- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What is Misaka going to do now that she discovered Misaki daringly cheating on her with Shirai.
Edit: Typo
Edit: Typo
Last edited:
A Certain Mental Isekai (Raildex SI)
- Thread starter Eotyrannus
- Start date
- Pronouns
- Reader
Get tsundere, track down Bakahou, stick Bakahou to hospital bed with electricity. Hold Bakahou's hand while claiming she's only making sure the stuck to the hospital bed doesn't wear off. Nod off unexpectedly. Wake up in compromising position. Be tackled by gremlin into even more compromising position. Get Uiharu trolled into the fetal position.
SV5195R
C-Weapon
- Location
- Russian Federation
Consider the following:
- It's implied that both electro-meatheads have been talking to each other for a while now; given that Misaka threatened to call in Hokaze in chapter 34 and considering Hokaze's general friendship hound tendencies, they've clearly exchanged contact data;
- Both electro-meatheads care about their self-sacrificing blonde idiot greatly;
- Hokaze is likely able to break city speed limits on foot.
She is going to be left in the dust. If only she could run great distances very fast...
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- Reader
While it's good to know that Bakahou half cocked and moving into unclear danger without back up is likely temporary situation, none of this saves her from electro meathead tsundere Misaka teaming up with Electro meathead Hokaze friendgression to punish MisaSI Baka lone vigilante tendencies.
Last edited:
SV5195R
C-Weapon
- Location
- Russian Federation
Bold of you to assume that they'd be able to bring themselves to do that.
On the other hand, Bakahou also would never be able to hurt them either. Especially Hokaze. Consider all the interactions ShokuSI and Hokaze have had. Consider ShokuSI's thoughts in the relevant sections: she states at several points that she couldn't bring herself to lie or say "no" to Hokaze.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- Reader
Why would punishing involve hurting her? Clearly Bakahou is fine being hurt. That's part of the problem. No this calls for a level of friendgression Hokaze has yet to resort to with MisaSI. A makeover and sleepover. That or forehead rubs and princess carries.Bold of you to assume that they'd be able to bring themselves to do that.
On the other hand, Bakahou also would never be able to hurt them either. Especially Hokaze. Consider all the interactions ShokuSI and Hokaze have had. Consider ShokuSI's thoughts in the relevant sections: she states at several points that she couldn't bring herself to lie or say "no" to Hokaze.
Misaka Tsundere punishment is just constant attention. She may even rope the sisters into it. A bakahou alert network is a very good idea, but torture for introvert MisaSI.
Last edited:
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- Reader
Sudden thought, but where is Touma? Did he get himself stuck in the back of some restaurant washing dishes to pay for Index's latest meal or something?
SV5195R
C-Weapon
- Location
- Russian Federation
It's a big city. Mikoto's other dearest idiot is probably off having his own (mis)adventure.
- Pronouns
- Reader
Objectively, it is a big city, but isn't it kind of small as well, if all of Misaka's love interests are out rushing into danger without her?
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Or just getting ready for Daihaisei.
Viewer Omake- Judgement Notes of a Humble Server
- Location
- Santiago de Chile
Or punching middle-school girls delusions of reactionary militias.
Anyway, we are really lucky that Kuroko doesn't have the time to write Fiction! Or we could get gems like these:
Judgement Notes of a Humble Server, entry 34.
What predicament I'm right now. Incapable of defending myself after being injured in the line of duty, and thus condemned to just be a distressed damsel in the hands of a dastardly beautiful vigilante of a golden heart, but simply too jaded and wounded by her past to put any trust into my armband.
What can I possibly do in the face of those starry eyes, when any possible movement could reopen my multiple, unsightly injuries?
"I apologize, my lady, but I must kidnap you now. Do not resist, cooperate with me now, and perhaps I may make it worthwhile for you later." The mature woman with ethereal blonde hair told me in a low taunting voice, typing her fedora before taking me in a princess carry with her surprisingly strong but still delicate arms.
"NO! Shokuou, don't you dare take her away from me!"
Impossible! My love, my life, my Onee-Sama caught us already!
"Wait, Onee-Sama! I have no choice in this, please believe..." With a tiny flex of her immense psychic power, the Vigilant Mentalist took control of my own ability to traverse the fabric of space, forcing me to betray myself in front of my lover, making it look as if I was the one running away.
The last thing I saw was her face, contorted by the pain of betrayal, as my captor and I were warped towards a secluded place...
What did I do in my past life to deserve this karma? Or perhaps is the recompense for my good deeds, or the balance for my grace and beauty?
Last edited:
So is Uiharu in Gremlin mode!
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Uiharu is just a treat in general. She deserves her own spin-off, really.
Real reason for Misaka's outrage: now Shirai will expect Misaka to carry her princess-style too.
- Pronouns
- Reader
A Certain Smiling Gremlin?
A Certain Gremlin Gatekeeper
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
That fits, in that "gg ez" is the message Uiharu types whenever she breaks through someone's pitiful network security measures.
Chapter 37- Arc 3, End
- Location
- England. Tea and scones, wot wot!
With a pop of air, I set myself down on one of the buildings, near the lab.
Ping.
Get working directory- local, animal, human, awake, occipital lobe.
Narrow working directory: Skill-Out.
Right now, Shirai appeared to be torn between complete gremlin mode, and her usual professionalism in an emergency. The crossed wires had manifested as a desire to see Skill-Out beaten up as soon as possible, so that she could be reunited with Misaka and resume gremlin mode (though she was definitely going straight back to hospital first). "Eeeeeeh…" she muttered darkly, hands balled into fists as she stared over the scene. "If these cretins have caused even the slightest misunderstanding with my perfect Onee-sama…"
I rolled my eyes, and sifted through the Skill-Outs' viewpoints, to get a read on the situation. "Hmm. The Nihilists and co are holding out, but they're getting tired," I said, glaring at the building- I could see that the front doors had been broken open through brute force, quite possibly with strength enhancement and crowbars. As expected, the Skill-Outs had also obtained some DA gear that had fallen off the back of an evidence locker; they'd taken out the unpowered general-building guards pretty easy using them, and had looted said guards' gear to add to their strength. "Three of our people are unconscious from micro-drone stings; they haven't been able to move from the lab to a better position, so they've been stuck in there. It's not good, exactly," I said, taking the time to think the situation through, "but they've held out well enough that we shouldn't have further problems."
The clique members that I knew were present at this time of day were- if they'd stuck to the schedule, which the security and safety policies for the lab were very clear on- Tatsuki, Sakibasu, Hanabi and Ryukyu. Index wasn't present, which was lucky for everyone involved given how Magnus would've reacted. To our great fortune, she was often binge-watching cartoons before lunchtime, and often arrived just before lunch to be fed. Seike, Yakumaru and Sakuragi were the ones who were unconscious, all of them representing Scavenger's muscle. Iizumi was still awake, but given how she tended to freeze up when she lost control of the situation, she probably wasn't contributing as much as she would've if her team was in good condition... Not ideal, pragmatically or emotionally.
But even without more professional support, Hanabi and Sakibasu were making the main entrance a place that was definitely not a good idea to enter. As I watched and figured out my plan of action, a cluster of Skill-Out girls were retreating back behind a wall, after Sakibasu's violin had somehow unleashed a wave of concussive force. I couldn't check if it was a magic or mundane feature of the violin right now, since the anti-scrying wards were keeping me out of the room proper, but I was expecting 'magic'... It was lucky she'd figured out how to do that. Hanabi's fire bursts were powerful and very intimidating, as the scorched lab entrance could attest, but she couldn't use them safely if her opponent got too close, and she didn't have much AIM field stamina. Regularly switching out with Sakibasu was probably the only thing keeping her on her feet.
Ryukyu was playing rear guard for them. I could see a hole in the lab wall behind them, and a guy who looked completely roided-out on the floor below it. Ryukyu's powers were mostly contact-based, but she was particularly good at controlling electrical flows; with some well-placed conductors, she could electrify surfaces or create arcing barriers in midair. It also made her an excellent taser. With the pressure on the entrance, she was the only one who could guard every other exit- I spotted her briefly at the top of the hole in the wall, and her curly red Einstein-hair was matted with sweat. So she wasn't having a great time either.
Tatsuki, meanwhile, was not inside the lab with everyone else. Having mapped out any organic barriers in advance with Sakibasu as a part of her safety procedures, and- with a quick mind-scan- having double-checked with Sakibasu for the Skill-Outs' equipment, her phasing allowed her to launch attacks from any angle with impunity. But it was risky. If she got grabbed (as she couldn't phase through organics, and people were organics), she was only a middle-schooler, and even the girls she was fighting were much bigger, stronger high-schoolers. I could see why Baba had gone with patsies rather than robots; if he only had enough resources to disable Scavenger at the start of an attack, then attackers would have a much better chance of causing problems if they had a reasonable chance of getting past Tatsuki's Phasing, regardless of how vulnerable they were to a strike from my own Mental Out.
But being outside of the lab meant I could get in contact with her. I set up a link. "Tatsuki," I said out loud, so I didn't have to finagle with generating the voice with my powers (though I did make it sound tinnier, for her interpretative convenience). "It's Shokuhou, with Shirai. I'm taking down the Skill-Outs imminently."
She was in a supply closet to catch her breath, and she startled slightly as I cut the voice stream into her audio processing. In response, she brought a finger to her ear like she was speaking into a clip-on microphone. "Ah, Shokuhou!" she said good-naturedly, her voice full to the brim with a palpable sense of relief. "Right on time. That's excellent news... How many will be left for us to deal with, my Queen?"
"None of them," I responded simply. "I'll resolve this. But I need you to head to Sakibasu and get her out of the warding, there should be an enemy-controlled police mecha waiting in ambush around here- if it's inorganic enough, you might be able to take it out with less risk than the rest of us."
"None of them?" Tatsuki repeated, for confirmation. I was already choosing stragglers to knock unconscious, as this wasn't a professional force, and some of them had wandered off to mess with other labs out of spite, curiosity or an opportunity for looting trophies and valuables. "My Queen, they boasted that some of them have defence helmets of one kind or another…"
"I noticed those, yeah," I said- hopefully they weren't unmodified DA helmets, even if they did look the same. "But they didn't give them to everyone. Which means…"
I'd picked a few targets that were more isolated from the rest. The DA-style mental defences were designed to fit under a police helmet, and because of that, they relied on the helmet to protect them from being removed. Since they didn't have those helmets on top of the defences…
Around a corner from the lab itself, the two girls who had just retreated were crowded with the rest, around their leader. As I prepared to strike, I idly noted that this particular sub-group were the same ones we'd foisted off on Kamijou after beating them up, back when me and Hokaze had been too exhausted to be bothered filling Shirai in on the details. They were still wearing the same overly-small skirts and shorts as the last time I'd seen them- it really didn't make much rational sense to dress like that if they were trying to beat up a lab of espers, but I couldn't exactly expect rationality for people who wanted to attack a lab full of Tokiwadai espers who were aligned with a Level 5.
"Come on- they're on the ropes!" encouraged their leader- blonde, black hair extensions, wearing a baggy skull t-shirt again- as she tried to rally her gang. "They're not tough enough to try hurt us, and the teleporter bitch-" A misidentification of what Tatsuki's phasing was doing, I could infer. "-is clearly afraid of what we've got on hand!" She hefted a nailed baseball bat; ironically, the nails would make it less effective against Tatsuki, due to weakening the material without increasing damage. More concerning was the hardening tape, which multiplied muscle force when worn; I couldn't take her down by simply dogpiling her with the rest of her crew. "We have to pay that bitch back- Level Upper was our chance to make it big, and she fucked us over! We can't stop now! I'll lead myself this time, so you divas can't-"
One of her girls, who had sidled up behind her on my orders, abruptly grabbed the back of the DA mental defence- it trailed down the spine, so it wasn't hard- and yanked it off. "-?" Her inspiring speech abruptly cut out, and her eyes glazed over, two stars lighting up in them. Point, set, match.
Now that their leader was under my control, I made her lunge at the other protected girl in the group. It was an aimless tackle, more muscle-spasm than attack. It was something to distract them while my powers knocked out the riff-raff; my second target cried out in dismay as she was bowled over, the attack too sudden for her to figure out what was going on and defend herself.
They landed on the floor together, the other girls dropping too. I tightened my grip- and with her strength enhanced by the hardening tape, and being at too close a range to bring the girl's own baseball bat to bear, it wasn't hard to overpower her and get the defences off of her. That was all I needed to do to finish downing the subgroup.
"One group down," I said, already setting up the next ones. The second group were burly guys who'd been taking strength-enhancers, like the guy at the window, while the third were a more generic teenaged street gang (albeit a fairly competent and professional one) that had just been given goodies and told to go wild. They didn't have the numbers or equipment, at least not after a few sonic blasts, tasings, and angry middle-school girl phase assaults, to keep the trick from working on their groups either... "Two groups down," I said, a little later. I paused while I finished off the last of them in a similar manner to the second and third. "And three- it'll be safe as soon as we find and disable that robot."
Tatsuki blinked. "That was fast," she asked. "How did you bypass the defences?"
"I mind-controlled their minions and yoinked them from the toughest people in the group," I responded. "Not too hard... Anyways, the robot."
"...With your usual behaviour, sometimes I forget you're a mind-controller," Tatsuki snarked. "Right, then… Find Sakibasu, find the robot we have to fight, and make sure it's inorganic? Certainly, my Queen."
"I'll beam what I know about it to you, so you know what you're up against," I informed her. "Don't pick a fight with it if you're not completely confident- I've exposed you to a lot of risks as of late, so I'll need a time slot with you tomorrow to cover that." I paused. "Though, now I think about it, I should probably be discussing that at a more appropriate time…"
"It's no issue, Lady Shokuhou- if we need to meet, then it needs to be done," she agreed simply. "No point beating around the bush, is there? I hate people like that. I'll check my schedule once everyone's out of harm's way." Tatsuki phased her way out of the broom cupboard, to go and fill in the others on the change in situation.
I nodded to myself, satisfied and turned my attention back to Shirai. "I've dealt with the Skill-Outs," I confirmed to her, though she'd probably gathered that herself. "I'm calling in Tatsuki to see if she can take out the police mecha that should be around here, with less risk than you and I. Since you've got range and mobility, we can probably play support if she thinks it'll help, or deal with it ourselves if she can't."
Shirai's attention had finally refocused from her Misaka-related woes to the situation while I'd been talking over Mental Out to Tatsuki. "It may be somewhat obvious given the circumstances, but you still haven't explained what's going on," she grumped, which was fair enough.
"Basically... we tried to arrest the guy you chair-stomped in his school, in an effort to avoid causing a scene, but then we failed horribly and caused a scene anyway," I summarised. "He had a means of finding out we were coming, despite Uiharu's best efforts, so he made a break for it and launched what he'd already prepared early. He'd apparently set up an attack on my lab, as well as an Azure Group meeting I wasn't really aware of… From what he mentioned, and from what I can gather, the latter was just to scare them into doing something unwise, since he didn't really have the resources to deal with them all, so Uiharu's called in Judgment proper for that one. And she's called Anti-Skill too, I guess. All the resources that would put Tokiwadai girls in danger are over here... Which includes a five-metre mantis robot- he had another, but he parked it to try and slip away incognito."
"Ah," said Shirai. "I take it that Miss Hokaze isn't going to be happy."
"Probably not," I sighed. "But I made an attempt at solving my problems without a whole song and dance! And I didn't rush off on my own, at any point! I had backup the whole time."
"Is that what you call 'teleporting away to deal with an attack on your clique's science club single-handedly'?" Shirai deadpanned.
"...Okay. You may have a point, even if there are two of us," I admitted begrudgingly. "But I am specifically making an effort to not rush into danger, right at this very moment. The Type: Mantis- the robot we're expecting to be somewhere around here- is probably expecting me to arrive at ground-level, so I'm significantly less likely to stumble into it if I stay on this roof. And Tatsuki…" I paused, mentally putting her side-by-side with the robot. "Actually, wait- it might not be such a good idea to send a melee attacker after a melee robot…?"
"Miss Shokuhou, you've already said for her to hold off on trying to disable it, if she's concerned she can't handle it," Shirai pointed out. "You should stick to your decision, I should think."
"Middle-schoolers shouldn't be up against giant robots in the first place!" I argued, quite reasonably, because it was objectively correct.
"And have you forgotten that you, too, are a middle schooler?" challenged Shirai. "There is but one reason that I'm not encouraging you to wait for Anti-Skill, and it is that you've mentioned that there are people who are unconscious- and not the ones disabled with your power," she said. "And the only reason I'm not personally interfering is that I am currently injured, and thus technically off-duty; if a healthy individual has the means to make the area safe without my interference, then I will hold back. Miss Tatsuki can assist you in removing it as a threat methodically, so we can get anyone to the hospital who needs it. This is a good plan, Miss Shokuhou."
Ugh. "...I'm convinced," I conceded. "I'll stay back for now."
By the time Tatsuki left the building, I was starting to fidget- tapping my foot against the roof in mild anxiety.
When she stepped out of the hole in the lab, she had no glasses, and held a wooden baseball bat in each hand. She was wearing the tight-hugging swimsuit that I usually saw her wearing during PE, esper revision sessions, or System Scan exams. I honestly wasn't surprised she'd had it available at the lab. It was a lot easier to phase things that were in reasonably-close skin contact… Privately, I was glad she wasn't the sort of person who'd use it as an excuse to dress unprofessionally. I had heard from Wannai and Awatsuki of a recent incident involving Shirai being invited to the same swimsuit commercial as Misaka, so it wasn't an entirely unwarranted concern...
Tatsuki fell confidently towards the ground, as two heads- those of Sakibasu and Iizumi- popped out around the hole in the wall behind her. For a moment, she phased through the floor, but bobbed back up like an ice cube quickly enough; her phasing was (if I were to absolutely butcher the physics explanation) somewhere between Awatsuki's buoyancy manipulation and Shirai's teleportation. She emerged, overshooting slightly but purposefully, and set her feet down after a short hop. Her eyes glanced around at the roofs briefly, spotting me, but specifically avoided looking my way as soon as our eyes met.
Instead, she looked behind her, to the other two. Iizumi, after a moment with one eye covered, pointed at a particular alleyway. That would be her tracking ability in action, then. A moment later, Sakibasu gave a thumbs-up to confirm it was a reasonable fight. Tatsuki nodded- then she started to walk towards the alleyway, speaking loudly.
"Shokuhou Misaki!" she enunciated, loudly and clearly, with very particular exaggerated inflections. I knew what she was doing- it was an effort at making a super-stimulus for the robot's automated recognition systems, which would hopefully goad it into taking predictable actions. "I am glad that you have arrived! All of the Skill-Outs are defeated! Ahah, it is time to relax-"
Before she finished her last sentence, the corner of the alleyway exploded in a shower of brick rubble. Tatsuki smirked, not moving to dodge.
The rubble simply flew through her, 'puddles' of light flaring to let them pass through.
A massive, mechanised claw came down towards her in a ruthless hammerblow, and she took a dancing step forwards to keep her footing as the ground underneath her was smashed. Tatsuki looked up at the mecha's chassis considerately, only observing where it was looking peripherally, and swung her bat.
She let go of it before it finished, leaving it wedged vertically within the connecting joint of the robot's thorax and abdomen. The Type: Mantis jarred.
She accelerated unhurriedly beneath it, following up her precise strike with a phase-driven slide, like a video game character sliding along a slope they couldn't quite make contact with. Metallic legs stomped down at her, but while the machine was smart enough to observe its initial attack had been dodged somehow, it probably wasn't quite smart enough to infer a response other than 'try again, but with the expectation of missing'. That was something Tatsuki could abuse fairly easily.
It reared around to face her, but Tatsuki was already moving- she was heading for the wall of the adjacent building. As it struck, she leapt, feet-first, towards the wall- and with another physics-slide, she rocketed upwards, getting missed completely as she did a rather impressive backflip over its head.
As it turned back around towards her expected landing position, she slowed in midair- phasing out from gravity so she wouldn't fall, and using a combination of resistance and unphasing-expulsion from the air to slow down- and arched her back, whale-like, to aim. And then- with a burst of air as she unphased briefly, jet-propelling herself with the air she displaced as gravity took hold- she dived downwards towards its head.
She dropped through the robot like it wasn't there. The second baseball bat lodged itself through its head, going down into the second thorax connector and wedging there.
Tatsuki re-emerged from the road surface metres away, with an exhilarated grin. "Pph. Whoever sent a machine like that… Did they not know that human ingenuity beats brute force every time?" she boasted, mostly to herself. As she turned back around to face it- I imagined that a lot of vital circuitry (particularly to the cameras in its head) had been separated by the damage to the connectors, leaving it running entirely on redundancies- she let the look fade from her face, and put her finger to her ear again. "Although, while it's disabled, I'm not sure I feel comfortable leaving it here while I re-arm myself… My Queen, if you're listening, would you have any way to shut this damnable thing down?"
I watched the machine as it occasionally turned in random directions, holding its claws up like it was expecting another attack. It had probably lost enough sensors that it couldn't identify friend from foe, if at all, and was defaulting to defensive behaviour. "Shirai can probably try wedging things inside it until it breaks," I commented. "So- hang on, wait, I'm picking up an incoming… Ah. It seems we've interrupted Hokaze's friendship time. She's just entered my range."
"Miss Hokaze? Ah, she'll be able to deal with it," said Tatsuki, nodding. "Yes, she definitely has the raw strength for it. How long will we have to wait before-"
I interrupted her. "When I say 'she's just entered my range', I mean 'entered my range and is rapidly approaching'. You should probably get out of the way," I advised.
"Come now," said Tatsuki, starting to walk away. "She's fast, but your range is… what, a kilometre? She'd have to be moving- hmm? What's that sound...?"
The sound she was hearing was a screech of rubbery shoe-sole plastic on tarmac. It came to a crescendo as a violet-haired blur screeched around the corner with both feet in front of her... destroying her school shoes in the process again, predictably enough. She came to a brief halt, and Hokaze gently put down a blushing girl I didn't immediately recognise, before turning towards the robot with a glare as she took stock of the situation.
Her eyes flicked between me and Shirai on the roof, Tatsuki, and the robot. She nodded to herself, slightly- and apparently made the decision that she didn't want this robot to be on this plane of existence any longer.
The ground beneath her exploded in a flash of violet light. The air between her and the robot was next to explode, with a deafening sonic crack of air. Then the robot exploded- one moment it was there, the next it simply… disappeared, Hokaze's foot being posed in a spectacular upwards kick.
As I stared, I felt a hand touch my cheek- Shirai's hand, from where I was still carrying her. "Hmm," she commented with a thoughtful frown.
"-Eh!?" I replied, quite reasonably. I barely remembered not to drop her. Meanwhile, Hokaze signalled for her friend and Tatsuki to get out of the way, already planning a second attack despite the hilarious overkill she'd only just inflicted. "Oi! She just kicked a robot into the stratosphere, and you're paying attention to me?!"
"Onee-sama is implicitly trusting me to look after your mental health, so yes," said Shirai stubbornly. She harrumphed. "Ignore me. Pay attention to more important things, Miss Shokuhou!"
"...You do realise that…? Never mind," I grumbled, deciding not to question it. There was another crack of sound as Hokaze disappeared upwards- a few seconds later, and the robot returned, its metallic parts hitting the ground with enough force to almost splash, rather than crush. Shards of robot flung themselves out across the street.
"...Wow," I said, as I took stock. After a brief pause, I added, "Uh, Shirai- would you mind catching her? She has a tendency to forget her landing plans, and though she'll be fine, the street's probably broken enough by now…"
Shirai glanced up at the silhouette of Hokaze, who was somewhere between 'skydiving' and 'finally agreeing that skirts were impractical nonsense'. "She did go rather high," Shirai commented. "Of course- this will take but a moment."
She teleported, and I spotted her up in the sky; she appeared a little above Hokaze, and tapped her shoulder. I saw Hokaze turn her head, and she quickly adjusted her pose to try and simultaneously get a grip on Shirai and her skirt.
Then, with another pop, the two of them appeared in front of me- just a few centimetres off the ground, so they landed gently enough. "Oh, there we go!" said Hokaze idly.
Then, satisfied she was on the ground, she looked at me.
The look continued for a few seconds. Then her visage twisted… into a teary-eyed moe-face, rather than an irate look, because this was Hokaze we were talking about.
"Misaakiiiii!" she whimpered. "You did it again!"
"...In my defence I did literally everything to avoid escalation that I could-" I started, before getting whapped on the head by Shirai's shoes as an impromptu bludgeoning weapon. "Ow!"
__________
Hokaze begrudgingly (by Hokaze standards, at least) accepted my subsequent explanation of how I'd ended up in these circumstances. I had brought a Level 5 and a Judgment officer along with me as backup to arrest an unarmed dude who shouldn't have seen us coming, and who was specifically picking a fight with me, which would generally be considered 'extreme overkill' instead of 'an insufficient attempt to avoid problems'. This did not mean that she was happy, of course, but it did mean she was the kind of 'not happy' that wouldn't get me tied to a chair and force-fed Gekota programs on 'friendship' and 'common sense'.
We didn't really get the chance to talk things through as much as I'd have liked in the time we had before everything else swallowed us up, alas, so we quickly agreed to meet up after school. I was too busy getting dragged into an ambulance with Shirai and the majority of Scavenger (Academy City actually had appropriate funding for hospitals, as one of its few not-flaws, so we didn't have to wait half a day for the ambulance to get here). Hokaze, meanwhile, needed to explain to her friend what had just happened, as well as back up Tatsuki in making sure Iizumi didn't try to shank any of the Anti-Skill officers that were arriving on the scene. There hadn't quite been enough room to take Iizumi with the rest of her team directly, and the other girls needed Anti-Skill nearby for check-ups, to make sure they hadn't strained themselves or missed any injuries they'd taken.
Thus, once Scavenger and Shirai had both been offloaded to where they needed to go, I ended up back with Doctor Kiyama. The woman was somewhat miffed that she- being a medical scientist rather than a medical doctor- was still the most relevant person available for me, in a completely different incident to the last one, and that it was supposed to be an off-day for her to boot.
The doctor who owned the hospital was giving her generous overtime pay for it, apparently, at the very least. Her 'World's Best Teacher' hand-decorated mug was half-full with black coffee as I walked in. "Miss Shokuhou," she said dryly. "Last time, you said 'as long as nobody tries to blow up the city, I'll be fine', yes? I see it didn't work out for you."
I took the proffered appointment seat. "The precise words were correct, but... Not really, no, unfortunately. Someone seems to have been playing… what's the saying? Ah, right- someone was playing silly buggers with me," I said. "There was a high-schooler who'd been roped into being… an enforcer for the chairmen or something, I think?" I commented, shrugging. "Anyway, someone clearly had a problem with something, because they sent him after me. We think it was snuck into his other orders. There was some sort of cognitohazard that I deflected, but it wasn't one that appeared to work as the murder-virus he expected, from what little I actually saw of its effects." I paused. "Does the name 'Kihara Yuiitsu' mean anything to you?"
Doctor Kiyama's face creased at the name. "It does," she said. "When I was... first researching Kihara Gensei, her name came up repeatedly- she's an expert in applied neurology, who shares a lot of research interests with Gensei. Though…" She frowned, the recovering bags under her eyes slightly more visible. "I suspect any respect is one-sided."
I tilted my head. "One-sided?" I asked. "What makes you say that?"
"A lot of research details are 'confidential'," she said, her tone of voice making it clear exactly what she thought about that, "but the timelines and staff are less likely to be. I was looking into her because of the rumours of a 'family of madness'... She seems to have made a habit of sidelining other projects for the sake of working with Gensei, but he was more likely to drop those projects she worked on than others." She sipped her drink. "It's armchair psychology, but I suspect he has some issue with her. I don't know anything more than you could find out yourself, though."
"Thanks," I said anyway.
She nodded, and stood up. "I'll get the electroencephalogram set up," she said. "We can see what's changed since your last visit…"
The check-up was fairly quick and easy, because Academy City medicine was just plain convenient when it wasn't being used to commit crimes against humanity. She hummed as she looked over the results on her computer. "Your condition hasn't deteriorated since last time, but it's only shown mild improvements compared to what I would have expected. Given the heightened activity in these other areas, I guess you've been taking it even less easy than I suspected," she inferred.
"That's… pretty accurate," I replied. "There was a bit of an incident where high school drama crossed over with the general…" After a moment, I gestured vaguely. "Academy City-ishness." She nodded, grasping my meaning readily. "It… wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. ...I think we wrapped it up in time for the Festival, though."
"Hmm. Here's hoping," she drawled, and took another sip of her coffee. "Otherwise… I don't see any unusual activity, so I believe you're correct in your judgement that there wasn't any damage from whatever attacked you. Which is lucky for you. While you shouldn't attempt to recreate, recover or re-read the conditions of it, under any circumstances, I'd appreciate it if you could write down what you know of it already before you go. It would help me check for anything I missed in our next appointment, and I'd like to look into 'mental vaccines'- that is, safe cognitohazards that you can work on breaking down manually, which should hopefully protect you from more dangerous ones. I'd rather not have to deal with mind-readers dropping dead because someone invented an unethical security measure..."
Not the most pleasant thing in the world to describe, but she hadn't had the ethics training of a real medical doctor (who were supposed to be blunt but polite, warm where needed, as far as I could recall), so it was understandable. "I suppose we'll have to book a 'next appointment' then," I agreed. "Anything else?"
"We should discuss your treatment for the original degradation," Kiyama said. She folded her arms, leaning back. "While I was hoping that your normal life circumstances would be enough to let you recover at the expected speed, this time I'd like to try and enforce relaxation wherever possible. I can't control outside events, but I can certainly write a note. What duties do you have at the moment?"
I hummed. "Well, I do a lot of the book-keeping for the Constitutionals- it's a Tokiwadai 'faction', a glorified school social club," I started. "There's the esper revision sessions, I use my power to help other people in the faction improve their powers, but I'd consider that more a hobby than a responsibility. We'll probably start getting homework again after the Daihaseisai… Oh, and there's a chore rota in the dorms."
"A chore rota?" asked Kiyama. "I'm surprised. I wouldn't have thought a school like Tokiwadai would need one."
I shook my head. "They don't, but a lot of the girls are pretty sheltered, so it's a personal growth sort of thing," I said. "...Not that it really does much. Back in first year, when we were moving into the dorms, I remember the dismay they all had when they thought they might have to, gasp, clean the bathrooms." I giggled slightly. "I mean, it takes a bit of spray and a wet cloth for most of it- maybe an extra two dry cloths, if you want to make things look shiny for some reason. It's not hard. But you might as well have threatened them with working in the mines!"
Kiyama hummed. "I can imagine," she said, writing things down. "Well, let's take you off that for three weeks…"
"Oh, we're staying in hotels this week, so we don't have one right now," I commented. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Something about minimising the distance from sporting events? I wasn't there to hear the justification last year, and I haven't really checked why we do it this year."
"Well, withdrawing you from the Daihaseisai at this point would probably cause more stress than it would help with," she said- quite correctly, I really wasn't a fan of abrupt changes in plan- "since it would be putting a lot of social pressure on you…" Ah, she was right for the wrong reasons. "So I'll write those factors in a note that's mainly intended for after the Daihaseisai, and I'll trust you to withdraw yourself from any social club roles that are just more chores."
"Right," I agreed. "We have a security policy, so I can switch someone else in pretty easily." Security policies were important!
"That's good," said Kiyama. "I'll also recommend you go home, rather than back to school, since I've heard certain things about Tokiwadai's sickness policy… I believe that's all, then- I hope you enjoy the Daihaseisai," she finished. "And try not to end up back here before the next appointment?"
__________
I'd texted Hokaze earlier, soon after I got back in, very hesitantly. 'Kiyama had me take the day off. Could we meet up after school instead of during break hours? I'd like to talk to Michan and you at the same time.'
She'd texted me back. 'Of course! Would you like me to call her?'
'No, I'll text her- it's important.' I replied. 'I blabbed some heavy stuff to Misaka. You both should know.' I rewrote that one a few times.
There was a long pause. 'Certainly! I'll see you then.' she replied.
I texted Michan after that, as I'd said I would. 'Hey Michan. Are you available after school this afternoon? I need to get some stuff off my chest to you and Hokaze. It's about the van talk.'
'i'm always here to listen bestie ! ^.^' she responded, after a minute. 'asap is 6pm tho! teach wont let me skip the festival prep after school'
'I'll let Hokaze know, ty' I replied.
Hokaze got her text back now that I'd confirmed. 'Michan's available at 6pm; I need some time to unwind, but we should clear up the whole 'getting into trouble too much' thing, so see you after dinner?'
'See you then!' Hokaze replied. 'I'll make sure Misaka doesn't interrupt you if you need some introvert time.'
'Thanks.'
…So.
I'd finally be letting the cat out of the bag tonight. At least, the important bag.
It left me restless.
I had to set things up with the reception first, of course, because Michan was not from this school and needed permission to enter. That was all I really needed to do in terms of making sure they could enter, though.
After that, I burned some time playing video games, to take my mind off it while I whiled the hours away... An engineering one, specifically- I played it fairly frequently. I made a military airship with a comically-large gyroscope to control its roll, and played through part of a roguelike gamemode with it a few times. The final version, after all the additions, was somewhere between a biblical angel, a blimp, and a gatling gun. Any game where comically large gyroscopes were a possible solution to a problem was a good game, in my book, so I was satisfied with the results.
I wasn't really in a mood to go eat in the cafeteria today. Instead, I unfroze some rice and fried it with eggs and peas, frying it in the base of my pressure cooker. Not particularly complicated, but that sort of thing was always a decent bet for a quick dinner.
I was just about to finish eating when my phone buzzed. I picked it up. 'on my way bestie ! >w< i will be half an hour'
I thought about a reply; I ended up just leaving her text alone while I finished waiting.
Hokaze knocked for me before the appointed time, as I'd asked her to. I opened the door for her. "Misaki!" she greeted warmly. She was wearing trainers again, for obvious reasons.
"Junko," I said, moving out of the way of the door. "Come in, come in."
She sat down on my chair; I took the bed. While she got herself comfortable, I frowned. "...Huh. You know, I don't think I have enough chairs for all three of us," I commented. "Michan'll be over pretty soon, too; it might be worth switching places?"
"Oh! Okay," said Hokaze. We switched places, me taking the seat, her patting down the bed before she sat on it. She seemed a little hesitant. "...Will there be enough time for the discussion you suggested?" she questioned
I took a breath, and I nodded. "I think so, yeah," I said. "We should have the time. It's not anything extensive, I don't think... We can have a longer talk at a later date if we can't clear it up in the time we have. Just… managing what expectations we have of each other. Like- in terms of what makes each other happy. I don't want to upset you just because I… I dunno, assumed something stupid." I paused. "I feel like I've been doing that a lot lately."
Hokaze smiled fondly. "That's very sensible," she agreed. Her smile faded a bit. "It does… pain me, when I keep having to hear you're in trouble after the fact. I know that I've been busy with other activities, on both of the occasions that it's happened as of late, but…"
I sighed. "It doesn't make it easier for you to deal with, does it?" I guessed. She nodded, looking a bit sad. "Yeah. That's one of the assumptions I'd have trouble making on my own… I guess I have trouble getting worked up if a problem's already solved, I think?" I shrugged. "It feels worse if I'm told about something I can't help with, or that there's already people to help with, if it's something to be worried about. Ah... have you seen when someone falls over in the yard, and everyone just sort of crowds around them?"
She nodded. "I've seen that, yes- it happened quite frequently in the elementary school playground… You feel it's relevant?" she asked.
"Yeah," I agreed. "I wouldn't go over, because I wouldn't be able to do anything useful anyway if they're already crowded, and they've got plenty of people so they don't need yet another person in their space," I said. "But… well, there's a reason people do the crowding. They're worried, and want to make sure everything's okay. I do get worried for people, I mean," I clarified, "I've cried over being worried for people before. But that's when I don't know if I can solve it or not." Sometimes I hadn't been able to. "If it's already solved, I just don't feel it?" I summarised. "And if I can't do anything to solve it, but they're sure it's solved, I'd rather wait until it's solved before I hear about it."
"So… if you were talking to Sakibasu, and I got into trouble, but I had Michan and Misaka to help me, then you wouldn't want to worry about it?" Hokaze said, not judging.
"Right," I agreed. "Well… I might 'want' to worry about it, quote-unquote, but it'd be easier for me to hear about after the fact, you know? If you had all those people to help you, and things went wrong, I'd get worked up because you got hurt, not because I thought I'd be able to help. I tend to… not really 'project'," I said. "Sometimes I just don't really get why someone would be upset until they explain it to me, or I see they're upset."
"And that's why you wanted to talk it through," inferred Hokaze, smiling slightly again. "So you know what would make me happier?"
"I don't think knowing I'm getting into trouble again would make you happier, but… 'more content', which is basically the same thing," I agreed. "So... what you'd want is for me to make you aware, even if you have something else on your mind? I didn't really want to put you off your official reunion with Yumiya, but..."
Hokaze nodded. "That's the case, certainly... My friends are all very precious to me. My best friends, especially. It doesn't matter what else I'm doing, or who else I'm speaking to," she insisted, looking me in the eyes. "I want to know if you're okay, Misaki! I'd do the same for any of my friends, but you're especially important to me. And more likely to get in trouble!" she added, half-scoldingly, half-teasingly.
I chuckled, smiling slightly, despite the pressure I'd been feeling this afternoon. "No leaving Hokaze out if you can help it, got it," I agreed. "And, umm... my… approach, to situations, otherwise? I think…" ...My words trailed off, without really going anywhere. I wasn't quite sure what to say.
Hokaze saw me struggling with it, and deigned to rescue me. "As much as I'm unhappy with you getting into trouble yet again, Misaki… from what you've said, and from what Miss Uiharu and Miss Misaka discussed with me after the fact, I'm not entirely certain what you could have done better. You tried to do it without anything dramatic happening, and you tried to have someone else take the lead, but it happened anyway- and people were in danger. Our friends," she clarified. "They were people you knew he was planning to hurt?"
I nodded. "I didn't know he was planning to hurt Tatsuki and whatnot, but I knew he was trying to hurt me one way or another...." I explained. She cringed a little; I carried on. "He was looking for a reaction, and people like that will keep poking until they get it. Y'know?"
She sighed unhappily, rubbing one arm slightly. "I suppose I do. Though in lighter circumstances, I must admit... And I know that this City hasn't really given you any reason to trust it, so… sometimes the situation forces you to do things yourself and put yourself in danger, if you want things to turn out as pleasantly as they can, in the end?" she surmised, downcast.
"...I'd like it to be otherwise," I agreed, looking away. "But… yeah. Sometimes I just… do. Have to do things like that." I shrugged again.
"And you already ask for help, where you can get it," she added. She hummed to herself. "...Sometimes, we can try as hard as we like to be happy, and misfortune will simply seek us out, will it not?" She was speaking from experience; I could guess easily enough that she was thinking of her friends in Clone Dolly: Ideal. The friend she'd been meeting today was missing an eye, and she'd been nowhere near the worst-off…
We sat there in silence, for a length of time. Then Hokaze stood up, determined. "We both need a hug," she said.
The door immediately rang. Hokaze visibly paused, deciding whether or not hugs were worthwhile.
"Oh, Michan," I said. I hesitated briefly, and not because I was indecisive about hugs- I think Hokaze noticed- but I stood up and headed to the door anyway.
She was waiting at the door, wearing a white plaited skirt and a stylish purple buttoned shirt, which wasn't out of the ordinary at all for her. She grinned at the sight of us. "Misaki!" said Michan cheerily. "And Junko! Gosh, it feels like forever since we were all in the same place, right?" Her eyes flickered over my general lack of confidence, and a flicker of worry flashed in her eyes. I let her in. "Is this what your room looks like?" she said, taking a look around, her enthusiasm to be here slightly faltering. "It's, uh, very tidy!"
"Well, I'm thinking of getting a fishtank," I informed them. "I was thinking of angelfish, but they might get stressed from living in a room that's in active usage... so I've been reconsidering. In terms of what I put in it, not... Never mind. You'll have to take a seat on the bed. I don't have a second chair, and I don't really want to go take one from Hokaze's room right this second... That probably would've been more convenient actually."
She took a seat on the bed. I stalled. "Are you going to take a seat, Misaki?" prompted Hokaze, not unkindly, seeing that I was lingering rather than sitting down.
"Yes," I said, half-instinctively, as I leaned on the side of the desk instead of doing the thing I said I'd do. "Maybe. …I dunno." I sighed. "...Sorry."
"It's okay, Misaki!" said Michan quickly. "Do what you want, it's just a chair. We don't mind, right?" Hokaze made an affirmative noise, and she continued. "So, uh, what was it you needed to tell us about?"
I didn't reply, for a few seconds, getting up and turning half towards the window. "...Gimme a moment," I said, cracking the window open, to let a little air in. "Sorry," I said again, lamely.
I'd told Misaka in the heat of the moment. I huffed, trying to pull myself together.
That meant I could tell them, here, now... on purpose.
My eyes were starting to sting, and my throat wasn't getting any less tight. This wasn't working.
I sat down in the computer chair indecisively. My lips moved wordlessly for a moment, but I didn't say anything.
I heard a shuffling on the bed. "Misaki?" asked Michan; I looked up.
They'd made a space for me on the bed, Michan having shuffled to the side. She patted it wordlessly, with a comforting smile on her face. 'Come on over,' their eyes said.
I didn't want to sit next to them. Not for this. After a moment, I shook my head, and looked away again- I would've lost my nerve to speak if I did.
It was... ridiculously tempting, to just sit down next to them and say 'no, let's do this another day', and never mention 'another day' again. I could have done that. I could have done that easily.
But I couldn't do that to them. So I spoke.
"It's…" I croaked. "...Exterior."
The nervous tension in the room went up a notch, the moment I got the word out. They both knew what it meant for me. Michan had only seen a little; Hokaze had seen none of it.
They both waited, silently.
"I didn't… tell the truth," I said. "Not… all."
The silence continued, as I tried to figure out… what I was going to say. I'd said it all before, hadn't I? I just needed to… to say the same thing again. Minus the shouting. That was all I needed to do.
I heard Hokaze inhale- she'd decided something. Before I could really react, I found her next to me, one arm around my shoulder in wordless support.
Michan arrived a second later, two arms wrapping around me as she hugged me, like the day we'd first met. "There's nothing you can say that'd make us think any less of you," she said. "So… we'll listen, okay! And we won't judge you at all. And that's a promise! It's a promise, Misaki."
…
I was too afraid to check, and I didn't want to know if I was right, but my heart? It told me they'd already figured it out.
I didn't want to say it out loud.
…I told them. I thought about what I told Misaka, and I said it to them. And I told them everything- everything I'd hidden, everything I'd...
They had one or two questions. Not many.
But…
They kept their promise.
So, even when it was all said and done, they stayed a long time afterwards. They just wanted to… be there, while I got myself back in one piece.
They couldn't stay forever. So they left, eventually. And after they left, I went back to playing video games.
I went to bed a few hours later than I normally would.
But, despite it all, despite everything that had happened today, despite all the worry I'd caused…
I ended up sleeping soundly that night.
Ping.
Get working directory- local, animal, human, awake, occipital lobe.
Narrow working directory: Skill-Out.
Right now, Shirai appeared to be torn between complete gremlin mode, and her usual professionalism in an emergency. The crossed wires had manifested as a desire to see Skill-Out beaten up as soon as possible, so that she could be reunited with Misaka and resume gremlin mode (though she was definitely going straight back to hospital first). "Eeeeeeh…" she muttered darkly, hands balled into fists as she stared over the scene. "If these cretins have caused even the slightest misunderstanding with my perfect Onee-sama…"
I rolled my eyes, and sifted through the Skill-Outs' viewpoints, to get a read on the situation. "Hmm. The Nihilists and co are holding out, but they're getting tired," I said, glaring at the building- I could see that the front doors had been broken open through brute force, quite possibly with strength enhancement and crowbars. As expected, the Skill-Outs had also obtained some DA gear that had fallen off the back of an evidence locker; they'd taken out the unpowered general-building guards pretty easy using them, and had looted said guards' gear to add to their strength. "Three of our people are unconscious from micro-drone stings; they haven't been able to move from the lab to a better position, so they've been stuck in there. It's not good, exactly," I said, taking the time to think the situation through, "but they've held out well enough that we shouldn't have further problems."
The clique members that I knew were present at this time of day were- if they'd stuck to the schedule, which the security and safety policies for the lab were very clear on- Tatsuki, Sakibasu, Hanabi and Ryukyu. Index wasn't present, which was lucky for everyone involved given how Magnus would've reacted. To our great fortune, she was often binge-watching cartoons before lunchtime, and often arrived just before lunch to be fed. Seike, Yakumaru and Sakuragi were the ones who were unconscious, all of them representing Scavenger's muscle. Iizumi was still awake, but given how she tended to freeze up when she lost control of the situation, she probably wasn't contributing as much as she would've if her team was in good condition... Not ideal, pragmatically or emotionally.
But even without more professional support, Hanabi and Sakibasu were making the main entrance a place that was definitely not a good idea to enter. As I watched and figured out my plan of action, a cluster of Skill-Out girls were retreating back behind a wall, after Sakibasu's violin had somehow unleashed a wave of concussive force. I couldn't check if it was a magic or mundane feature of the violin right now, since the anti-scrying wards were keeping me out of the room proper, but I was expecting 'magic'... It was lucky she'd figured out how to do that. Hanabi's fire bursts were powerful and very intimidating, as the scorched lab entrance could attest, but she couldn't use them safely if her opponent got too close, and she didn't have much AIM field stamina. Regularly switching out with Sakibasu was probably the only thing keeping her on her feet.
Ryukyu was playing rear guard for them. I could see a hole in the lab wall behind them, and a guy who looked completely roided-out on the floor below it. Ryukyu's powers were mostly contact-based, but she was particularly good at controlling electrical flows; with some well-placed conductors, she could electrify surfaces or create arcing barriers in midair. It also made her an excellent taser. With the pressure on the entrance, she was the only one who could guard every other exit- I spotted her briefly at the top of the hole in the wall, and her curly red Einstein-hair was matted with sweat. So she wasn't having a great time either.
Tatsuki, meanwhile, was not inside the lab with everyone else. Having mapped out any organic barriers in advance with Sakibasu as a part of her safety procedures, and- with a quick mind-scan- having double-checked with Sakibasu for the Skill-Outs' equipment, her phasing allowed her to launch attacks from any angle with impunity. But it was risky. If she got grabbed (as she couldn't phase through organics, and people were organics), she was only a middle-schooler, and even the girls she was fighting were much bigger, stronger high-schoolers. I could see why Baba had gone with patsies rather than robots; if he only had enough resources to disable Scavenger at the start of an attack, then attackers would have a much better chance of causing problems if they had a reasonable chance of getting past Tatsuki's Phasing, regardless of how vulnerable they were to a strike from my own Mental Out.
But being outside of the lab meant I could get in contact with her. I set up a link. "Tatsuki," I said out loud, so I didn't have to finagle with generating the voice with my powers (though I did make it sound tinnier, for her interpretative convenience). "It's Shokuhou, with Shirai. I'm taking down the Skill-Outs imminently."
She was in a supply closet to catch her breath, and she startled slightly as I cut the voice stream into her audio processing. In response, she brought a finger to her ear like she was speaking into a clip-on microphone. "Ah, Shokuhou!" she said good-naturedly, her voice full to the brim with a palpable sense of relief. "Right on time. That's excellent news... How many will be left for us to deal with, my Queen?"
"None of them," I responded simply. "I'll resolve this. But I need you to head to Sakibasu and get her out of the warding, there should be an enemy-controlled police mecha waiting in ambush around here- if it's inorganic enough, you might be able to take it out with less risk than the rest of us."
"None of them?" Tatsuki repeated, for confirmation. I was already choosing stragglers to knock unconscious, as this wasn't a professional force, and some of them had wandered off to mess with other labs out of spite, curiosity or an opportunity for looting trophies and valuables. "My Queen, they boasted that some of them have defence helmets of one kind or another…"
"I noticed those, yeah," I said- hopefully they weren't unmodified DA helmets, even if they did look the same. "But they didn't give them to everyone. Which means…"
I'd picked a few targets that were more isolated from the rest. The DA-style mental defences were designed to fit under a police helmet, and because of that, they relied on the helmet to protect them from being removed. Since they didn't have those helmets on top of the defences…
Around a corner from the lab itself, the two girls who had just retreated were crowded with the rest, around their leader. As I prepared to strike, I idly noted that this particular sub-group were the same ones we'd foisted off on Kamijou after beating them up, back when me and Hokaze had been too exhausted to be bothered filling Shirai in on the details. They were still wearing the same overly-small skirts and shorts as the last time I'd seen them- it really didn't make much rational sense to dress like that if they were trying to beat up a lab of espers, but I couldn't exactly expect rationality for people who wanted to attack a lab full of Tokiwadai espers who were aligned with a Level 5.
"Come on- they're on the ropes!" encouraged their leader- blonde, black hair extensions, wearing a baggy skull t-shirt again- as she tried to rally her gang. "They're not tough enough to try hurt us, and the teleporter bitch-" A misidentification of what Tatsuki's phasing was doing, I could infer. "-is clearly afraid of what we've got on hand!" She hefted a nailed baseball bat; ironically, the nails would make it less effective against Tatsuki, due to weakening the material without increasing damage. More concerning was the hardening tape, which multiplied muscle force when worn; I couldn't take her down by simply dogpiling her with the rest of her crew. "We have to pay that bitch back- Level Upper was our chance to make it big, and she fucked us over! We can't stop now! I'll lead myself this time, so you divas can't-"
One of her girls, who had sidled up behind her on my orders, abruptly grabbed the back of the DA mental defence- it trailed down the spine, so it wasn't hard- and yanked it off. "-?" Her inspiring speech abruptly cut out, and her eyes glazed over, two stars lighting up in them. Point, set, match.
Now that their leader was under my control, I made her lunge at the other protected girl in the group. It was an aimless tackle, more muscle-spasm than attack. It was something to distract them while my powers knocked out the riff-raff; my second target cried out in dismay as she was bowled over, the attack too sudden for her to figure out what was going on and defend herself.
They landed on the floor together, the other girls dropping too. I tightened my grip- and with her strength enhanced by the hardening tape, and being at too close a range to bring the girl's own baseball bat to bear, it wasn't hard to overpower her and get the defences off of her. That was all I needed to do to finish downing the subgroup.
"One group down," I said, already setting up the next ones. The second group were burly guys who'd been taking strength-enhancers, like the guy at the window, while the third were a more generic teenaged street gang (albeit a fairly competent and professional one) that had just been given goodies and told to go wild. They didn't have the numbers or equipment, at least not after a few sonic blasts, tasings, and angry middle-school girl phase assaults, to keep the trick from working on their groups either... "Two groups down," I said, a little later. I paused while I finished off the last of them in a similar manner to the second and third. "And three- it'll be safe as soon as we find and disable that robot."
Tatsuki blinked. "That was fast," she asked. "How did you bypass the defences?"
"I mind-controlled their minions and yoinked them from the toughest people in the group," I responded. "Not too hard... Anyways, the robot."
"...With your usual behaviour, sometimes I forget you're a mind-controller," Tatsuki snarked. "Right, then… Find Sakibasu, find the robot we have to fight, and make sure it's inorganic? Certainly, my Queen."
"I'll beam what I know about it to you, so you know what you're up against," I informed her. "Don't pick a fight with it if you're not completely confident- I've exposed you to a lot of risks as of late, so I'll need a time slot with you tomorrow to cover that." I paused. "Though, now I think about it, I should probably be discussing that at a more appropriate time…"
"It's no issue, Lady Shokuhou- if we need to meet, then it needs to be done," she agreed simply. "No point beating around the bush, is there? I hate people like that. I'll check my schedule once everyone's out of harm's way." Tatsuki phased her way out of the broom cupboard, to go and fill in the others on the change in situation.
I nodded to myself, satisfied and turned my attention back to Shirai. "I've dealt with the Skill-Outs," I confirmed to her, though she'd probably gathered that herself. "I'm calling in Tatsuki to see if she can take out the police mecha that should be around here, with less risk than you and I. Since you've got range and mobility, we can probably play support if she thinks it'll help, or deal with it ourselves if she can't."
Shirai's attention had finally refocused from her Misaka-related woes to the situation while I'd been talking over Mental Out to Tatsuki. "It may be somewhat obvious given the circumstances, but you still haven't explained what's going on," she grumped, which was fair enough.
"Basically... we tried to arrest the guy you chair-stomped in his school, in an effort to avoid causing a scene, but then we failed horribly and caused a scene anyway," I summarised. "He had a means of finding out we were coming, despite Uiharu's best efforts, so he made a break for it and launched what he'd already prepared early. He'd apparently set up an attack on my lab, as well as an Azure Group meeting I wasn't really aware of… From what he mentioned, and from what I can gather, the latter was just to scare them into doing something unwise, since he didn't really have the resources to deal with them all, so Uiharu's called in Judgment proper for that one. And she's called Anti-Skill too, I guess. All the resources that would put Tokiwadai girls in danger are over here... Which includes a five-metre mantis robot- he had another, but he parked it to try and slip away incognito."
"Ah," said Shirai. "I take it that Miss Hokaze isn't going to be happy."
"Probably not," I sighed. "But I made an attempt at solving my problems without a whole song and dance! And I didn't rush off on my own, at any point! I had backup the whole time."
"Is that what you call 'teleporting away to deal with an attack on your clique's science club single-handedly'?" Shirai deadpanned.
"...Okay. You may have a point, even if there are two of us," I admitted begrudgingly. "But I am specifically making an effort to not rush into danger, right at this very moment. The Type: Mantis- the robot we're expecting to be somewhere around here- is probably expecting me to arrive at ground-level, so I'm significantly less likely to stumble into it if I stay on this roof. And Tatsuki…" I paused, mentally putting her side-by-side with the robot. "Actually, wait- it might not be such a good idea to send a melee attacker after a melee robot…?"
"Miss Shokuhou, you've already said for her to hold off on trying to disable it, if she's concerned she can't handle it," Shirai pointed out. "You should stick to your decision, I should think."
"Middle-schoolers shouldn't be up against giant robots in the first place!" I argued, quite reasonably, because it was objectively correct.
"And have you forgotten that you, too, are a middle schooler?" challenged Shirai. "There is but one reason that I'm not encouraging you to wait for Anti-Skill, and it is that you've mentioned that there are people who are unconscious- and not the ones disabled with your power," she said. "And the only reason I'm not personally interfering is that I am currently injured, and thus technically off-duty; if a healthy individual has the means to make the area safe without my interference, then I will hold back. Miss Tatsuki can assist you in removing it as a threat methodically, so we can get anyone to the hospital who needs it. This is a good plan, Miss Shokuhou."
Ugh. "...I'm convinced," I conceded. "I'll stay back for now."
By the time Tatsuki left the building, I was starting to fidget- tapping my foot against the roof in mild anxiety.
When she stepped out of the hole in the lab, she had no glasses, and held a wooden baseball bat in each hand. She was wearing the tight-hugging swimsuit that I usually saw her wearing during PE, esper revision sessions, or System Scan exams. I honestly wasn't surprised she'd had it available at the lab. It was a lot easier to phase things that were in reasonably-close skin contact… Privately, I was glad she wasn't the sort of person who'd use it as an excuse to dress unprofessionally. I had heard from Wannai and Awatsuki of a recent incident involving Shirai being invited to the same swimsuit commercial as Misaka, so it wasn't an entirely unwarranted concern...
Tatsuki fell confidently towards the ground, as two heads- those of Sakibasu and Iizumi- popped out around the hole in the wall behind her. For a moment, she phased through the floor, but bobbed back up like an ice cube quickly enough; her phasing was (if I were to absolutely butcher the physics explanation) somewhere between Awatsuki's buoyancy manipulation and Shirai's teleportation. She emerged, overshooting slightly but purposefully, and set her feet down after a short hop. Her eyes glanced around at the roofs briefly, spotting me, but specifically avoided looking my way as soon as our eyes met.
Instead, she looked behind her, to the other two. Iizumi, after a moment with one eye covered, pointed at a particular alleyway. That would be her tracking ability in action, then. A moment later, Sakibasu gave a thumbs-up to confirm it was a reasonable fight. Tatsuki nodded- then she started to walk towards the alleyway, speaking loudly.
"Shokuhou Misaki!" she enunciated, loudly and clearly, with very particular exaggerated inflections. I knew what she was doing- it was an effort at making a super-stimulus for the robot's automated recognition systems, which would hopefully goad it into taking predictable actions. "I am glad that you have arrived! All of the Skill-Outs are defeated! Ahah, it is time to relax-"
Before she finished her last sentence, the corner of the alleyway exploded in a shower of brick rubble. Tatsuki smirked, not moving to dodge.
The rubble simply flew through her, 'puddles' of light flaring to let them pass through.
A massive, mechanised claw came down towards her in a ruthless hammerblow, and she took a dancing step forwards to keep her footing as the ground underneath her was smashed. Tatsuki looked up at the mecha's chassis considerately, only observing where it was looking peripherally, and swung her bat.
She let go of it before it finished, leaving it wedged vertically within the connecting joint of the robot's thorax and abdomen. The Type: Mantis jarred.
She accelerated unhurriedly beneath it, following up her precise strike with a phase-driven slide, like a video game character sliding along a slope they couldn't quite make contact with. Metallic legs stomped down at her, but while the machine was smart enough to observe its initial attack had been dodged somehow, it probably wasn't quite smart enough to infer a response other than 'try again, but with the expectation of missing'. That was something Tatsuki could abuse fairly easily.
It reared around to face her, but Tatsuki was already moving- she was heading for the wall of the adjacent building. As it struck, she leapt, feet-first, towards the wall- and with another physics-slide, she rocketed upwards, getting missed completely as she did a rather impressive backflip over its head.
As it turned back around towards her expected landing position, she slowed in midair- phasing out from gravity so she wouldn't fall, and using a combination of resistance and unphasing-expulsion from the air to slow down- and arched her back, whale-like, to aim. And then- with a burst of air as she unphased briefly, jet-propelling herself with the air she displaced as gravity took hold- she dived downwards towards its head.
She dropped through the robot like it wasn't there. The second baseball bat lodged itself through its head, going down into the second thorax connector and wedging there.
Tatsuki re-emerged from the road surface metres away, with an exhilarated grin. "Pph. Whoever sent a machine like that… Did they not know that human ingenuity beats brute force every time?" she boasted, mostly to herself. As she turned back around to face it- I imagined that a lot of vital circuitry (particularly to the cameras in its head) had been separated by the damage to the connectors, leaving it running entirely on redundancies- she let the look fade from her face, and put her finger to her ear again. "Although, while it's disabled, I'm not sure I feel comfortable leaving it here while I re-arm myself… My Queen, if you're listening, would you have any way to shut this damnable thing down?"
I watched the machine as it occasionally turned in random directions, holding its claws up like it was expecting another attack. It had probably lost enough sensors that it couldn't identify friend from foe, if at all, and was defaulting to defensive behaviour. "Shirai can probably try wedging things inside it until it breaks," I commented. "So- hang on, wait, I'm picking up an incoming… Ah. It seems we've interrupted Hokaze's friendship time. She's just entered my range."
"Miss Hokaze? Ah, she'll be able to deal with it," said Tatsuki, nodding. "Yes, she definitely has the raw strength for it. How long will we have to wait before-"
I interrupted her. "When I say 'she's just entered my range', I mean 'entered my range and is rapidly approaching'. You should probably get out of the way," I advised.
"Come now," said Tatsuki, starting to walk away. "She's fast, but your range is… what, a kilometre? She'd have to be moving- hmm? What's that sound...?"
The sound she was hearing was a screech of rubbery shoe-sole plastic on tarmac. It came to a crescendo as a violet-haired blur screeched around the corner with both feet in front of her... destroying her school shoes in the process again, predictably enough. She came to a brief halt, and Hokaze gently put down a blushing girl I didn't immediately recognise, before turning towards the robot with a glare as she took stock of the situation.
Her eyes flicked between me and Shirai on the roof, Tatsuki, and the robot. She nodded to herself, slightly- and apparently made the decision that she didn't want this robot to be on this plane of existence any longer.
The ground beneath her exploded in a flash of violet light. The air between her and the robot was next to explode, with a deafening sonic crack of air. Then the robot exploded- one moment it was there, the next it simply… disappeared, Hokaze's foot being posed in a spectacular upwards kick.
As I stared, I felt a hand touch my cheek- Shirai's hand, from where I was still carrying her. "Hmm," she commented with a thoughtful frown.
"-Eh!?" I replied, quite reasonably. I barely remembered not to drop her. Meanwhile, Hokaze signalled for her friend and Tatsuki to get out of the way, already planning a second attack despite the hilarious overkill she'd only just inflicted. "Oi! She just kicked a robot into the stratosphere, and you're paying attention to me?!"
"Onee-sama is implicitly trusting me to look after your mental health, so yes," said Shirai stubbornly. She harrumphed. "Ignore me. Pay attention to more important things, Miss Shokuhou!"
"...You do realise that…? Never mind," I grumbled, deciding not to question it. There was another crack of sound as Hokaze disappeared upwards- a few seconds later, and the robot returned, its metallic parts hitting the ground with enough force to almost splash, rather than crush. Shards of robot flung themselves out across the street.
"...Wow," I said, as I took stock. After a brief pause, I added, "Uh, Shirai- would you mind catching her? She has a tendency to forget her landing plans, and though she'll be fine, the street's probably broken enough by now…"
Shirai glanced up at the silhouette of Hokaze, who was somewhere between 'skydiving' and 'finally agreeing that skirts were impractical nonsense'. "She did go rather high," Shirai commented. "Of course- this will take but a moment."
She teleported, and I spotted her up in the sky; she appeared a little above Hokaze, and tapped her shoulder. I saw Hokaze turn her head, and she quickly adjusted her pose to try and simultaneously get a grip on Shirai and her skirt.
Then, with another pop, the two of them appeared in front of me- just a few centimetres off the ground, so they landed gently enough. "Oh, there we go!" said Hokaze idly.
Then, satisfied she was on the ground, she looked at me.
The look continued for a few seconds. Then her visage twisted… into a teary-eyed moe-face, rather than an irate look, because this was Hokaze we were talking about.
"Misaakiiiii!" she whimpered. "You did it again!"
"...In my defence I did literally everything to avoid escalation that I could-" I started, before getting whapped on the head by Shirai's shoes as an impromptu bludgeoning weapon. "Ow!"
__________
Hokaze begrudgingly (by Hokaze standards, at least) accepted my subsequent explanation of how I'd ended up in these circumstances. I had brought a Level 5 and a Judgment officer along with me as backup to arrest an unarmed dude who shouldn't have seen us coming, and who was specifically picking a fight with me, which would generally be considered 'extreme overkill' instead of 'an insufficient attempt to avoid problems'. This did not mean that she was happy, of course, but it did mean she was the kind of 'not happy' that wouldn't get me tied to a chair and force-fed Gekota programs on 'friendship' and 'common sense'.
We didn't really get the chance to talk things through as much as I'd have liked in the time we had before everything else swallowed us up, alas, so we quickly agreed to meet up after school. I was too busy getting dragged into an ambulance with Shirai and the majority of Scavenger (Academy City actually had appropriate funding for hospitals, as one of its few not-flaws, so we didn't have to wait half a day for the ambulance to get here). Hokaze, meanwhile, needed to explain to her friend what had just happened, as well as back up Tatsuki in making sure Iizumi didn't try to shank any of the Anti-Skill officers that were arriving on the scene. There hadn't quite been enough room to take Iizumi with the rest of her team directly, and the other girls needed Anti-Skill nearby for check-ups, to make sure they hadn't strained themselves or missed any injuries they'd taken.
Thus, once Scavenger and Shirai had both been offloaded to where they needed to go, I ended up back with Doctor Kiyama. The woman was somewhat miffed that she- being a medical scientist rather than a medical doctor- was still the most relevant person available for me, in a completely different incident to the last one, and that it was supposed to be an off-day for her to boot.
The doctor who owned the hospital was giving her generous overtime pay for it, apparently, at the very least. Her 'World's Best Teacher' hand-decorated mug was half-full with black coffee as I walked in. "Miss Shokuhou," she said dryly. "Last time, you said 'as long as nobody tries to blow up the city, I'll be fine', yes? I see it didn't work out for you."
I took the proffered appointment seat. "The precise words were correct, but... Not really, no, unfortunately. Someone seems to have been playing… what's the saying? Ah, right- someone was playing silly buggers with me," I said. "There was a high-schooler who'd been roped into being… an enforcer for the chairmen or something, I think?" I commented, shrugging. "Anyway, someone clearly had a problem with something, because they sent him after me. We think it was snuck into his other orders. There was some sort of cognitohazard that I deflected, but it wasn't one that appeared to work as the murder-virus he expected, from what little I actually saw of its effects." I paused. "Does the name 'Kihara Yuiitsu' mean anything to you?"
Doctor Kiyama's face creased at the name. "It does," she said. "When I was... first researching Kihara Gensei, her name came up repeatedly- she's an expert in applied neurology, who shares a lot of research interests with Gensei. Though…" She frowned, the recovering bags under her eyes slightly more visible. "I suspect any respect is one-sided."
I tilted my head. "One-sided?" I asked. "What makes you say that?"
"A lot of research details are 'confidential'," she said, her tone of voice making it clear exactly what she thought about that, "but the timelines and staff are less likely to be. I was looking into her because of the rumours of a 'family of madness'... She seems to have made a habit of sidelining other projects for the sake of working with Gensei, but he was more likely to drop those projects she worked on than others." She sipped her drink. "It's armchair psychology, but I suspect he has some issue with her. I don't know anything more than you could find out yourself, though."
"Thanks," I said anyway.
She nodded, and stood up. "I'll get the electroencephalogram set up," she said. "We can see what's changed since your last visit…"
The check-up was fairly quick and easy, because Academy City medicine was just plain convenient when it wasn't being used to commit crimes against humanity. She hummed as she looked over the results on her computer. "Your condition hasn't deteriorated since last time, but it's only shown mild improvements compared to what I would have expected. Given the heightened activity in these other areas, I guess you've been taking it even less easy than I suspected," she inferred.
"That's… pretty accurate," I replied. "There was a bit of an incident where high school drama crossed over with the general…" After a moment, I gestured vaguely. "Academy City-ishness." She nodded, grasping my meaning readily. "It… wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. ...I think we wrapped it up in time for the Festival, though."
"Hmm. Here's hoping," she drawled, and took another sip of her coffee. "Otherwise… I don't see any unusual activity, so I believe you're correct in your judgement that there wasn't any damage from whatever attacked you. Which is lucky for you. While you shouldn't attempt to recreate, recover or re-read the conditions of it, under any circumstances, I'd appreciate it if you could write down what you know of it already before you go. It would help me check for anything I missed in our next appointment, and I'd like to look into 'mental vaccines'- that is, safe cognitohazards that you can work on breaking down manually, which should hopefully protect you from more dangerous ones. I'd rather not have to deal with mind-readers dropping dead because someone invented an unethical security measure..."
Not the most pleasant thing in the world to describe, but she hadn't had the ethics training of a real medical doctor (who were supposed to be blunt but polite, warm where needed, as far as I could recall), so it was understandable. "I suppose we'll have to book a 'next appointment' then," I agreed. "Anything else?"
"We should discuss your treatment for the original degradation," Kiyama said. She folded her arms, leaning back. "While I was hoping that your normal life circumstances would be enough to let you recover at the expected speed, this time I'd like to try and enforce relaxation wherever possible. I can't control outside events, but I can certainly write a note. What duties do you have at the moment?"
I hummed. "Well, I do a lot of the book-keeping for the Constitutionals- it's a Tokiwadai 'faction', a glorified school social club," I started. "There's the esper revision sessions, I use my power to help other people in the faction improve their powers, but I'd consider that more a hobby than a responsibility. We'll probably start getting homework again after the Daihaseisai… Oh, and there's a chore rota in the dorms."
"A chore rota?" asked Kiyama. "I'm surprised. I wouldn't have thought a school like Tokiwadai would need one."
I shook my head. "They don't, but a lot of the girls are pretty sheltered, so it's a personal growth sort of thing," I said. "...Not that it really does much. Back in first year, when we were moving into the dorms, I remember the dismay they all had when they thought they might have to, gasp, clean the bathrooms." I giggled slightly. "I mean, it takes a bit of spray and a wet cloth for most of it- maybe an extra two dry cloths, if you want to make things look shiny for some reason. It's not hard. But you might as well have threatened them with working in the mines!"
Kiyama hummed. "I can imagine," she said, writing things down. "Well, let's take you off that for three weeks…"
"Oh, we're staying in hotels this week, so we don't have one right now," I commented. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Something about minimising the distance from sporting events? I wasn't there to hear the justification last year, and I haven't really checked why we do it this year."
"Well, withdrawing you from the Daihaseisai at this point would probably cause more stress than it would help with," she said- quite correctly, I really wasn't a fan of abrupt changes in plan- "since it would be putting a lot of social pressure on you…" Ah, she was right for the wrong reasons. "So I'll write those factors in a note that's mainly intended for after the Daihaseisai, and I'll trust you to withdraw yourself from any social club roles that are just more chores."
"Right," I agreed. "We have a security policy, so I can switch someone else in pretty easily." Security policies were important!
"That's good," said Kiyama. "I'll also recommend you go home, rather than back to school, since I've heard certain things about Tokiwadai's sickness policy… I believe that's all, then- I hope you enjoy the Daihaseisai," she finished. "And try not to end up back here before the next appointment?"
__________
I'd texted Hokaze earlier, soon after I got back in, very hesitantly. 'Kiyama had me take the day off. Could we meet up after school instead of during break hours? I'd like to talk to Michan and you at the same time.'
She'd texted me back. 'Of course! Would you like me to call her?'
'No, I'll text her- it's important.' I replied. 'I blabbed some heavy stuff to Misaka. You both should know.' I rewrote that one a few times.
There was a long pause. 'Certainly! I'll see you then.' she replied.
I texted Michan after that, as I'd said I would. 'Hey Michan. Are you available after school this afternoon? I need to get some stuff off my chest to you and Hokaze. It's about the van talk.'
'i'm always here to listen bestie ! ^.^' she responded, after a minute. 'asap is 6pm tho! teach wont let me skip the festival prep after school'
'I'll let Hokaze know, ty' I replied.
Hokaze got her text back now that I'd confirmed. 'Michan's available at 6pm; I need some time to unwind, but we should clear up the whole 'getting into trouble too much' thing, so see you after dinner?'
'See you then!' Hokaze replied. 'I'll make sure Misaka doesn't interrupt you if you need some introvert time.'
'Thanks.'
…So.
I'd finally be letting the cat out of the bag tonight. At least, the important bag.
It left me restless.
I had to set things up with the reception first, of course, because Michan was not from this school and needed permission to enter. That was all I really needed to do in terms of making sure they could enter, though.
After that, I burned some time playing video games, to take my mind off it while I whiled the hours away... An engineering one, specifically- I played it fairly frequently. I made a military airship with a comically-large gyroscope to control its roll, and played through part of a roguelike gamemode with it a few times. The final version, after all the additions, was somewhere between a biblical angel, a blimp, and a gatling gun. Any game where comically large gyroscopes were a possible solution to a problem was a good game, in my book, so I was satisfied with the results.
I wasn't really in a mood to go eat in the cafeteria today. Instead, I unfroze some rice and fried it with eggs and peas, frying it in the base of my pressure cooker. Not particularly complicated, but that sort of thing was always a decent bet for a quick dinner.
I was just about to finish eating when my phone buzzed. I picked it up. 'on my way bestie ! >w< i will be half an hour'
I thought about a reply; I ended up just leaving her text alone while I finished waiting.
Hokaze knocked for me before the appointed time, as I'd asked her to. I opened the door for her. "Misaki!" she greeted warmly. She was wearing trainers again, for obvious reasons.
"Junko," I said, moving out of the way of the door. "Come in, come in."
She sat down on my chair; I took the bed. While she got herself comfortable, I frowned. "...Huh. You know, I don't think I have enough chairs for all three of us," I commented. "Michan'll be over pretty soon, too; it might be worth switching places?"
"Oh! Okay," said Hokaze. We switched places, me taking the seat, her patting down the bed before she sat on it. She seemed a little hesitant. "...Will there be enough time for the discussion you suggested?" she questioned
I took a breath, and I nodded. "I think so, yeah," I said. "We should have the time. It's not anything extensive, I don't think... We can have a longer talk at a later date if we can't clear it up in the time we have. Just… managing what expectations we have of each other. Like- in terms of what makes each other happy. I don't want to upset you just because I… I dunno, assumed something stupid." I paused. "I feel like I've been doing that a lot lately."
Hokaze smiled fondly. "That's very sensible," she agreed. Her smile faded a bit. "It does… pain me, when I keep having to hear you're in trouble after the fact. I know that I've been busy with other activities, on both of the occasions that it's happened as of late, but…"
I sighed. "It doesn't make it easier for you to deal with, does it?" I guessed. She nodded, looking a bit sad. "Yeah. That's one of the assumptions I'd have trouble making on my own… I guess I have trouble getting worked up if a problem's already solved, I think?" I shrugged. "It feels worse if I'm told about something I can't help with, or that there's already people to help with, if it's something to be worried about. Ah... have you seen when someone falls over in the yard, and everyone just sort of crowds around them?"
She nodded. "I've seen that, yes- it happened quite frequently in the elementary school playground… You feel it's relevant?" she asked.
"Yeah," I agreed. "I wouldn't go over, because I wouldn't be able to do anything useful anyway if they're already crowded, and they've got plenty of people so they don't need yet another person in their space," I said. "But… well, there's a reason people do the crowding. They're worried, and want to make sure everything's okay. I do get worried for people, I mean," I clarified, "I've cried over being worried for people before. But that's when I don't know if I can solve it or not." Sometimes I hadn't been able to. "If it's already solved, I just don't feel it?" I summarised. "And if I can't do anything to solve it, but they're sure it's solved, I'd rather wait until it's solved before I hear about it."
"So… if you were talking to Sakibasu, and I got into trouble, but I had Michan and Misaka to help me, then you wouldn't want to worry about it?" Hokaze said, not judging.
"Right," I agreed. "Well… I might 'want' to worry about it, quote-unquote, but it'd be easier for me to hear about after the fact, you know? If you had all those people to help you, and things went wrong, I'd get worked up because you got hurt, not because I thought I'd be able to help. I tend to… not really 'project'," I said. "Sometimes I just don't really get why someone would be upset until they explain it to me, or I see they're upset."
"And that's why you wanted to talk it through," inferred Hokaze, smiling slightly again. "So you know what would make me happier?"
"I don't think knowing I'm getting into trouble again would make you happier, but… 'more content', which is basically the same thing," I agreed. "So... what you'd want is for me to make you aware, even if you have something else on your mind? I didn't really want to put you off your official reunion with Yumiya, but..."
Hokaze nodded. "That's the case, certainly... My friends are all very precious to me. My best friends, especially. It doesn't matter what else I'm doing, or who else I'm speaking to," she insisted, looking me in the eyes. "I want to know if you're okay, Misaki! I'd do the same for any of my friends, but you're especially important to me. And more likely to get in trouble!" she added, half-scoldingly, half-teasingly.
I chuckled, smiling slightly, despite the pressure I'd been feeling this afternoon. "No leaving Hokaze out if you can help it, got it," I agreed. "And, umm... my… approach, to situations, otherwise? I think…" ...My words trailed off, without really going anywhere. I wasn't quite sure what to say.
Hokaze saw me struggling with it, and deigned to rescue me. "As much as I'm unhappy with you getting into trouble yet again, Misaki… from what you've said, and from what Miss Uiharu and Miss Misaka discussed with me after the fact, I'm not entirely certain what you could have done better. You tried to do it without anything dramatic happening, and you tried to have someone else take the lead, but it happened anyway- and people were in danger. Our friends," she clarified. "They were people you knew he was planning to hurt?"
I nodded. "I didn't know he was planning to hurt Tatsuki and whatnot, but I knew he was trying to hurt me one way or another...." I explained. She cringed a little; I carried on. "He was looking for a reaction, and people like that will keep poking until they get it. Y'know?"
She sighed unhappily, rubbing one arm slightly. "I suppose I do. Though in lighter circumstances, I must admit... And I know that this City hasn't really given you any reason to trust it, so… sometimes the situation forces you to do things yourself and put yourself in danger, if you want things to turn out as pleasantly as they can, in the end?" she surmised, downcast.
"...I'd like it to be otherwise," I agreed, looking away. "But… yeah. Sometimes I just… do. Have to do things like that." I shrugged again.
"And you already ask for help, where you can get it," she added. She hummed to herself. "...Sometimes, we can try as hard as we like to be happy, and misfortune will simply seek us out, will it not?" She was speaking from experience; I could guess easily enough that she was thinking of her friends in Clone Dolly: Ideal. The friend she'd been meeting today was missing an eye, and she'd been nowhere near the worst-off…
We sat there in silence, for a length of time. Then Hokaze stood up, determined. "We both need a hug," she said.
The door immediately rang. Hokaze visibly paused, deciding whether or not hugs were worthwhile.
"Oh, Michan," I said. I hesitated briefly, and not because I was indecisive about hugs- I think Hokaze noticed- but I stood up and headed to the door anyway.
She was waiting at the door, wearing a white plaited skirt and a stylish purple buttoned shirt, which wasn't out of the ordinary at all for her. She grinned at the sight of us. "Misaki!" said Michan cheerily. "And Junko! Gosh, it feels like forever since we were all in the same place, right?" Her eyes flickered over my general lack of confidence, and a flicker of worry flashed in her eyes. I let her in. "Is this what your room looks like?" she said, taking a look around, her enthusiasm to be here slightly faltering. "It's, uh, very tidy!"
"Well, I'm thinking of getting a fishtank," I informed them. "I was thinking of angelfish, but they might get stressed from living in a room that's in active usage... so I've been reconsidering. In terms of what I put in it, not... Never mind. You'll have to take a seat on the bed. I don't have a second chair, and I don't really want to go take one from Hokaze's room right this second... That probably would've been more convenient actually."
She took a seat on the bed. I stalled. "Are you going to take a seat, Misaki?" prompted Hokaze, not unkindly, seeing that I was lingering rather than sitting down.
"Yes," I said, half-instinctively, as I leaned on the side of the desk instead of doing the thing I said I'd do. "Maybe. …I dunno." I sighed. "...Sorry."
"It's okay, Misaki!" said Michan quickly. "Do what you want, it's just a chair. We don't mind, right?" Hokaze made an affirmative noise, and she continued. "So, uh, what was it you needed to tell us about?"
I didn't reply, for a few seconds, getting up and turning half towards the window. "...Gimme a moment," I said, cracking the window open, to let a little air in. "Sorry," I said again, lamely.
I'd told Misaka in the heat of the moment. I huffed, trying to pull myself together.
That meant I could tell them, here, now... on purpose.
My eyes were starting to sting, and my throat wasn't getting any less tight. This wasn't working.
I sat down in the computer chair indecisively. My lips moved wordlessly for a moment, but I didn't say anything.
I heard a shuffling on the bed. "Misaki?" asked Michan; I looked up.
They'd made a space for me on the bed, Michan having shuffled to the side. She patted it wordlessly, with a comforting smile on her face. 'Come on over,' their eyes said.
I didn't want to sit next to them. Not for this. After a moment, I shook my head, and looked away again- I would've lost my nerve to speak if I did.
It was... ridiculously tempting, to just sit down next to them and say 'no, let's do this another day', and never mention 'another day' again. I could have done that. I could have done that easily.
But I couldn't do that to them. So I spoke.
"It's…" I croaked. "...Exterior."
The nervous tension in the room went up a notch, the moment I got the word out. They both knew what it meant for me. Michan had only seen a little; Hokaze had seen none of it.
They both waited, silently.
"I didn't… tell the truth," I said. "Not… all."
The silence continued, as I tried to figure out… what I was going to say. I'd said it all before, hadn't I? I just needed to… to say the same thing again. Minus the shouting. That was all I needed to do.
I heard Hokaze inhale- she'd decided something. Before I could really react, I found her next to me, one arm around my shoulder in wordless support.
Michan arrived a second later, two arms wrapping around me as she hugged me, like the day we'd first met. "There's nothing you can say that'd make us think any less of you," she said. "So… we'll listen, okay! And we won't judge you at all. And that's a promise! It's a promise, Misaki."
…
I was too afraid to check, and I didn't want to know if I was right, but my heart? It told me they'd already figured it out.
I didn't want to say it out loud.
…I told them. I thought about what I told Misaka, and I said it to them. And I told them everything- everything I'd hidden, everything I'd...
They had one or two questions. Not many.
But…
They kept their promise.
So, even when it was all said and done, they stayed a long time afterwards. They just wanted to… be there, while I got myself back in one piece.
They couldn't stay forever. So they left, eventually. And after they left, I went back to playing video games.
I went to bed a few hours later than I normally would.
But, despite it all, despite everything that had happened today, despite all the worry I'd caused…
I ended up sleeping soundly that night.
- Pronouns
- Reader
All obstacles between Shirai and Gremlinning must be crushed with extreme prejudice.
The girls are holding out. Nice. Magical music for the win.
I love how business as usual MisaSI and Tatsuki are as she mental outs on skill out.
Shirai uses "Your full of shit" to counter Bakahou's weak excuses and Isekai double standards. It's super effective.
Tatsuki's surgical disabling and methodological take down was sweet. Great fight choreography.
Meathead Strike!! This sort of showboating always gets you in trouble later.
Shirai: Onii-sama has stiff competition in cute meathead department. I need to check if miss Shokohou's pulse is racing for future comparison.
@SV5195R you were right about Hokaze, but we both forgot that Shirai is right there and has rigid standards for her competition for Misaka's love.
Hokaze backed down way too easily. Her doing everything she could while having appeasing her in mind while still dealing with everything personally except for 1 part of the issue isn't much improvement, especially when you remember that Misaka had to talk her down from treating this as a personal crusade, which probably went unmentioned.
Something tells me relaxing just isn't something Bakahou will manage.
No Misaka catching up to Bakahou or clones shenanigans? Lame 😑
Well glad they could resolve this and move foreward as stronger friends, but the whole Bakahou is never made to confront her hypocrisy thing grinds my gears.
The girls are holding out. Nice. Magical music for the win.
I love how business as usual MisaSI and Tatsuki are as she mental outs on skill out.
Shirai uses "Your full of shit" to counter Bakahou's weak excuses and Isekai double standards. It's super effective.
Tatsuki's surgical disabling and methodological take down was sweet. Great fight choreography.
Meathead Strike!! This sort of showboating always gets you in trouble later.
Shirai: Onii-sama has stiff competition in cute meathead department. I need to check if miss Shokohou's pulse is racing for future comparison.
@SV5195R you were right about Hokaze, but we both forgot that Shirai is right there and has rigid standards for her competition for Misaka's love.
Hokaze backed down way too easily. Her doing everything she could while having appeasing her in mind while still dealing with everything personally except for 1 part of the issue isn't much improvement, especially when you remember that Misaka had to talk her down from treating this as a personal crusade, which probably went unmentioned.
Something tells me relaxing just isn't something Bakahou will manage.
No Misaka catching up to Bakahou or clones shenanigans? Lame 😑
Well glad they could resolve this and move foreward as stronger friends, but the whole Bakahou is never made to confront her hypocrisy thing grinds my gears.
Last edited:
- Location
- Gainful Employment
- Pronouns
- He/They
Bakahou was definitely smiling at seeing her
- Pronouns
- Reader
I'm picturing her as more of a an awestruck expression.
View: https://youtu.be/8if4nVVtwUs?si=21ZabHzSld6d-F8T
Kind of like Kuroko's in this video when she first catches Misaka, before she smiles.
SV5195R
C-Weapon
- Location
- Russian Federation
To be fair, anyone would have been awestruck.
Except Shirai, apparently, because she's too busy interpreting awestruck stares through the lens of matchmaking.