Well-played… As expected from Lady Mental Out…" groaned a somewhat crispy Shirai, who promptly took a distinctly un-ladylike bite from her pitta. She blinked. "...Huh. These are actually better when you toast them," she commented, and took another bite.
"I'm glad you like these," I agreed, with a grin. "They're my favourite!"
The two of us ate our pittas. The other two, meanwhile were both trying to descend to a lower plane of existence, where they could become one with their own self-consciousness. Fortunately, they'd reboot themselves before the spa trip could start.
__________
While it wasn't the case for every such facility in the city, a fancy place like this spa generally had the ability to reserve a room for power usage, for a fee. Not too large a fee- the city subsidised any building which offered voluntary esper power usage with what was basically governmental esper grants and insurance, so it was ninety percent privilege that had the extra cost existing. Me and Railgun- being fairly limp noodles by now due to the various massages and whatnot that the spa had offered- were both sitting in the corner of one such room, in a sauna.
Shirai and Hokaze were in the main pool room, doing whatever our two shadows did when left to their own devices together. The former's romantic fantasies had been denied by the safety rules; a certain degree of AIM strength was needed for unrelated power usage in an room like this with other espers using their powers.
All things considered, Shirai's AIM field strength was probably on the lower end for her given level. As a general rule, you could approximate AIM strength by how much force they could output; being a teleporter, her speciality was mathematics rather than strength, being able to move about 130kg of mass with a high impulse but a low duration. This was a lot of force with which to embed a small object, like the lengths of metal she used to pin clothing to walls and whatnot in her time as a Judgment officer, but it rapidly fell short even to a Level 3 like Wannai when it came to sustained force output. So her status as a Level 4 was primarily mathematical; she could calculate in eleven dimensions with extremely precise results, even being able to affect orientation with incredible finesse.
This was very good for Judgment work, but left her wailing in torment when she realised she wasn't allowed in the sauna with her beloved onee-sama.
Between the pampering and the lovely cups of tea (and cold water) we were having between sessions, I was in an excellent mood. Railgun appeared to be in an excellent mood as well. Technically, we weren't actually using a sauna. As a general rule, saunas were dry heat, using sweat and the differences in condensation point to make the skin feel wet; this was more a steam bath, specifically a hammam, or a turkish bath, as the air was steamy and water-saturated rather than a dryer sort of heat.
One of the research areas of Academy City- as I'd noted on my trip to the religious studies district- was taking tradition, and figuring out how to box it up as efficiently as possible for commercialisation and other such things. Within Academy City's grounds, the most common usage was to fit traditional-style architecture into awkward spaces. This spa was actually underground. Rather than hiding it, the rooms around us were lit with relaxing yellows and oranges, and the decorative tiling was made to gleam in the pseudo-firelight. The lighting in the cooler rooms- with streams of running water coming down the walls- was a bit more on the blue side of things.
Our experimentation with poltergeists had been fairly relaxed; the whole point of the testing was to get an idea of what it felt like, and try to apply that to other concepts. It was quite literally just playing around when it came down to it.
So far, the majority of what we'd learned- other than steam baths being rather relaxing, and that the spa had an excellent supply of tea- was that poltergeists seemed to function at the limit of my psychokinesis. I was making a fair play at mimicking the matter generation aspects, but I couldn't compare to the speed and scale of a block of ice forming when I was interacting with Railgun's own field. It wasn't completely uncontrolled, either; while I hadn't provided my specific technique to anyone but my trusted pseudo-medical professional, I was willing to share the basic 'state of mind' advice with her, and she'd been experimenting with her own powers in a similar manner to mine, albeit more carefully due to her abilities being more forceful by default.
So far, I'd managed to make both ice and steam, while Misaka had created pops of electricity and magnetism both. The main part of interest in her half of the experiment was that usually, her electricity and magnetism had a 'link' to her person; by using a poltergeist, however, she could effectively flicker a magnetic link into an electrical output at a distance. She'd been trying to replicate the effect consciously during our time in the cooler room, when I hadn't been trying to get a purely hydrokinetic poltergeist to move the running water (which hadn't been particularly successful).
I leaned forwards. "Alright, one more try at liquid water," I said. I could probably try for other substances, like oils- metals were also an obvious possibility, but filling the sauna with mercury was a terrible no-good idea- but that didn't seem to play to the strengths of poltergeists, which was all about your default abilities.
The result of this attempt produced yet another lump of ice, adding to the growing pile of ice-lumps that were melting in one corner of the room. "Darn," I said.
It didn't look particularly successful to me, but Railgun seemed to notice something. "Hey, could you hold up your power, Shokuhou?" she asked, frowning thoughtfully.
I nodded, and did as she requested, focusing on the steam in the air. She raised her hand, to no apparent effect, but I could feel she was doing something. The sensation of a poltergeist was hard to explain; it was sort of like a mix between an itch and looking through a Where's Waldo page. At first I thought it was just magnetism, but then I noticed the water on the ice's closest surface starting to slowly bubble.
She smiled, and lowered her hand. "I thought so," she said, her smile widening with the expression of someone who'd just realised they could do something. "You've been trying to work with different states of water, so I thought… what about different states of electromagnetism?"
I tilted my head. "Weren't you already doing that?" I asked her.
Railgun shook her head. "No, magnetism and electricity are both electron-based," she said. "But microwaves, and other types of photons- they're electromagnetic too, aren't they?"
"Oh," I replied. Then I paused. "Oooh. Wait, does this mean that you can fire lasers if you practise? Man, that's going to irritate Meltdowner like all hell…"
She cocked her head back. "I guess she'll just have to deal with being a one-trick pony," she said smugly. "There's a reason I'm rank 3 and she's not!"
"Right… now we just have to make sure she doesn't hear you saying that," I responded, a little sheepishly.
"I noticed that it looked a little off with the ice when I was trying to suppress my powers- it looks like your theories about poltergeists are paying off," she said. "But I guess I should wait until I've got a proper testing environment for this…" added Railgun, scratching her head with a nervous grin. "I'm definitely using microwaves for this- maybe infrared and radio too, since there's no visible light- but it'd ruin the whole spa treatment if I started messing around and bathed us in UV, right?"
"Given what your powers are like, I think UV would be the least of our problems if that happened," I noted. Then I had a thought. "Wait, your sisters use Radio Noise- is this something to do with that? I thought it was just a metaphor."
She paused. "I'm… not sure," she replied. "It's why I thought to try, but I haven't asked? I should call Little Misaka about it…" She sighed. "I don't know if it's selfish of me or not to wish we'd planned something while they were out of the city- if they hadn't been caught on camera with my hair and uniform, you wouldn't have had to spill the cover story…"
I shrugged. "Honestly, I think it's for the best," I replied. "Just living their lives is going to have people start to know about them- Shirai and her friends already met Nickname-chan, after all. Granted, it would have been better if it were in better circumstances…"
With a nod of her head, Railgun sighed. "Yeah," she replied. "That frog-faced doctor has been organising something to bring my parents into the loop, I was hoping to introduce them all properly to everyone at the Daihaseisai… I guess it's not going to be a surprise."
"That's disappointing," I agreed. "It would have been ideal if the beans remained thoroughly within the bag for a bit longer then, yeah." After a moment, I paused. "If you're the older sister, and there's- I think it was nine, plus Last Order, in the city… Does that mean the excuse is that they're nonuplets?"
"I guess so," replied Railgun. "I mean, don't test-tube babies come in large numbers sometimes, anyway…?" After a moment, she realised what that implied. "...Ouch," she said with a wince.
"Ouch, indeed," I replied. "So… your parents are coming to the Daihaseisai?"
"Of course! Why- erk," she commented. "E-ahem… Yeah, my mama's coming." Aww, she called her 'mama'? That was surprisingly cute by Railgun standards. "She's the most embarrassing parent you've ever met… If she hears what you and Shirai think about that Kamijou guy, I'll never hear the end of it!"
"What do you think of him, by the way?" I asked. "Like, outside of the whole teasing stuff."
"...Well, I guess I do exaggerate about how bad he really is," she admitted with a huff. "B-but that doesn't mean I like him!" Railgun quickly asserted, a moment later. "If I really was interested in anything like that, I'd want someone more reliable… didn't I hear a story about how you had to chase him down on your crutches just to ask him a question, or something stupid like that?"
I raised an eyebrow. "That's true- where'd you hear about that, anyway? The only people I saw were from Kamijou's school," I noted.
"Ehm- I think, it was from a girl on the Daihaseisai committee?" said Railgun, after a moment. "She mentioned one of the other girls talking about it when they were discussing who they wanted for the opening speeches. I was expecting I'd get an offer, but it seems they want someone else speaking."
"Wonder why that is," I noted. "Other than the casual vending machine abuse."
"Those machines started it and you know it…!" she complained. "...Anyway, my papa would've come too, but he's consulting on a different continent right now," she explained. "It was a close thing, though. They're pretty worried about the things they're hearing about Academy City right now, and not just that they suddenly have ten more kids to see on their visit…"
"I'm not surprised," I said. "I mean, if I had a nickel for every time a middle-school girl and her friends had to take down a giant, potentially-apocalyptic blob monster, I'd have two nickels… which isn't much, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?"
"...You say the weirdest things sometimes, Shokuhou," deadpanned Railgun. "I'm not sure how much they know about that, outside the city. But the DA uprising made enough noise that people outside of the city definitely know about it. She's worried that it's not safe inside the city."
"In fairness, that's not exactly wrong," I commented. "Most people consider one life-threatening misadventure to be 'too many', and you've been in at least two that I know of…"
"And you've been in at least four!" countered Railgun, a little heatedly.
"For all I know, my parents are just as worried," I responded, with a shrug. "I just don't have the means to check."
The steam hung in the air around us. "...Do you know if they're still alive?" she asked. "Or if…?"
"They were alive when I lost my memory," I said. "I read someone else's memory- saw them, briefly. One of the scientists; he saw them from the back, in passing." I paused. "My mother's ginger, and quite short. My father's a bit taller. I got my blonde hair and my height from him… I don't know if either of them have the same ocular starbursts I do, and I only know their names from the forms… Shokuhou Okiyama and Shokuhou Mukai, apparently."
"Do you know anything else about them?" she asked.
I shook my head. "No," I replied. "Just some decade-old contact details. You know how Academy City internet is- even without the technological mismatch, they don't like it when information passes through unofficial channels. Makes reading fanfics harder than it had to be, that's for sure…"
Railgun paused. "What if people outside could look for them?" she asked me.
"...For their sake, it'd probably be a good idea, so if you can manage it… I think it'd be a good idea," I said. "I… I dunno. I've moved on, and I've never really met them in the first place." I looked to her, and smiled. "Besides, I'm going to have a hard enough time escaping from Hokaze's parents when they're at the festival, right?"
"I guess I have a hard time imagining what it'd be like if I couldn't call up my mama or papa and talk," she said, playing with some sparks on her fingers. "I'll see if my parents can find anything."
"Thanks," I replied. The silence drifted. "I don't know about you, but I think I'm going to turn into a steamed bun if I stay in here any longer. Think we should go find Hokaze and Shirai in the pool?"
"Yeah, it's getting a bit heavy with just ourselves," she agreed. "Shirai's irritating sometimes, but she really does make me smile… If she's hidden my swimsuit, though, I'm going to electrocute her."
Shirai had, in fact, hidden Railgun's swimsuit. Fortunately for Shirai's continued existence, Hokaze had completely misinterpreted Shirai's muttered statements about what would happen if Railgun just so happened to lose her swimsuit, and produced a spare Gekota swimsuit that was somehow in Railgun's size- she seemed somewhat embarrassed at how childish it was, but was grateful nevertheless.
Shirai still got zapped, of course. We put her back into the jacuzzi to rejuvenate her afterwards.
"Have you been enjoying yourself?" asked Hokaze, sitting peaceably beside me, as Railgun carefully propped up a still-twitching Shirai on her side of the tub.
"Y'know what? I have," I replied. She smiled contentedly, and let herself sink a little deeper into the tub.
- Location
- Earth
- Location
- Britain
While Magnus losing his cool and being an asshole about it is both in-character and also funny, I'm also mildly concerned as to what the fuck Necessarius thought was going on here if they thought Misaki was getting direct instructions from Aleister
Yeah same girl, there's a reason for that-
- Pronouns
- Reader
MisaSI is in a cheerful mood. Good. She deserves more happy days. Now, who does Hokaze have to befriend or "BEFRIEND" to fit them into her schedule?
Hokaze. An almost belligerently friendly girl Magnus can't intimidate or outrun, who can tell how young he is and doesn't find his brooding silences cool. Magnus, meet your Kryptonite, she has some very stern words for you.
Kamijou is saved. Truly, Misaki is the least misfortunate acquaintance he's made in academy city, even if he's never getting that lunch. Oh look, another misguided young gentleman in need of an introduction to manners. Truly, Hokaze work is never done.
Listen to the girl who can pull nutrition information out of people's minds Shirai. A growing and active body needs nutrients and calories. Also, hamster face MisaSI for the offending of stuck up old biddies everywhere.
MisaSI will relax, woe to the that which acts against the queen regent's commandment.
👏👏👏 Hurray for Hokaze! She saved lunch.
MisaSI out gremlinned Shirai. Truly a moment for the ages. The tease shipping is delicious, though the sandwich descriptions do leave me feeling peckish.
My hunch bears out. Poor Shirai, lucky Mikasa. I wonder what the nihilists think of there queen alone in a sauna/steam room with the Ace of Tokiwadai?
The powers play is interesting. Shame about everything going public, but at least it's too public for people to keep making plays to get them?
Misaka and MisaSI had a nice calm chat, and Misaka showed genuine care for MisaSI, and determination to reunite MisaSI with her family after she saved Misaka's sister's. Excellent foundation for the two to build off and grow closer, one way or another.
Shirai is Shirai.
Hokaze. An almost belligerently friendly girl Magnus can't intimidate or outrun, who can tell how young he is and doesn't find his brooding silences cool. Magnus, meet your Kryptonite, she has some very stern words for you.
Kamijou is saved. Truly, Misaki is the least misfortunate acquaintance he's made in academy city, even if he's never getting that lunch. Oh look, another misguided young gentleman in need of an introduction to manners. Truly, Hokaze work is never done.
Listen to the girl who can pull nutrition information out of people's minds Shirai. A growing and active body needs nutrients and calories. Also, hamster face MisaSI for the offending of stuck up old biddies everywhere.
MisaSI will relax, woe to the that which acts against the queen regent's commandment.
👏👏👏 Hurray for Hokaze! She saved lunch.
MisaSI out gremlinned Shirai. Truly a moment for the ages. The tease shipping is delicious, though the sandwich descriptions do leave me feeling peckish.
My hunch bears out. Poor Shirai, lucky Mikasa. I wonder what the nihilists think of there queen alone in a sauna/steam room with the Ace of Tokiwadai?
The powers play is interesting. Shame about everything going public, but at least it's too public for people to keep making plays to get them?
Misaka and MisaSI had a nice calm chat, and Misaka showed genuine care for MisaSI, and determination to reunite MisaSI with her family after she saved Misaka's sister's. Excellent foundation for the two to build off and grow closer, one way or another.
Shirai is Shirai.
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- Location
- a Far and Sunless Land
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Complicated
Usually I don't like gratuitous depictions of food in stories because they so often have things that gross me out, but this sounds so good...
I think I might now understand why people like things like Dungeon Meshi. I never really did before.
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SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
I actually skip over the food descriptions in Dungeon Meshi because I like everything else about it. I mean, it's clever the way they eat all the monsters but I don't need as much detail as they give. The characters and world building are great, though.
Chapter 30
- Location
- England. Tea and scones, wot wot!
Ekaterina was indeed very cute. "You are a precious baby," I informed her, as she poked at one of my crossed legs with her snoot.
"Oh, isn't she just?" cooed Kongou, sat down in a kneeling position and pressing her hands to her cheeks in excitement. "People say that pythons like her are just pet rocks, and I've certainly seen snakes that are very lazy no matter how much you give them to explore, but Ekaterina is the most personable little darling! I've had her since she was just a baby."
"How old is- oop, hello there!" I said, as Ekaterina decided that my knees were appropriate for climbing on. "How old is she?"
"She's seven; I was too young to care for a snake on my lonesome when I was that young, of course, so I had an assistant back then," she told me. "My dear father visited a number of reptile sanctuaries in his travels when he was younger, and his affection for them rubbed off on me! And my affection," she said, leaning over to get a look at her beloved python's head as it peeked around the opposite side of my hip, "has clearly rubbed off on her… She's very large for a ball python of her age, you know? She's a metre and a half long!"
"So she's clearly been growing well," I said, putting a hand on her midsection, and giving her a bit of a pat when she didn't seem alarmed (to my eyes or to Mental Out, though the latter was an educated guess more than anything). Kongou had let me know not to boop the snoot when I asked her about how to handle her if she approached, as snakes were naturally head-shy animals; the only snoot-booping would be if Ekaterina's snoot was the one doing the booping.
"Oh, hasn't she?" said Kongou, smiling. Her room was very tidy, enough that Ekaterina would be perfectly safe to crawl around at will while she was supervised, but there were some pillows and blankets and whatnot scattered on the floor to provide the python with some objects of interest to nose around at.
The snake had a bow around her neck while she was outside of her enclosure- it was gently applied, with materials that wouldn't irritate her skin or otherwise interfere with her, rather than being some haphazard decoration. This was mostly for her own safety; someone had let her loose as a prank in a previous school, and a school full of middle-school espers was a very dangerous place for a python even when they didn't have powers, so Ekaterina had only narrowly avoided getting hurt in the incident. She'd put on a dismissive air when she'd recalled the incident after I questioned the decoration, but I was pretty sure it was the whole reason she'd moved to Tokiwadai in the middle of the year rather than at the end of it.
The bow, then, was mostly to disarm people that saw her in a fairly literal fashion- as well as helping to make sure she didn't get stepped on. While snakes were fairly resilient animals, this was more because they could survive and recover from a lot; their flexible and noodley construction made it fairly easy for them to get hurt if something went wrong. While a fancy bow was probably a bit over-the-top, it didn't seem to bother Ekaterina while she was out and about, so I could understand her motives even if her methods were a bit extravagant.
The python's tail slipped off my lap as she hooked herself around the bars below Kongou's desk chair; the front of her body curled as her head wiggled back and forth in the air, trying to figure out which direction she wanted to go next. We both watched her as she decided on circumnavigating the chair and climbing on top of it, having noticed the morning sunshine pouring onto Kongou's desk and deciding that she wanted to be up there.
"She has very good spatial memory, you know?" said Kongou. "She fixates on places! She'll keep wanting to explore the same place for days or weeks if she finds it and she likes it… She tends to fixate on whichever is her newest favourite spot in the evening, but she just likes looking out of the window in the morning."
Indeed- Ekaterina was having a good ol' gander out of the window right now, periscoping surprisingly high to get a good look at what was going on out there. "Aww," I commented intelligently. "Does she ever get any chances to explore further afield?"
"When I can manage it safely? Why, of course!" said Kongou, her tone of voice positively bubbly. "I sometimes take her out in the evenings, if I've found a location or facility that's safe for her and she's in the mood. Preferably within the same building; she much prefers being handled to travelling in a box, I find, even if she'd prefer doing it herself most of all. She's an independent young lady!"
"Have you found many other places for her to look at?" I asked, recalling that the other lunchtime inhabitants hadn't been quite as enthusiastic about Ekaterina as I had.
Her expression soured slightly. "Miss Hokaze offered, but with how much Ekaterina likes to climb, she'd have to reorganise her entire room just to make sure that none of her… merchandise, meets an untimely gravity-induced end," Kongou sighed. There was only room for one ectothermic vertebrate in Hokaze's bedroom, apparently, and that ectothermic vertebrate was a certain cutesy frog mascot. "And while I'm good friends with Miss Wannai and Miss Awatsuki, neither of them are particularly fond of reptiles, alas…"
I hesitated. On the one hand, I didn't really like having guests in my room; Shirai and Hokaze were basically the entire list, and that was only because I needed to show them the picture on my wall. On the other hand… the danger noodle was extremely cute.
…I'd think about it. Instead, I said, "Well they clearly don't have any taste when it comes to animals, then; Ekaterina is a perfect spaghetti and I will fight anyone who says otherwise." Kongou laughed, bringing up her signature fan to cover her mouth, in response to that. "Speaking of pets… it'll be a while before I'm in a position to think about fish anyway, if I set up an aquarium, but I'm planning on getting something going while I think about that." I had a small shower room attached to the bedroom, which was one of the inner dorm luxuries I very much did not consider over-the-top, so I'd be able to change the water quite easily with a hose and an electric pump. "I've been looking up plants to use on the internet."
"Ah, how wonderful!" Kongou replied. "I take it you have a plan?"
I nodded. "Yeah; I like things to fit together neatly, and I don't want to get anything fancy if I'm just starting out, so I'm looking for things from the same sort of region," I said. "Larger tanks can tank changes a bit better, and cost really isn't an issue, so a bigger tank is what I'm planning around- I should be able to fit in a cupboard at the side of the room to put it on, if my current surfaces don't work out. I'm thinking a planted freshwater aquarium with a sandy base, so I'm making a list of soft-water plants and figuring out which to start with."
"Oh, that's interesting!" said Kongou. "A biotope aquarium? What do you have in mind?"
'Biotope' just meant 'an artificial habitat that's from roughly the same place'. "Well, the Tokyo area has fairly soft water, so that limits my options if I want to use what's convenient," I said. "It's been a bit tough figuring out where's best, to make sure it's not all just the same clade of fish… I wouldn't want just tetras and some catfish, y'know? I'm leaning towards tetras, certain South American cichlids, and catfish, or danios, rasboras and loaches; it's going to be a while before I actually have any fish, though," I noted, "so as long as I can choose a general area to stock the plants from, I'll be able to do my research, look at fish and monitor the tank, to narrow down on what'll work best. So it's basically Southeast Asia versus South America right now."
We chatted for a while longer; it was rather helpful, actually. Given that South America lacked all the islands and peninsulas of Southeast Asia, it would probably be easier to vegetate a nondescript South American tank than a nondescript Southeast Asian tank, and even if I wasn't entirely sure on the best buddies for them, tetras and corydora catfish were both things that could live harmoniously while I decided. Alas, time was a concept that existed, and so eventually Kongou had to slip Ekaterina back into her terrarium and drag me downstairs to the cafeteria.
But it turned out that there was something of a scene going on in there.
The cafeteria was usually something of a neutral ground by faction standards; the bickering usually took place at breaks or during lunches, or behind the scenes in meeting rooms and pathways between lessons. It was even more of an oddity here than the scene I'd made on the bus had been. This was… unusual.
I frowned; Kongou hesitated, but followed me when I strolled past the maids that were clearly trying to decide whether or not trying to break up the argument would be more or less professional than continuing around them. Maids and teachers usually stayed out of clique affairs, which this clearly was, but currently they were kind of blocking the main route through the cafeteria.
With a quick application of Mental Out, I skimmed the group for an idea of what was going on, and prompted the people who were in my way to move. "Excuse me, but would you mind informing me what's going on here?" I said generally, more for their benefit than mine.
"Ah, my Queen!" said Hokaze, obviously torn between relief at having backup and stress at my assigned relaxation not working as well as it should have. Before I'd gotten here, she'd clearly been trying to flusteredly calm things down, but hadn't been having much success.
There were clearly two sides here. On one side was the Gaouin clique. On the other was not one, not two, but three other cliques; a coalition had formed, with Inubushi standing with Kamino (leader of a more popular clique, who was supposedly a matter disintegrator but was secretly a teleporter when she wanted to be) and Kumamori (leader of what was generally considered one of the smaller cliques of note). I was pretty sure it was only her status as Vice-President which was letting her put any social pressure on the three of them, though that didn't mean that Gaouin's underlings weren't clearly outnumbered in the small crowd that had formed around them.
My abrupt intervention had given them pause; you couldn't just ignore the Queen of Tokiwadai regardless of how much of a layabout she preferred to be, but whoever replied first would be implicitly subordinating themselves before me, thanks to the way I'd phrased it. The phrasing had mostly been out of overly-polite habits when I was annoyed, so to break the standoff before one of them blinked first, I added, "I take it this isn't just some discussion over the Daihaseisai."
"Hah! You're right," barked Inubushi- while Kamino and her beady little square-pupiled eyes (which were secretly contact lenses) would normally be leading, with her being the current leader in social-manipulation faction politics, this more blunt approach had put Inubushi squarely in charge of the coalition through context alone. "The Vice-Prez is taking offence to what we're doing; apparently we're not allowed to talk, are we?"
But her hand was extended, and she was holding a flyer. I took it, and looked it over.
It was a fairly good leaflet, all things considered, for what it was trying to do. On one side, there were caricaturised Skill-Outs; on the other side, there were caricaturised DA troops. In the middle was a figure in azure; her two hands were held out to the side, holding back Skill-Out and DA, and she wore nonspecific uniform, obviously intended to be from a fine girls' school. Below were depicted the exhausted and wounded figures of Anti-Skill on the side facing DA, and exhausted Judgment members facing Skill-Out.
It was coloured in the clean blacks, beiges and occasional primary or secondary colour of classic propaganda. The top was titled, 'We Have The Power!'.
The image, of a fine young anonymous lady holding back Skill-Out and DA was easily enough to communicate their point even without the text. Said text still existed though, being organised at the bottom to quickly summarise their points, without ever explicitly saying what their goal was. Of course they wouldn't say it outright; it would be terribly uncouth of them to say such things, instead of merely implying them. Inubushi's coalition had taken a look at plausible deniability, and had skipped it to go straight for refuge in audacity- or refuge in the influence their coalition had on the school, at the very least.
They were suggesting a students' militia. Or something that looked far too much like that sort of gang to me, at least.
A quick check with Mental Out suggested that they certainly weren't being denied outright… I flipped the leaflet, pretending to check if there was anything on the other side while I thought. I could see the power play being made here- they were betting that if they could win support in the Tokiwadai's inner dorm first, they'd have a much easier time winning support in Tokiwadai as a whole later. And I couldn't help but agree that they'd picked the best timeslot they could.
Superficially, they were butting heads with two of the most powerful factions in the school- mine and Gaouin's- as well as two other faction leaders, those of Kobayashi and Iori. But realistically…
Kobayashi's clique were more aggressive than the Constitutionals but less confrontational than everyone else; the atmosphere had been tense enough lately that they hadn't discarded the idea out of hand, and on an interfactional level, they'd be served better by neutrality than pushing one side or the other, at least until someone succeeded or failed in shooting this down. And Iori was basically a non-factor. She hadn't recovered from the public relations disaster that was the bus incident. Given that Inubushi had started the whole incident, and I'd come to terms with her and humiliated Iori, trying to butt in against Inubushi would look like she was picking up where she left off.
For my own clique, we were lacking our most confrontational members. Hokaze just wanted everyone to be friends, but a sad Hokaze face wasn't worth much to those that considered her a rival to power, while Mibuki was in a similar boat to Kobayashi, albeit for slightly different reasons. Makigami- a subfaction leader and a Judgment officer- and Tatsuki- our most willingly-confrontational member- were both elsewhere right now, so either I'd agree, or I'd disagree without the more aggressive proponents in my clique to back me up.
Perhaps the most important factors weren't faction leaders at all, though. "...I can't help but think that Miss Misaka and Miss Shirai would be rather unamused," I noted, still looking it over. "They tend to dislike this sort of thing."
That I hadn't just discarded the leaflet and gone to get breakfast was a statement on its own, given what I was like. "Miss Shokuhou," said Gaouin, the barest hint of uncertainty creeping into her features. "You can't honestly be considering this nonsense."
As much as I wanted to say I wasn't considering it, given the likely consequences of a militia of super-powered, overly-privileged middle-school girls… I was really considering it. They were right, in a sense- Anti-Skill and Judgment weren't enough. They never had been, even. Perhaps Inubushi's coalition didn't know about Clone Dolly or the Level 6 Shift, but I did, and Judgment or Anti-Skill certainly hadn't done anything for all of Misaka's dead sisters. So the real question wasn't whether or not they were right… it was whether or not they'd be helpful.
"Vice-President Gaouin… I've previously noted to my clique that I had some damage to my inhibitions from the terrorist attack we're all talking about, and had some rather noticeable injuries from a terrorist attack last summer, too," I responded. "I'd be something of a bird-brain if I didn't take the time to think it through." The real problem was that all the power was concentrated in three groups- teenaged idiots, science-worshipping cultists, and perfectly normal corporations, all three of which were liable to go mad with power the moment you handed it to them. But… "I can't say that your suggestion would be helpful, Miss Inubushi," I replied, holding the leaflet back out for her to take. "I refuse."
Inubushi moved her body, just enough that she could take the sheet back if she raised her hand for it. "Wouldn't it have been helpful?" she asked. "If girls like us could've helped you, or Miss Mugino's friend that was injured?"
"I can handle myself, if needs be," I responded. "And I have my friends by my side. I'd rather make sure Level 0s aren't being attacked by espers, than make sure a Level 5 has even more backup."
"Then there's the answer- don't see yourself as the victim," said Inubushi. She made eye contact, purposefully, carefully. "See yourself as the hero. After all- what would have happened to Anti-Skill if a girl like you hadn't been there to help them, with Judgment sent away for their 'safety'? A lot more people would have died if you hadn't been there."
I hesitated- and, on impulse, checked what she was thinking.
It confirmed my suspicions. For Inubushi, the number of Anti-Skill that died didn't need to be 'more' to already be far too many; after all, most Anti-Skill were just teachers in riot gear, and in a city without parents, a lot of kids became very attached to their teachers. Inubushi had woken up one day to find her most precious elementary school teacher gone.
She'd seen my expression change fractionally, as I found myself unable to come up with a snappy counterargument- she wasn't wrong. Inubushi didn't need to wait for me to retract my arm; she was quick to realise that she'd won this round before I did.
She nodded to me, and moved to return to her seat with her minions, as did Kumamori, veering off to the corner where her own clique resided. Kamino lingered a moment, looking at me with those square contact-lens pupils of hers. "Think about it," she said, before splitting off herself- leaving me, Hokaze, and Gaoui (plus her minions) standing around gormlessly. The coalition had dissolved back into its components as soon as it had presumably gathered, now that they had their victory.
The famously peaceable Queen of Tokiwadai had been unable to reject their proposal outright, after all. When you were advocating a student militia… I huffed in irritation, taking another look at the flyer for lack of anything better to do with my hands, or any better places to put the damn thing.
Seeing my predicament, Gaouin held her hand out for the flyer. "I'll take that off your hands, Miss Shokuhou," she said. I let her take it, unable to discard Inubushi's idea myself, but unwilling to let the clear voice of reason go without even a meagre win of some sort- I held it out to her, and she scrunched it up to go and put it in the bin.
When we finally sat down for lunch, me and Hokaze ate side-by-side, largely in silence. I could see it in her eyes, too- we both knew that this was a ridiculous, terrible idea that Inubushi had developed, but as much as Hokaze had been trying to convince Inubushi that her idea was inappropriate before I arrived, she knew just as well as I did that Anti-Skill and Judgment really weren't enough. And our current solution was… what? Hope that it'd all work out anyway?
The problem was simple, really. The status quo wasn't working, but the only people available to us with reason to help us and will to change the status quo were idiot teenagers with superpowers. Helping them was a disaster waiting to happen… but so was not helping them, and so was preventing them from doing anything to change the status quo. We just had to figure out which inevitable disaster was worse.
Even if their movement got strangled in the crib… well, that wouldn't solve the problem, it'd just let us stick our heads back in the sand. And it'd be a lot harder to strangle in the crib with a Level 5 on their side, and a lot easier to prevent disaster if I helped.
But then I'd be trying to wrangle a militia of idiot super-powered teenagers, many of whom were inevitably going to have superiority complexes, and whose propaganda could very much be turned rather unpleasantly towards the parts of Skill-Out that really were just trying to protect themselves from powerful espers.
"...If they do anything stupid, I'm going to beat them up," I suggested to Hokaze, staring mulishly into my miso soup.
Hokaze hummed neutrally, unable to discard my suggestion. "I think we may need to update our plans for the faction meeting," she responded.
__________
Good things about Mental Out: enough range and versatility that there were very few problems that couldn't be solved by a good ol' scry-and-fry strategy, frying optional.
Bad things about Mental Out: it would have been really, really satisfying if I had some sort of water bazooka to go with it, and yet, my itty-bitty psychokinesis meant that there was no such water bazooka available. So my post-recovery System Scan update was nowhere near as satisfying as it could have been.
Additionally, I'd commandeered Shirai for it; allegedly to help teleport things and people around to help check my progress, but more realistically it was to fill her in on this morning's events. Makigami- Constitutionals subfaction leader and fellow Judgment officer- was also present; Railgun was in lessons right now, unfortunately.
They listened to my recollection, Shirai with growing irritation, Makigami with growing unease. "...The nerve of such people!" said Shirai. "Do they not believe that Judgment is already trying its hardest? If they were not satisfied with Judgment alone, then would it not be prudent to sign up for the many hardships and trials of Judgment itself? If they think we are understaffed or incompetent, perhaps they should try signing themselves up with us!"
"But Miss Kuroko… I've heard that Miss Inubushi already tried such things in the past," said Makigami. "I hear that she got very high physical grades, but failed certain ethical requirements…"
"Then she is clearly unworthy to be a part of Judgment, if that was not already obvious from this obscene behaviour!" Shirai tutted. "Those ethical guidelines exist for a reason; if Judgment did not follow them, we would be little different from- owowowow!"
Makigami had interrupted her fellow Judgment officer with a tactical cheek-tugging. "Miss Kuroko, the only reason you passed the ethics exams is because you didn't tell them you'd be such a cowboy cop!" she complained. "You know how much paperwork that Judgment Branch 3 has to do because you can't confine yourself to Tokiwadai! You're as bad as your onee-san, you know that, Judgment-senpai!?"
"Ow…! That was quite painful, Miss Makigami," complained Shirai. "I don't understand why your combat readiness grades remain so low… If you did such a thing to all the lowlifes in this city, I think we'd all be out of a job." She frowned. "Though the point remains. The restrictions on Judgment are for the safety of ourselves and others; as much as I may… occasionally flaunt such rules, it's with the understanding that there is a line I must walk between helping others and obeying the rules. If I were to become too arrogant in my position, or abuse it, I would be summarily ejected rather than left to do more paperwork- it is as simple as that. This nonsense that Miss Inubushi is littering our grounds with," she said, "is completely without that accountability."
"That's my problem with what she's doing, too," I said, as I had another go at trying to cause a steam explosion with my powers. "I can understand feeling threatened. But the way they're going about it, they're either going to get threatened right back by someone higher up the city's chain of command, or they're going to end up the ones doing the threatening. I'd imagine all the sufficiently-motivated voices of caution who'd sign up are all in Judgment already…"
I wasn't having much luck with generating that high an impulse of force, and I'd probably have to move onto something else. Generating other liquids, maybe; I was mathematically describing state changes away from fluids, to create those non-fluids, but perhaps a description of normal fluid mechanics or entropy would work to create room-temperature liquids?
"We'll need a warrant to keep them from printing these leaflets of theirs," Shirai commented, as I tried one more time to get a proper steam burst going. "It's obviously inappropriate material that we can act on, inciting disorder in the school… I'm concerned about what will happen if they manage to form such an organisation, though. It clearly hasn't come to pass yet, not in any actionable sense, but it seems like it would be a significant challenge for Judgment."
Steam wasn't getting anywhere quickly; I started working on seeing if I could get a volume of fog going. I'd done it before to get the Taowu concrete particles out of the air, but that had been significantly aided by particles to nucleate around. "Why's that?" I asked. "You're better-trained and more legitimate than them."
"Judgment is intended to be decentralised," she commented. "While I believe in a more idealistic explanation than this, I've heard it put this way- Judgment and Anti-Skill are a check on the power of the other. Judgment offices are limited to their own jurisdiction; Anti-Skill has full jurisdiction, but needs the support of Judgment to act with full effectiveness. So Anti-Skill needs to have the trust of Judgment and the school system to make use of their abilities, while Judgment needs Anti-Skill to coordinate the many small school offices we have."
"Right," I said. "As much as it pains me to say it… If they're trying to replace or sideline Judgment with their own system, wouldn't that get Anti-Skill involved enough to do that coordination?"
"The problem is that Judgment isn't a single group," she said. "Even myself and Miss Makigami have loyalties outside of Judgment- it would pain me deeply to take up arms against Onee-sama if she recklessly violated the law, and Miss Makigami is a part of your very own faction, is she not? When one considers that there are only a few Judgment officers in each school, and that the dissenting individuals are- in this case- respected students who perceive legitimate problems, true or not, rather than idle rule-breakers or individuals who need polite reminders about discipline…"
"I saw the flyers she's been spreading, Miss Shokuhou," said Makigami. "If she wanted to restrict it to Tokiwadai, wouldn't she have drawn a Tokiwadai uniform? If she has three factions' membership behind her already, then Miss Kuroko and I might not be able to handle it without pulling favours from other Judgment branches… If she and the other leaders hold those factions together, and get even half as much influence in Tokiwadai's sister schools, they might even get respectable Judgment officers caught up in whatever this is."
So the problem was that Judgment was designed to have a few respected officers promoting peace and order in each school, combining their training with their Anti-Skill-granted legitimacy as authority figures as means to ensure that the rest of the school behaved. But faith in Anti-Skill had been eroded by the DA uprising, so that legitimacy was being brought into question; that gave faction leaders like Inubushi the opportunity to speak against them. Since Judgment officers were as much as part of the school ecosystem as anyone else, and had their numbers by being spread thinly across every school rather than concentrated in any one school, that meant they were as susceptible to being convinced as anyone else. And that might be a devastating blow to Judgment's reputation, if they couldn't stand together, when a new rival for student authority was agitating for exactly that.
Basically, Judgment was decentralised so Anti-Skill was visibly the one in charge, despite being the half of the equation without superpowers. But Anti-Skill didn't look very in-charge of the situation right now, so individual Judgment offices could easily start to splinter or be sidelined if an alternative authority presented itself. Which in turn presented a real risk of Anti-Skill having to intervene without esper support.
It was a pretty ridiculous thought, that middle-school malcontents could pose a real problem for the city police force without the student discipline committee on their side. But two Level 5s and a Level 4 had been pretty impervious to the all-lethal DA, even without preparation or lethal force; if Anti-Skill wanted to do something about the theoretical School Garden safety and discipline committee that was rapidly becoming a real possibility, they might have to deal with tens of Level 3s and 4s with no lethal force whatsoever. Anything else would leave them at even more of an imbalance of force than DA had faced and failed against, as lethal force was a great way to get the whole School Garden- two Level 5s included- to rise up as one and drive you out.
I didn't think it would get that far; most likely, either the movement would be strangled by someone else intervening before it got off the ground, or you'd get only the most violent action-members actually trying to patrol, and being considered an unavoidable headache instead of something to try and violently dismantle. Makigami and Shirai were both thinking it'd be a difficult-to-control headache if they did get off the ground, rather than any of the crap my paranoia was feeding me.
But simply because some of us could throw lightning-bolts when Skill-Out and Anti-Skill couldn't… "This is why you don't give superpowers to people our age…" I muttered under my breath.
"Pardon, Miss Shokuhou?" asked Shirai.
"Sorry," I replied. "Just talking to myself. Would you mind getting one of those glasses? I was thinking that trying to generate simple oils might be an easy experiment…"
__________
The Monday meeting came and went. As much as Inubushi was on everyone's tongues, we had too much to do to really focus on her- the Daihaseisai was starting in less than five days, after all.
The clique's leaders and subfaction leaders had gotten together at lunchtime to discuss our response to her. We'd decided to have Makigami address it if it was brought up, which it was, and which she did, with a semi-impromptu speech on supporting Judgment- by joining, helping, whatever- being the best thing to do if you felt they needed a helping hand. She'd also printed off some choice leaflets on signing up for Judgment, which Hokaze had been eager to distribute, cheerfully noting that even one of the Ace of Tokiwadai's sisters had signed up for the training course.
We'd also finally gotten the clique's latest membership tally, finally. And apparently we'd finally beaten the old Sha Clique in membership- they'd gotten to twenty-three percent of the school's population at their peak, thirty-six people given the smaller faculty of last year, while we'd reached twenty-six percent and forty-seven people. There were talks of a fourth subfaction forming; while most people hadn't considered it too deeply, Kongou (who'd recently followed her friends into the faction) had loudly proposed the Merchants (name pending) as a fourth faction. Her idea was to focus on using and improving the business connections of the faction and its members, and it had been brought up that the Daihaseisai was a perfect time to see if there was demand for it.
Wannai and Awatsuki had both been making polite eye contact with me during Kongou's speech… Menaces, the both of them. Though it was admittedly a convincing argument that Kongou's suggested subfaction had a niche among us.
The bulk of the meeting, then, had been dedicated to the Daihaseisai. It wasn't just for the sports and exercise clubs that the Constitutionals supported, either. A number of our clique- Hokaze among them- wanted to offset the recent interfactional turmoil by showing off Tokiwadai at its best, and so there was a lot of motivation to make sure that we were extra-prepared both for the 'sports' part and the 'festival' part of the city sports festival. A lot of people would be passing through the esper revision sessions in an effort to squeeze whatever they could out of their powers in the remaining time, while others would be offering more conventional practise sessions for likely sporting events.
But not everything could be solved within the meeting; Tatsuki had taken me aside after the meeting and asked if she could discuss some Nihilist things. So now we were in a small cafe, one of the ones that Shirai had recommended, to talk things over while she drank her coffee.
She sipped from it, and wiped the mocha cream from her face a second later. I had a cup of green tea. "Our efforts to keep Iori's Clique away are going… reasonably," she said. "We've upgraded the anti-psychometric defences and practises where appropriate, we'd minimised the risk that any dangerous information or items are left unsecured, and we've been monitoring the lab and their school activities to minimise the risks of further psychometric invasion. All evidence indicates that their attempts are winding down; however, the two most involved- Sasaki and Yamamoto- didn't attend school today."
I frowned. "Were they injured by thaumaturgical activity?" I asked seriously.
"No," Tatsuki replied. "Not as far as we can tell. And not by us, either." She was telling the truth. "Iori's Clique appears to be somewhat unclear on the matter, though their own defences- and having shed most of the auxiliary members- make it hard to tell; it's possible that they simply have a cold, as they've been staying in the outer dorms, where they live. We haven't confirmed anything as of yet."
"That's certainly odd," I agreed. What was up with that? I found it pretty confusing; a lot of people in Tokiwadai wouldn't even think of going home just because they had a cold or something, and for it to happen to "I can't imagine why… Have you checked that Magnus or his friend haven't, I dunno, put a hex on them?" She snorted. "They still need to clear things up with us, right? We can ask them then."
"Of course, my Queen," she agreed. "There was one more thing I wanted to talk about… Lady Shokuhou," said Tatsuki. "The group you requested we interview was… interesting. Very quick learners. I'm inclined towards hiring them."
"...I'm sensing a 'but' here," I commented, with a slight frown.
"You'd be very correct," she replied. "My Queen… You're aware that when a girl's first response to a theoretical intruder is 'kill them without any witnesses', this is something that you should firmly tell the person you're requesting to hire them?"
She phrased this in a manner that strongly implied that no, I was not aware.
…Whoops. "Ahah… I'm pretty sure I told you that…?" I said, truthfully. "Admittedly, I was hoping they'd deal with the job interview with a bit more of an understanding of what the questions were…"
"No, Lady Shokuhou," she sighed. "You didn't tell us. You said- and I quote, from Miss Index's photographic memory- if we to be attacked, 'then you'll have more problems keeping your enemy safe than them safe'. And that it would 'probably be too much risk if we were guarding something safe'. Which both only become important factors in retrospect." She raised a single, somewhat accusing eyebrow. "My good friend, Miss Onizuka, tells me that you have something of an issue with underselling the negatives of things."
"...Ah," I said sheepishly. She was referring to the 'do I really need two kidneys?' incident. Perhaps I needed to cut back on the casual dissembling… "...In my defence!" I stated. "I was fairly sure I'd communicated things clearly there. …With Scavenger, I mean, not the Deadlock incident."
Tatsuki sighed. "...Given this, and comparing it to what you've told the Shokuhou Clique about recent events… I take it that the 'enthusiastic conversation' that put you in a wheelchair, and what you told the newspaper club, are both similar undersellings," she said. "Given the degree of troubles you've been having, and our role in the Clique as protecting it from interference, I'd like to know the full story of these events."
I frowned. "...I'm sorry, but you need to be a Le- ah, Rank 5 friend to fully unlock my tragic backstory," I said sardonically, and sipped my tea.
"Hmph. And what rank would Miss Hokaze be?" she asked.
"...She and Michan- I don't believe you've met her- are both Rank 4. Four and a half, perhaps; three quarters at the most. Perhaps that's unfair of me," I admitted, "but there's some things I simply don't wish to discuss."
"...You don't trust Hokaze with everything?" asked Tatsuki, somewhat disbelieving. "But she's…"
"My best friend, yes," I agreed. "Alongside Michan. They know the vast majority; they were involved in most of it, even. I've… been coming out of my shell recently, to a degree. They know a lot more than they did last summer."
"I… see," she replied, staring into the cream on top of her coffee like it had any explanations to give.
I took the time to drink some more of my cup of tea.
"...There's a lot you can probably infer," I said neutrally. "I generally don't lie. So I'll say what I'm willing. I'm not willing to give the full context on events- much of it isn't mine to tell, and there's some things that are similarly need-to-know as your thaumatology work- but I'll speak without downplaying the risk. You've already gathered what put me in a wheelchair."
"Yes, my Queen," replied Tatsuki- she knew I knew, because I was the one who could read her mind to confirm it. "You got into a fight with the Rank 1, didn't you? Why?"
"That I did," I replied. "While the context surrounding the reasons for the fight is… definitely not my story to tell, it can be summarised as this- Accelerator was convinced to take part in some incredibly unethical experiments, and put the siblings of one of my childhood friends in danger. She passed away a few years ago. While we were told by one of said siblings that he could be convinced he'd made a mistake, me, Hokaze and Michan weren't fully convinced by that. We decided to try, but prepared for a fight."
"...A network roughly equivalent to Level Upper," she realised, recalling what I'd said about how I'd fought the Taowu in private, with Index and her. "That's why you invented it? To fight Accelerator?"
"Very astute… Yes," I confirmed. "Though it was only enough for the three of us to drag out the fight longer than we otherwise might have. There were certain critical flaws in doing so safely," I said. "It turned out we were both right- that he could be convinced he'd make a mistake, and that we needed to prepare for a fight. He was furious that we'd try to stop the experiment, and ended up breaking Michan's leg, and beating me bloody- we failed to choke him out with Michan's putty manipulation power, and he easily patched what few holes we found in his defences." I sipped my tea. "When he finally accepted that he was in the wrong, though, he gave up without hesitation. He's been making sure that the experiment stays cancelled since then."
"...How did he end up in hospital then, my Queen?" she asked. "The holes in his defences…?"
"No- I punched him twice in the face, and once in the kidney, but those were rather weak due to the method employed. An out-of-school friend of mine managed to punch him significantly harder than that; it contributed a lot towards getting him to listen. He only got seriously injured in later incidents." I hummed, and said, "It's his business how he got himself hurt, and I wouldn't recommend asking him. He's not a bad person, I don't think, but you'd probably get the nearest heavy object thrown at you for trying."
She didn't raise another question.
I continued. "The DA incident… I started with when I was in the hospital, yes?" She nodded back at me. "Right. I actually gave a proper explanation for that one. Mostly, anyway. I told you about how they were using the thaumaturgies?"
"Yes," she responded. "They were using… some sort of fire magic?"
"No," I sighed. "They were esper abilities. They weren't using pyrokinetic magic. They were using computing magic; necromancy, to put it bluntly."
She looked at me disbelievingly. "...Shokuhou, you aren't saying that the Coffin robots-"
She paused.
"...Oh," she breathed.
"Yes, 'oh'," I snarked, before coughing. "...Anyway. DA had been committing murders to construct their machines. Mugino was… well, that goes into more of those details I don't want to discuss about the incident with Accelerator, so I can't give the full story on that, either. But she was less 'I need to save my friends' and more 'I'll gleefully make the bastards pay', when it came to the lethal force she was using on DA, and I can be very certain that the scientist who caused all of this with his experiments was killed by the Taowu, rather than having escaped in disgrace."
"...You did that again," she muttered. I frowned, but I already knew what she was thinking, so she didn't bother leaving it unsaid. "Your body language, and your tone of voice… Whenever you brought up these experiments, it became slightly more… intense. You joke about it, but your 'tragic backstory'... It's got something to do with the scientists of Academy City, hasn't it?" She met my eyes.
"...Very astute," I repeated calmly. She wasn't getting an answer from me. "You can ask Hokaze about it, if you'd like," I informed her.
That wasn't her last question though; she looked down again. "The conclusions that I've come to… My parents were very displeased, thinking that I was wasting my time working for others," she said. "And they were quite certain I was limiting myself, rather than reading the evidence, reading the philosophy, and coming to a rational conclusion on what I wanted from my future career as a researcher. They advised me that I was being… manipulated. All my rational observations tell me that they're too jaded to see the truth of what makes an effective scientist. But…"
"Given that I changed my mind willingly… If I stayed on that path, regardless of what you'd said," she asked me, looking up to meet my eyes, "what would you have thought of me then?"
Tatsuki was very, very good at reading body language. She was already scanning my reaction when I responded.
Set body language: 'Neutral'.
"Then you wouldn't have been convinced," I said. "And I doubt we'd have gotten along once you graduated."
She held eye contact. "...Lady Shokuhou," she said. "Please, we both know I'm aware of that trick; you did it to annoy me quite frequently, before we started to get along... I want to know what you'd think of the sort of person I might have been. If I'd still been the childish little girl, whose parents fawned over her wanting to vivisect a rodent. You're susceptible to utilitarian arguments over emotional ones, so…even if nobody is a 'Rank 5 friend'... please, consider it. To help me."
Tatsuki took a breath.
"We both know you've left a lot unsaid, even if you're the only one who knows what it is. And sometimes you look… odd, when you say it. So… I wish," she asked, "to know how deep my convictions really need to be, if I'm to ensure that all of my future coworkers follow through with them."
She held my gaze. After a few seconds of thought, I put my teacup down. "...You're certain," I commented, like it was a statement about the weather.
"I am," she replied, steadfast.
I paused.
Then I sat up, and smiled widely at her. She visibly stuttered for a moment.
"Ah, well… I think it's mostly the lapse in my inhibitions that finished convincing me, but you're right- your rational argument really is more convincing than my emotional one," I replied conversationally, still smiling, but smiling past her now. "So… The best sort of people are the sort who update their views in response to new data. I'm sure I've told you that before. It's the reason I'm not particularly mad at Accelerator, any more, you know?" I said idly.
I looked down, to take a sip of my tea.
"So, just to nip any confusion in the bud- as far as I'm concerned, you're a good person, and I approve of you, both as a person and a scientist," I said. "But… hmph. If you'd carried on that path, and came to the conclusion that a quite frankly disappointing number of people in this city come to…?"
I met her eyes, and to her credit, she didn't look away, despite being very, very good at reading body language.
"Then… you wouldn't have been convinced. And I think that we wouldn't have gotten along once you graduated," I repeated, smiling widely. A small part of Tatsuki distractedly noted how visible the starbursts in my eyes were.
She swallowed. "I… think I understand," said Tatsuki.
She didn't understand completely- reading body language as finely as she did was a hard-learned skill. She could pick up on it when I didn't believe that she understood; she didn't have the knowledge to figure out how much she was underestimating my problems with the city. As skilled as she was, my odd behaviour was outside of her frame of reference, and she was very much aware of that.
But she understood more than she did previously. "Then I hope you found the answer you were looking for, yes?" I replied. She agreed with a nod, and I hummed. "But… do remember, it's somewhat impolite to ask serious questions like that when a person's inhibitions are lower than normal."
She glanced away guiltily. "...Yes, my Queen," she said.
"Then you're forgiven," I said, and relaxed. "...I should apologise if I've been too intense," I added.
Tatsuki paused. Then she shook her head. "No, my Queen," she replied. "I was already debating too much about what was really the case… There were too many gaps. I needed to hear this."
"...Perhaps you didn't, perhaps you did," I said neutrally, and picked up my cup of tea.
"Oh, isn't she just?" cooed Kongou, sat down in a kneeling position and pressing her hands to her cheeks in excitement. "People say that pythons like her are just pet rocks, and I've certainly seen snakes that are very lazy no matter how much you give them to explore, but Ekaterina is the most personable little darling! I've had her since she was just a baby."
"How old is- oop, hello there!" I said, as Ekaterina decided that my knees were appropriate for climbing on. "How old is she?"
"She's seven; I was too young to care for a snake on my lonesome when I was that young, of course, so I had an assistant back then," she told me. "My dear father visited a number of reptile sanctuaries in his travels when he was younger, and his affection for them rubbed off on me! And my affection," she said, leaning over to get a look at her beloved python's head as it peeked around the opposite side of my hip, "has clearly rubbed off on her… She's very large for a ball python of her age, you know? She's a metre and a half long!"
"So she's clearly been growing well," I said, putting a hand on her midsection, and giving her a bit of a pat when she didn't seem alarmed (to my eyes or to Mental Out, though the latter was an educated guess more than anything). Kongou had let me know not to boop the snoot when I asked her about how to handle her if she approached, as snakes were naturally head-shy animals; the only snoot-booping would be if Ekaterina's snoot was the one doing the booping.
"Oh, hasn't she?" said Kongou, smiling. Her room was very tidy, enough that Ekaterina would be perfectly safe to crawl around at will while she was supervised, but there were some pillows and blankets and whatnot scattered on the floor to provide the python with some objects of interest to nose around at.
The snake had a bow around her neck while she was outside of her enclosure- it was gently applied, with materials that wouldn't irritate her skin or otherwise interfere with her, rather than being some haphazard decoration. This was mostly for her own safety; someone had let her loose as a prank in a previous school, and a school full of middle-school espers was a very dangerous place for a python even when they didn't have powers, so Ekaterina had only narrowly avoided getting hurt in the incident. She'd put on a dismissive air when she'd recalled the incident after I questioned the decoration, but I was pretty sure it was the whole reason she'd moved to Tokiwadai in the middle of the year rather than at the end of it.
The bow, then, was mostly to disarm people that saw her in a fairly literal fashion- as well as helping to make sure she didn't get stepped on. While snakes were fairly resilient animals, this was more because they could survive and recover from a lot; their flexible and noodley construction made it fairly easy for them to get hurt if something went wrong. While a fancy bow was probably a bit over-the-top, it didn't seem to bother Ekaterina while she was out and about, so I could understand her motives even if her methods were a bit extravagant.
The python's tail slipped off my lap as she hooked herself around the bars below Kongou's desk chair; the front of her body curled as her head wiggled back and forth in the air, trying to figure out which direction she wanted to go next. We both watched her as she decided on circumnavigating the chair and climbing on top of it, having noticed the morning sunshine pouring onto Kongou's desk and deciding that she wanted to be up there.
"She has very good spatial memory, you know?" said Kongou. "She fixates on places! She'll keep wanting to explore the same place for days or weeks if she finds it and she likes it… She tends to fixate on whichever is her newest favourite spot in the evening, but she just likes looking out of the window in the morning."
Indeed- Ekaterina was having a good ol' gander out of the window right now, periscoping surprisingly high to get a good look at what was going on out there. "Aww," I commented intelligently. "Does she ever get any chances to explore further afield?"
"When I can manage it safely? Why, of course!" said Kongou, her tone of voice positively bubbly. "I sometimes take her out in the evenings, if I've found a location or facility that's safe for her and she's in the mood. Preferably within the same building; she much prefers being handled to travelling in a box, I find, even if she'd prefer doing it herself most of all. She's an independent young lady!"
"Have you found many other places for her to look at?" I asked, recalling that the other lunchtime inhabitants hadn't been quite as enthusiastic about Ekaterina as I had.
Her expression soured slightly. "Miss Hokaze offered, but with how much Ekaterina likes to climb, she'd have to reorganise her entire room just to make sure that none of her… merchandise, meets an untimely gravity-induced end," Kongou sighed. There was only room for one ectothermic vertebrate in Hokaze's bedroom, apparently, and that ectothermic vertebrate was a certain cutesy frog mascot. "And while I'm good friends with Miss Wannai and Miss Awatsuki, neither of them are particularly fond of reptiles, alas…"
I hesitated. On the one hand, I didn't really like having guests in my room; Shirai and Hokaze were basically the entire list, and that was only because I needed to show them the picture on my wall. On the other hand… the danger noodle was extremely cute.
…I'd think about it. Instead, I said, "Well they clearly don't have any taste when it comes to animals, then; Ekaterina is a perfect spaghetti and I will fight anyone who says otherwise." Kongou laughed, bringing up her signature fan to cover her mouth, in response to that. "Speaking of pets… it'll be a while before I'm in a position to think about fish anyway, if I set up an aquarium, but I'm planning on getting something going while I think about that." I had a small shower room attached to the bedroom, which was one of the inner dorm luxuries I very much did not consider over-the-top, so I'd be able to change the water quite easily with a hose and an electric pump. "I've been looking up plants to use on the internet."
"Ah, how wonderful!" Kongou replied. "I take it you have a plan?"
I nodded. "Yeah; I like things to fit together neatly, and I don't want to get anything fancy if I'm just starting out, so I'm looking for things from the same sort of region," I said. "Larger tanks can tank changes a bit better, and cost really isn't an issue, so a bigger tank is what I'm planning around- I should be able to fit in a cupboard at the side of the room to put it on, if my current surfaces don't work out. I'm thinking a planted freshwater aquarium with a sandy base, so I'm making a list of soft-water plants and figuring out which to start with."
"Oh, that's interesting!" said Kongou. "A biotope aquarium? What do you have in mind?"
'Biotope' just meant 'an artificial habitat that's from roughly the same place'. "Well, the Tokyo area has fairly soft water, so that limits my options if I want to use what's convenient," I said. "It's been a bit tough figuring out where's best, to make sure it's not all just the same clade of fish… I wouldn't want just tetras and some catfish, y'know? I'm leaning towards tetras, certain South American cichlids, and catfish, or danios, rasboras and loaches; it's going to be a while before I actually have any fish, though," I noted, "so as long as I can choose a general area to stock the plants from, I'll be able to do my research, look at fish and monitor the tank, to narrow down on what'll work best. So it's basically Southeast Asia versus South America right now."
We chatted for a while longer; it was rather helpful, actually. Given that South America lacked all the islands and peninsulas of Southeast Asia, it would probably be easier to vegetate a nondescript South American tank than a nondescript Southeast Asian tank, and even if I wasn't entirely sure on the best buddies for them, tetras and corydora catfish were both things that could live harmoniously while I decided. Alas, time was a concept that existed, and so eventually Kongou had to slip Ekaterina back into her terrarium and drag me downstairs to the cafeteria.
But it turned out that there was something of a scene going on in there.
The cafeteria was usually something of a neutral ground by faction standards; the bickering usually took place at breaks or during lunches, or behind the scenes in meeting rooms and pathways between lessons. It was even more of an oddity here than the scene I'd made on the bus had been. This was… unusual.
I frowned; Kongou hesitated, but followed me when I strolled past the maids that were clearly trying to decide whether or not trying to break up the argument would be more or less professional than continuing around them. Maids and teachers usually stayed out of clique affairs, which this clearly was, but currently they were kind of blocking the main route through the cafeteria.
With a quick application of Mental Out, I skimmed the group for an idea of what was going on, and prompted the people who were in my way to move. "Excuse me, but would you mind informing me what's going on here?" I said generally, more for their benefit than mine.
"Ah, my Queen!" said Hokaze, obviously torn between relief at having backup and stress at my assigned relaxation not working as well as it should have. Before I'd gotten here, she'd clearly been trying to flusteredly calm things down, but hadn't been having much success.
There were clearly two sides here. On one side was the Gaouin clique. On the other was not one, not two, but three other cliques; a coalition had formed, with Inubushi standing with Kamino (leader of a more popular clique, who was supposedly a matter disintegrator but was secretly a teleporter when she wanted to be) and Kumamori (leader of what was generally considered one of the smaller cliques of note). I was pretty sure it was only her status as Vice-President which was letting her put any social pressure on the three of them, though that didn't mean that Gaouin's underlings weren't clearly outnumbered in the small crowd that had formed around them.
My abrupt intervention had given them pause; you couldn't just ignore the Queen of Tokiwadai regardless of how much of a layabout she preferred to be, but whoever replied first would be implicitly subordinating themselves before me, thanks to the way I'd phrased it. The phrasing had mostly been out of overly-polite habits when I was annoyed, so to break the standoff before one of them blinked first, I added, "I take it this isn't just some discussion over the Daihaseisai."
"Hah! You're right," barked Inubushi- while Kamino and her beady little square-pupiled eyes (which were secretly contact lenses) would normally be leading, with her being the current leader in social-manipulation faction politics, this more blunt approach had put Inubushi squarely in charge of the coalition through context alone. "The Vice-Prez is taking offence to what we're doing; apparently we're not allowed to talk, are we?"
But her hand was extended, and she was holding a flyer. I took it, and looked it over.
It was a fairly good leaflet, all things considered, for what it was trying to do. On one side, there were caricaturised Skill-Outs; on the other side, there were caricaturised DA troops. In the middle was a figure in azure; her two hands were held out to the side, holding back Skill-Out and DA, and she wore nonspecific uniform, obviously intended to be from a fine girls' school. Below were depicted the exhausted and wounded figures of Anti-Skill on the side facing DA, and exhausted Judgment members facing Skill-Out.
It was coloured in the clean blacks, beiges and occasional primary or secondary colour of classic propaganda. The top was titled, 'We Have The Power!'.
The image, of a fine young anonymous lady holding back Skill-Out and DA was easily enough to communicate their point even without the text. Said text still existed though, being organised at the bottom to quickly summarise their points, without ever explicitly saying what their goal was. Of course they wouldn't say it outright; it would be terribly uncouth of them to say such things, instead of merely implying them. Inubushi's coalition had taken a look at plausible deniability, and had skipped it to go straight for refuge in audacity- or refuge in the influence their coalition had on the school, at the very least.
They were suggesting a students' militia. Or something that looked far too much like that sort of gang to me, at least.
A quick check with Mental Out suggested that they certainly weren't being denied outright… I flipped the leaflet, pretending to check if there was anything on the other side while I thought. I could see the power play being made here- they were betting that if they could win support in the Tokiwadai's inner dorm first, they'd have a much easier time winning support in Tokiwadai as a whole later. And I couldn't help but agree that they'd picked the best timeslot they could.
Superficially, they were butting heads with two of the most powerful factions in the school- mine and Gaouin's- as well as two other faction leaders, those of Kobayashi and Iori. But realistically…
Kobayashi's clique were more aggressive than the Constitutionals but less confrontational than everyone else; the atmosphere had been tense enough lately that they hadn't discarded the idea out of hand, and on an interfactional level, they'd be served better by neutrality than pushing one side or the other, at least until someone succeeded or failed in shooting this down. And Iori was basically a non-factor. She hadn't recovered from the public relations disaster that was the bus incident. Given that Inubushi had started the whole incident, and I'd come to terms with her and humiliated Iori, trying to butt in against Inubushi would look like she was picking up where she left off.
For my own clique, we were lacking our most confrontational members. Hokaze just wanted everyone to be friends, but a sad Hokaze face wasn't worth much to those that considered her a rival to power, while Mibuki was in a similar boat to Kobayashi, albeit for slightly different reasons. Makigami- a subfaction leader and a Judgment officer- and Tatsuki- our most willingly-confrontational member- were both elsewhere right now, so either I'd agree, or I'd disagree without the more aggressive proponents in my clique to back me up.
Perhaps the most important factors weren't faction leaders at all, though. "...I can't help but think that Miss Misaka and Miss Shirai would be rather unamused," I noted, still looking it over. "They tend to dislike this sort of thing."
That I hadn't just discarded the leaflet and gone to get breakfast was a statement on its own, given what I was like. "Miss Shokuhou," said Gaouin, the barest hint of uncertainty creeping into her features. "You can't honestly be considering this nonsense."
As much as I wanted to say I wasn't considering it, given the likely consequences of a militia of super-powered, overly-privileged middle-school girls… I was really considering it. They were right, in a sense- Anti-Skill and Judgment weren't enough. They never had been, even. Perhaps Inubushi's coalition didn't know about Clone Dolly or the Level 6 Shift, but I did, and Judgment or Anti-Skill certainly hadn't done anything for all of Misaka's dead sisters. So the real question wasn't whether or not they were right… it was whether or not they'd be helpful.
"Vice-President Gaouin… I've previously noted to my clique that I had some damage to my inhibitions from the terrorist attack we're all talking about, and had some rather noticeable injuries from a terrorist attack last summer, too," I responded. "I'd be something of a bird-brain if I didn't take the time to think it through." The real problem was that all the power was concentrated in three groups- teenaged idiots, science-worshipping cultists, and perfectly normal corporations, all three of which were liable to go mad with power the moment you handed it to them. But… "I can't say that your suggestion would be helpful, Miss Inubushi," I replied, holding the leaflet back out for her to take. "I refuse."
Inubushi moved her body, just enough that she could take the sheet back if she raised her hand for it. "Wouldn't it have been helpful?" she asked. "If girls like us could've helped you, or Miss Mugino's friend that was injured?"
"I can handle myself, if needs be," I responded. "And I have my friends by my side. I'd rather make sure Level 0s aren't being attacked by espers, than make sure a Level 5 has even more backup."
"Then there's the answer- don't see yourself as the victim," said Inubushi. She made eye contact, purposefully, carefully. "See yourself as the hero. After all- what would have happened to Anti-Skill if a girl like you hadn't been there to help them, with Judgment sent away for their 'safety'? A lot more people would have died if you hadn't been there."
I hesitated- and, on impulse, checked what she was thinking.
It confirmed my suspicions. For Inubushi, the number of Anti-Skill that died didn't need to be 'more' to already be far too many; after all, most Anti-Skill were just teachers in riot gear, and in a city without parents, a lot of kids became very attached to their teachers. Inubushi had woken up one day to find her most precious elementary school teacher gone.
She'd seen my expression change fractionally, as I found myself unable to come up with a snappy counterargument- she wasn't wrong. Inubushi didn't need to wait for me to retract my arm; she was quick to realise that she'd won this round before I did.
She nodded to me, and moved to return to her seat with her minions, as did Kumamori, veering off to the corner where her own clique resided. Kamino lingered a moment, looking at me with those square contact-lens pupils of hers. "Think about it," she said, before splitting off herself- leaving me, Hokaze, and Gaoui (plus her minions) standing around gormlessly. The coalition had dissolved back into its components as soon as it had presumably gathered, now that they had their victory.
The famously peaceable Queen of Tokiwadai had been unable to reject their proposal outright, after all. When you were advocating a student militia… I huffed in irritation, taking another look at the flyer for lack of anything better to do with my hands, or any better places to put the damn thing.
Seeing my predicament, Gaouin held her hand out for the flyer. "I'll take that off your hands, Miss Shokuhou," she said. I let her take it, unable to discard Inubushi's idea myself, but unwilling to let the clear voice of reason go without even a meagre win of some sort- I held it out to her, and she scrunched it up to go and put it in the bin.
When we finally sat down for lunch, me and Hokaze ate side-by-side, largely in silence. I could see it in her eyes, too- we both knew that this was a ridiculous, terrible idea that Inubushi had developed, but as much as Hokaze had been trying to convince Inubushi that her idea was inappropriate before I arrived, she knew just as well as I did that Anti-Skill and Judgment really weren't enough. And our current solution was… what? Hope that it'd all work out anyway?
The problem was simple, really. The status quo wasn't working, but the only people available to us with reason to help us and will to change the status quo were idiot teenagers with superpowers. Helping them was a disaster waiting to happen… but so was not helping them, and so was preventing them from doing anything to change the status quo. We just had to figure out which inevitable disaster was worse.
Even if their movement got strangled in the crib… well, that wouldn't solve the problem, it'd just let us stick our heads back in the sand. And it'd be a lot harder to strangle in the crib with a Level 5 on their side, and a lot easier to prevent disaster if I helped.
But then I'd be trying to wrangle a militia of idiot super-powered teenagers, many of whom were inevitably going to have superiority complexes, and whose propaganda could very much be turned rather unpleasantly towards the parts of Skill-Out that really were just trying to protect themselves from powerful espers.
"...If they do anything stupid, I'm going to beat them up," I suggested to Hokaze, staring mulishly into my miso soup.
Hokaze hummed neutrally, unable to discard my suggestion. "I think we may need to update our plans for the faction meeting," she responded.
__________
Good things about Mental Out: enough range and versatility that there were very few problems that couldn't be solved by a good ol' scry-and-fry strategy, frying optional.
Bad things about Mental Out: it would have been really, really satisfying if I had some sort of water bazooka to go with it, and yet, my itty-bitty psychokinesis meant that there was no such water bazooka available. So my post-recovery System Scan update was nowhere near as satisfying as it could have been.
Additionally, I'd commandeered Shirai for it; allegedly to help teleport things and people around to help check my progress, but more realistically it was to fill her in on this morning's events. Makigami- Constitutionals subfaction leader and fellow Judgment officer- was also present; Railgun was in lessons right now, unfortunately.
They listened to my recollection, Shirai with growing irritation, Makigami with growing unease. "...The nerve of such people!" said Shirai. "Do they not believe that Judgment is already trying its hardest? If they were not satisfied with Judgment alone, then would it not be prudent to sign up for the many hardships and trials of Judgment itself? If they think we are understaffed or incompetent, perhaps they should try signing themselves up with us!"
"But Miss Kuroko… I've heard that Miss Inubushi already tried such things in the past," said Makigami. "I hear that she got very high physical grades, but failed certain ethical requirements…"
"Then she is clearly unworthy to be a part of Judgment, if that was not already obvious from this obscene behaviour!" Shirai tutted. "Those ethical guidelines exist for a reason; if Judgment did not follow them, we would be little different from- owowowow!"
Makigami had interrupted her fellow Judgment officer with a tactical cheek-tugging. "Miss Kuroko, the only reason you passed the ethics exams is because you didn't tell them you'd be such a cowboy cop!" she complained. "You know how much paperwork that Judgment Branch 3 has to do because you can't confine yourself to Tokiwadai! You're as bad as your onee-san, you know that, Judgment-senpai!?"
"Ow…! That was quite painful, Miss Makigami," complained Shirai. "I don't understand why your combat readiness grades remain so low… If you did such a thing to all the lowlifes in this city, I think we'd all be out of a job." She frowned. "Though the point remains. The restrictions on Judgment are for the safety of ourselves and others; as much as I may… occasionally flaunt such rules, it's with the understanding that there is a line I must walk between helping others and obeying the rules. If I were to become too arrogant in my position, or abuse it, I would be summarily ejected rather than left to do more paperwork- it is as simple as that. This nonsense that Miss Inubushi is littering our grounds with," she said, "is completely without that accountability."
"That's my problem with what she's doing, too," I said, as I had another go at trying to cause a steam explosion with my powers. "I can understand feeling threatened. But the way they're going about it, they're either going to get threatened right back by someone higher up the city's chain of command, or they're going to end up the ones doing the threatening. I'd imagine all the sufficiently-motivated voices of caution who'd sign up are all in Judgment already…"
I wasn't having much luck with generating that high an impulse of force, and I'd probably have to move onto something else. Generating other liquids, maybe; I was mathematically describing state changes away from fluids, to create those non-fluids, but perhaps a description of normal fluid mechanics or entropy would work to create room-temperature liquids?
"We'll need a warrant to keep them from printing these leaflets of theirs," Shirai commented, as I tried one more time to get a proper steam burst going. "It's obviously inappropriate material that we can act on, inciting disorder in the school… I'm concerned about what will happen if they manage to form such an organisation, though. It clearly hasn't come to pass yet, not in any actionable sense, but it seems like it would be a significant challenge for Judgment."
Steam wasn't getting anywhere quickly; I started working on seeing if I could get a volume of fog going. I'd done it before to get the Taowu concrete particles out of the air, but that had been significantly aided by particles to nucleate around. "Why's that?" I asked. "You're better-trained and more legitimate than them."
"Judgment is intended to be decentralised," she commented. "While I believe in a more idealistic explanation than this, I've heard it put this way- Judgment and Anti-Skill are a check on the power of the other. Judgment offices are limited to their own jurisdiction; Anti-Skill has full jurisdiction, but needs the support of Judgment to act with full effectiveness. So Anti-Skill needs to have the trust of Judgment and the school system to make use of their abilities, while Judgment needs Anti-Skill to coordinate the many small school offices we have."
"Right," I said. "As much as it pains me to say it… If they're trying to replace or sideline Judgment with their own system, wouldn't that get Anti-Skill involved enough to do that coordination?"
"The problem is that Judgment isn't a single group," she said. "Even myself and Miss Makigami have loyalties outside of Judgment- it would pain me deeply to take up arms against Onee-sama if she recklessly violated the law, and Miss Makigami is a part of your very own faction, is she not? When one considers that there are only a few Judgment officers in each school, and that the dissenting individuals are- in this case- respected students who perceive legitimate problems, true or not, rather than idle rule-breakers or individuals who need polite reminders about discipline…"
"I saw the flyers she's been spreading, Miss Shokuhou," said Makigami. "If she wanted to restrict it to Tokiwadai, wouldn't she have drawn a Tokiwadai uniform? If she has three factions' membership behind her already, then Miss Kuroko and I might not be able to handle it without pulling favours from other Judgment branches… If she and the other leaders hold those factions together, and get even half as much influence in Tokiwadai's sister schools, they might even get respectable Judgment officers caught up in whatever this is."
So the problem was that Judgment was designed to have a few respected officers promoting peace and order in each school, combining their training with their Anti-Skill-granted legitimacy as authority figures as means to ensure that the rest of the school behaved. But faith in Anti-Skill had been eroded by the DA uprising, so that legitimacy was being brought into question; that gave faction leaders like Inubushi the opportunity to speak against them. Since Judgment officers were as much as part of the school ecosystem as anyone else, and had their numbers by being spread thinly across every school rather than concentrated in any one school, that meant they were as susceptible to being convinced as anyone else. And that might be a devastating blow to Judgment's reputation, if they couldn't stand together, when a new rival for student authority was agitating for exactly that.
Basically, Judgment was decentralised so Anti-Skill was visibly the one in charge, despite being the half of the equation without superpowers. But Anti-Skill didn't look very in-charge of the situation right now, so individual Judgment offices could easily start to splinter or be sidelined if an alternative authority presented itself. Which in turn presented a real risk of Anti-Skill having to intervene without esper support.
It was a pretty ridiculous thought, that middle-school malcontents could pose a real problem for the city police force without the student discipline committee on their side. But two Level 5s and a Level 4 had been pretty impervious to the all-lethal DA, even without preparation or lethal force; if Anti-Skill wanted to do something about the theoretical School Garden safety and discipline committee that was rapidly becoming a real possibility, they might have to deal with tens of Level 3s and 4s with no lethal force whatsoever. Anything else would leave them at even more of an imbalance of force than DA had faced and failed against, as lethal force was a great way to get the whole School Garden- two Level 5s included- to rise up as one and drive you out.
I didn't think it would get that far; most likely, either the movement would be strangled by someone else intervening before it got off the ground, or you'd get only the most violent action-members actually trying to patrol, and being considered an unavoidable headache instead of something to try and violently dismantle. Makigami and Shirai were both thinking it'd be a difficult-to-control headache if they did get off the ground, rather than any of the crap my paranoia was feeding me.
But simply because some of us could throw lightning-bolts when Skill-Out and Anti-Skill couldn't… "This is why you don't give superpowers to people our age…" I muttered under my breath.
"Pardon, Miss Shokuhou?" asked Shirai.
"Sorry," I replied. "Just talking to myself. Would you mind getting one of those glasses? I was thinking that trying to generate simple oils might be an easy experiment…"
__________
The Monday meeting came and went. As much as Inubushi was on everyone's tongues, we had too much to do to really focus on her- the Daihaseisai was starting in less than five days, after all.
The clique's leaders and subfaction leaders had gotten together at lunchtime to discuss our response to her. We'd decided to have Makigami address it if it was brought up, which it was, and which she did, with a semi-impromptu speech on supporting Judgment- by joining, helping, whatever- being the best thing to do if you felt they needed a helping hand. She'd also printed off some choice leaflets on signing up for Judgment, which Hokaze had been eager to distribute, cheerfully noting that even one of the Ace of Tokiwadai's sisters had signed up for the training course.
We'd also finally gotten the clique's latest membership tally, finally. And apparently we'd finally beaten the old Sha Clique in membership- they'd gotten to twenty-three percent of the school's population at their peak, thirty-six people given the smaller faculty of last year, while we'd reached twenty-six percent and forty-seven people. There were talks of a fourth subfaction forming; while most people hadn't considered it too deeply, Kongou (who'd recently followed her friends into the faction) had loudly proposed the Merchants (name pending) as a fourth faction. Her idea was to focus on using and improving the business connections of the faction and its members, and it had been brought up that the Daihaseisai was a perfect time to see if there was demand for it.
Wannai and Awatsuki had both been making polite eye contact with me during Kongou's speech… Menaces, the both of them. Though it was admittedly a convincing argument that Kongou's suggested subfaction had a niche among us.
The bulk of the meeting, then, had been dedicated to the Daihaseisai. It wasn't just for the sports and exercise clubs that the Constitutionals supported, either. A number of our clique- Hokaze among them- wanted to offset the recent interfactional turmoil by showing off Tokiwadai at its best, and so there was a lot of motivation to make sure that we were extra-prepared both for the 'sports' part and the 'festival' part of the city sports festival. A lot of people would be passing through the esper revision sessions in an effort to squeeze whatever they could out of their powers in the remaining time, while others would be offering more conventional practise sessions for likely sporting events.
But not everything could be solved within the meeting; Tatsuki had taken me aside after the meeting and asked if she could discuss some Nihilist things. So now we were in a small cafe, one of the ones that Shirai had recommended, to talk things over while she drank her coffee.
She sipped from it, and wiped the mocha cream from her face a second later. I had a cup of green tea. "Our efforts to keep Iori's Clique away are going… reasonably," she said. "We've upgraded the anti-psychometric defences and practises where appropriate, we'd minimised the risk that any dangerous information or items are left unsecured, and we've been monitoring the lab and their school activities to minimise the risks of further psychometric invasion. All evidence indicates that their attempts are winding down; however, the two most involved- Sasaki and Yamamoto- didn't attend school today."
I frowned. "Were they injured by thaumaturgical activity?" I asked seriously.
"No," Tatsuki replied. "Not as far as we can tell. And not by us, either." She was telling the truth. "Iori's Clique appears to be somewhat unclear on the matter, though their own defences- and having shed most of the auxiliary members- make it hard to tell; it's possible that they simply have a cold, as they've been staying in the outer dorms, where they live. We haven't confirmed anything as of yet."
"That's certainly odd," I agreed. What was up with that? I found it pretty confusing; a lot of people in Tokiwadai wouldn't even think of going home just because they had a cold or something, and for it to happen to "I can't imagine why… Have you checked that Magnus or his friend haven't, I dunno, put a hex on them?" She snorted. "They still need to clear things up with us, right? We can ask them then."
"Of course, my Queen," she agreed. "There was one more thing I wanted to talk about… Lady Shokuhou," said Tatsuki. "The group you requested we interview was… interesting. Very quick learners. I'm inclined towards hiring them."
"...I'm sensing a 'but' here," I commented, with a slight frown.
"You'd be very correct," she replied. "My Queen… You're aware that when a girl's first response to a theoretical intruder is 'kill them without any witnesses', this is something that you should firmly tell the person you're requesting to hire them?"
She phrased this in a manner that strongly implied that no, I was not aware.
…Whoops. "Ahah… I'm pretty sure I told you that…?" I said, truthfully. "Admittedly, I was hoping they'd deal with the job interview with a bit more of an understanding of what the questions were…"
"No, Lady Shokuhou," she sighed. "You didn't tell us. You said- and I quote, from Miss Index's photographic memory- if we to be attacked, 'then you'll have more problems keeping your enemy safe than them safe'. And that it would 'probably be too much risk if we were guarding something safe'. Which both only become important factors in retrospect." She raised a single, somewhat accusing eyebrow. "My good friend, Miss Onizuka, tells me that you have something of an issue with underselling the negatives of things."
"...Ah," I said sheepishly. She was referring to the 'do I really need two kidneys?' incident. Perhaps I needed to cut back on the casual dissembling… "...In my defence!" I stated. "I was fairly sure I'd communicated things clearly there. …With Scavenger, I mean, not the Deadlock incident."
Tatsuki sighed. "...Given this, and comparing it to what you've told the Shokuhou Clique about recent events… I take it that the 'enthusiastic conversation' that put you in a wheelchair, and what you told the newspaper club, are both similar undersellings," she said. "Given the degree of troubles you've been having, and our role in the Clique as protecting it from interference, I'd like to know the full story of these events."
I frowned. "...I'm sorry, but you need to be a Le- ah, Rank 5 friend to fully unlock my tragic backstory," I said sardonically, and sipped my tea.
"Hmph. And what rank would Miss Hokaze be?" she asked.
"...She and Michan- I don't believe you've met her- are both Rank 4. Four and a half, perhaps; three quarters at the most. Perhaps that's unfair of me," I admitted, "but there's some things I simply don't wish to discuss."
"...You don't trust Hokaze with everything?" asked Tatsuki, somewhat disbelieving. "But she's…"
"My best friend, yes," I agreed. "Alongside Michan. They know the vast majority; they were involved in most of it, even. I've… been coming out of my shell recently, to a degree. They know a lot more than they did last summer."
"I… see," she replied, staring into the cream on top of her coffee like it had any explanations to give.
I took the time to drink some more of my cup of tea.
"...There's a lot you can probably infer," I said neutrally. "I generally don't lie. So I'll say what I'm willing. I'm not willing to give the full context on events- much of it isn't mine to tell, and there's some things that are similarly need-to-know as your thaumatology work- but I'll speak without downplaying the risk. You've already gathered what put me in a wheelchair."
"Yes, my Queen," replied Tatsuki- she knew I knew, because I was the one who could read her mind to confirm it. "You got into a fight with the Rank 1, didn't you? Why?"
"That I did," I replied. "While the context surrounding the reasons for the fight is… definitely not my story to tell, it can be summarised as this- Accelerator was convinced to take part in some incredibly unethical experiments, and put the siblings of one of my childhood friends in danger. She passed away a few years ago. While we were told by one of said siblings that he could be convinced he'd made a mistake, me, Hokaze and Michan weren't fully convinced by that. We decided to try, but prepared for a fight."
"...A network roughly equivalent to Level Upper," she realised, recalling what I'd said about how I'd fought the Taowu in private, with Index and her. "That's why you invented it? To fight Accelerator?"
"Very astute… Yes," I confirmed. "Though it was only enough for the three of us to drag out the fight longer than we otherwise might have. There were certain critical flaws in doing so safely," I said. "It turned out we were both right- that he could be convinced he'd make a mistake, and that we needed to prepare for a fight. He was furious that we'd try to stop the experiment, and ended up breaking Michan's leg, and beating me bloody- we failed to choke him out with Michan's putty manipulation power, and he easily patched what few holes we found in his defences." I sipped my tea. "When he finally accepted that he was in the wrong, though, he gave up without hesitation. He's been making sure that the experiment stays cancelled since then."
"...How did he end up in hospital then, my Queen?" she asked. "The holes in his defences…?"
"No- I punched him twice in the face, and once in the kidney, but those were rather weak due to the method employed. An out-of-school friend of mine managed to punch him significantly harder than that; it contributed a lot towards getting him to listen. He only got seriously injured in later incidents." I hummed, and said, "It's his business how he got himself hurt, and I wouldn't recommend asking him. He's not a bad person, I don't think, but you'd probably get the nearest heavy object thrown at you for trying."
She didn't raise another question.
I continued. "The DA incident… I started with when I was in the hospital, yes?" She nodded back at me. "Right. I actually gave a proper explanation for that one. Mostly, anyway. I told you about how they were using the thaumaturgies?"
"Yes," she responded. "They were using… some sort of fire magic?"
"No," I sighed. "They were esper abilities. They weren't using pyrokinetic magic. They were using computing magic; necromancy, to put it bluntly."
She looked at me disbelievingly. "...Shokuhou, you aren't saying that the Coffin robots-"
She paused.
"...Oh," she breathed.
"Yes, 'oh'," I snarked, before coughing. "...Anyway. DA had been committing murders to construct their machines. Mugino was… well, that goes into more of those details I don't want to discuss about the incident with Accelerator, so I can't give the full story on that, either. But she was less 'I need to save my friends' and more 'I'll gleefully make the bastards pay', when it came to the lethal force she was using on DA, and I can be very certain that the scientist who caused all of this with his experiments was killed by the Taowu, rather than having escaped in disgrace."
"...You did that again," she muttered. I frowned, but I already knew what she was thinking, so she didn't bother leaving it unsaid. "Your body language, and your tone of voice… Whenever you brought up these experiments, it became slightly more… intense. You joke about it, but your 'tragic backstory'... It's got something to do with the scientists of Academy City, hasn't it?" She met my eyes.
"...Very astute," I repeated calmly. She wasn't getting an answer from me. "You can ask Hokaze about it, if you'd like," I informed her.
That wasn't her last question though; she looked down again. "The conclusions that I've come to… My parents were very displeased, thinking that I was wasting my time working for others," she said. "And they were quite certain I was limiting myself, rather than reading the evidence, reading the philosophy, and coming to a rational conclusion on what I wanted from my future career as a researcher. They advised me that I was being… manipulated. All my rational observations tell me that they're too jaded to see the truth of what makes an effective scientist. But…"
"Given that I changed my mind willingly… If I stayed on that path, regardless of what you'd said," she asked me, looking up to meet my eyes, "what would you have thought of me then?"
Tatsuki was very, very good at reading body language. She was already scanning my reaction when I responded.
Set body language: 'Neutral'.
"Then you wouldn't have been convinced," I said. "And I doubt we'd have gotten along once you graduated."
She held eye contact. "...Lady Shokuhou," she said. "Please, we both know I'm aware of that trick; you did it to annoy me quite frequently, before we started to get along... I want to know what you'd think of the sort of person I might have been. If I'd still been the childish little girl, whose parents fawned over her wanting to vivisect a rodent. You're susceptible to utilitarian arguments over emotional ones, so…even if nobody is a 'Rank 5 friend'... please, consider it. To help me."
Tatsuki took a breath.
"We both know you've left a lot unsaid, even if you're the only one who knows what it is. And sometimes you look… odd, when you say it. So… I wish," she asked, "to know how deep my convictions really need to be, if I'm to ensure that all of my future coworkers follow through with them."
She held my gaze. After a few seconds of thought, I put my teacup down. "...You're certain," I commented, like it was a statement about the weather.
"I am," she replied, steadfast.
I paused.
Then I sat up, and smiled widely at her. She visibly stuttered for a moment.
"Ah, well… I think it's mostly the lapse in my inhibitions that finished convincing me, but you're right- your rational argument really is more convincing than my emotional one," I replied conversationally, still smiling, but smiling past her now. "So… The best sort of people are the sort who update their views in response to new data. I'm sure I've told you that before. It's the reason I'm not particularly mad at Accelerator, any more, you know?" I said idly.
I looked down, to take a sip of my tea.
"So, just to nip any confusion in the bud- as far as I'm concerned, you're a good person, and I approve of you, both as a person and a scientist," I said. "But… hmph. If you'd carried on that path, and came to the conclusion that a quite frankly disappointing number of people in this city come to…?"
I met her eyes, and to her credit, she didn't look away, despite being very, very good at reading body language.
"Then… you wouldn't have been convinced. And I think that we wouldn't have gotten along once you graduated," I repeated, smiling widely. A small part of Tatsuki distractedly noted how visible the starbursts in my eyes were.
She swallowed. "I… think I understand," said Tatsuki.
She didn't understand completely- reading body language as finely as she did was a hard-learned skill. She could pick up on it when I didn't believe that she understood; she didn't have the knowledge to figure out how much she was underestimating my problems with the city. As skilled as she was, my odd behaviour was outside of her frame of reference, and she was very much aware of that.
But she understood more than she did previously. "Then I hope you found the answer you were looking for, yes?" I replied. She agreed with a nod, and I hummed. "But… do remember, it's somewhat impolite to ask serious questions like that when a person's inhibitions are lower than normal."
She glanced away guiltily. "...Yes, my Queen," she said.
"Then you're forgiven," I said, and relaxed. "...I should apologise if I've been too intense," I added.
Tatsuki paused. Then she shook her head. "No, my Queen," she replied. "I was already debating too much about what was really the case… There were too many gaps. I needed to hear this."
"...Perhaps you didn't, perhaps you did," I said neutrally, and picked up my cup of tea.