"...So," I said, glancing around my fellows as we stood inside an alleyway. "Does anybody have any idea how that happened, and what 'that' was, exactly?"
My fellow espers did not answer, most of them standing around awkwardly. Tatsuki was muttering to herself. Rei was currently sort of craning her neck and wiggling her head around, like she was trying to get a good phone reception in her cranium. Hokaze was glancing between the two with her hands half-raised and a helpless, bamboozled expression, trying to figure out the appropriate response.
"I would like to confirm that we are not in Academy City any more…" said Rei, her sentence ending with an upwards lilt- like she'd been about to continue, then found herself with nothing further to say.
"...I beg your pardon?" asked Tatsuki, turning towards the Sister. "This is quite clearly-"
"We are not in Academy City any more," she repeated, more confidently. "The dynamics of the situation have changed radically… says Misaka, finding it too frustrating to leave sentences unfinished despite the pointlessness of the additional words."
"Wait, pointlessness?" I asked. "Are we… not in range of your sisters?"
"This is correct, says Misaka worriedly," said Rei. "There is, however, a network of dubious provenance present, with extremely similar traits to the one that Misaka is familiar with despite the failure to connect; in addition, the city's electromagnetic regime is very different but has the same fundamental structure that would suggest we are geographically where Academy City should be, says Misaka, monologuing on the unusual intricacies of the situation."
"Oh!" said Hokaze, clapping her hands together. "I have an idea, my Queen! It's an isekai!"
We all paused from our concern to look at her confusedly.
"I read them in my mangas sometimes!" she added, still smiling cheerfully. "If everything's the same, but just different enough to not be identical, we might be in some sort of strange isekai version of our normal daily lives! It's the only logical explanation."
Tatsuki made a slightly disgusted expression. "Don't tell me you read that drivel…" she muttered. "Onizuka is bad enough with it! Just say what you mean."
Different electromagnetic regimes… I paused, and ran a scan with Mental Out.
"...Actually, I think Hokaze has a point," I said, after a moment. "By all indications, this place is Academy City, but, uh… it's not."
"...So you say?" said Tatsuki, still not quite following. She gestured down the alleyway, towards the street. "I saw an Academy City cleaning drone passing by, just a minute ago! How could it not be Academy City?"
"By being a different Academy City, displaced temporally or dimensionally, says Misaka," said Rei. "Could the date and time be confirmed, Shokuhou, asks Misaka politely, wondering which of the two it might be?"
"Ah, got it- it's still before the Daihaseisai," I said, and frowned. "But… not our 'before the Daihaseisai'. The psychic-blocking barriers I'd expect… they're positively anaemic. It's like nobody's even bothered to stress-test them. That, plus Rei's sisters not being on quite the same wavelength… It's roughly the same time, but… different. Dimensional displacement, perhaps? I've got definite reasons to believe that sort of thing exists…"
"I… must say that this doesn't quite make sense to me, even if you all find yourselves convinced," said Tatsuki, scratching her head. "I'm quite certain that multiverse theory is completely incompatible with the fundamental mechanics of esper powers. But… hmm." She paused, frowning. "If you assume that the matter phasing is… rotate it in the seventh dimension, maybe… and…"
She resumed muttering, but now with significantly more direction. I'd leave her to it. "Okay, Hokaze, Rei," I said, while Tatsuki did her mental maths trying to figure out if we'd accidentally done the impossible in our Festival-preparation science experiment or not. "If we're right, then we need a plan of action. Like figuring out if this is an evil goatee universe or not?"
"Misaka requests a clarification that does not involve an incomprehensible reference, says Misaka," deadpanned Rei.
"...Right. What I'm saying is- if we're really in some sort of mirror-dimension, however that would work," I said, gesturing at a still-perplexed Tatsuki, "then our most immediate problem is if there's someone very similar to us that we might be mistaken for. We want to figure out what's going on, then try to fix it. If we get attacked by someone thinking we're up to no good because we're accidentally committing identity theft, whether that be Judgment, ourselves, whoever, then that's bad. It's doubly-bad if our alternate selves are unpleasant people, for whatever reason."
"Why would our alternate selves be unpleasant people?" asked Hokaze, frowning. "I should think we'd all be perfectly nice…"
I shrugged. "I have no idea," I admitted, deciding not to bring up the two very different chuunis that she and Tatsuki had been, "but the butterfly effect is real, and we don't know what's going on yet. I'll only really be able to research the broad strokes of events via Mental Out until I've got some direction; until then, we should probably find ways to make ourselves look different, and somewhere to hole up until we've got a grasp on the situation."
"...Does this mean that Misaka will have to replace her Tokiwadai uniform, questions Misaka, not looking forwards to having to wear something different for the sake of the mission?" Rei asked with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
I sighed. "Yes," I replied, and patted her gently on the head, to her slight annoyance. "Yes it does. Which means that… I dunno, we really need to find a thrift shop or something? Let's go."
Tatsuki was quietly going insane due to not being able to figure out interdimensional physics, Hokaze was vibrating in the expectation of a fun manga plot adventure, and Rei thankfully continued to behave like a normal and ordinary person. Clearly, we were as ready as we'd ever be.
I led the way in search of an appropriate place to buy a replacement outfit. Fortunately, we already had some experience with avoiding cameras and whatnot, thanks to my somewhat illegal excursions with Hokaze and Michan, so Mental Out alone was enough to get us by with minimal obvious notice for the most part.
We found a cheap shop quickly enough; they were a little more common than thrift shops.
The general demeanour of the other three didn't really change much. I gave Hokaze a sidelong look, while Tatsuki and Rei wandered off to go find something that was closer in fit for them both. "...You're thinking of trying to befriend your alternate universe counterpart, aren't you?" I asked Hokaze, as I perused shop's supply of trousers in my size.
She pulled out a Gekota shirt, and held it up to herself to see if it fit her. Then she smiled at me. "Only if I get the opportunity!" Hokaze responded cheerfully.
I sighed. "...Make sure you wear a hoodie over that," I commented, not wanting to deprive her of extradimensional loot. I probably should've been more concerned about the situation, but given nobody was trying to fry my brains or attack us with dubiously-obtained robots, I was just thankful we were in a situation I could reasonably assume wasn't an evil plot of one kind or another.
She pouted, but nodded. "Of course, my Queen," she agreed. "...Oh! I should probably call you something less conspicuous, shouldn't I?"
By the time we were done, we were all passable as random people badly pretending to be delinquents, apart from Hokaze, who was an ojou-sama badly pretending to be a delinquent. Even Rei- whose entire life had been spent either pretending to be Misaka, or being herself but also simultaneously in a pretence of pretending to be Misaka- was doing an admirable job at it, having used her electricity to give herself ridiculous floaty hair. I'd just undone my ponytail and let my fair flow; I'd probably have to look into hair dye. Tatsuki had also found a ridiculous pair of star-shaped sunglasses with which to cover my eyes.
Tatsuki, unlike the rest of us, could reasonably disguise herself by switching to contact lenses and taking off her signature headband. Being a girl of fairly average height, build, and possessing a fairly common shade of black hair rather than having an anime-protagonist hairstyle like the rest of us (the Misakas' ruddy brunette wasn't too common in Japan), she had a lot less trouble blending in than us three. Rei was second most normal, but was also an exact copy of Railgun, and probably also a copy of nine or ten other girls wandering around here (Rei believed the alternate Network was demographically-similar to ours) rather than just one, so she didn't really count.
As for the other clothing, specifically the Tokiwadai uniforms… well, we didn't really want to be dumping interdimensional clothing everywhere, so we rolled them up and shoved them into our bags.
We left as soon as we'd paid for things (by which I meant I had mind-controlled them into thinking we'd paid for things, and then Rei had hacked the tills into a passable approximation of having paid, because interdimensional money definitely wasn't applicable here).
"We should stick to the outskirts. Given the upcoming Daihaseisai, security is going to be too tight close to the city centre for us to successfully conceal ourselves for long," said Tatsuki, as we walked back into the street in our newfound disguises. "We'll need to settle ourselves somewhere further afield from the city centre while we research a way back to the usual version of our reality… or until our researchers on the other side do so, at least." The thought gave her pause. "I'm suddenly very, very thankful that we properly document our procedures…"
Heh. "Told you it was a good idea," I said, smirking.
She rolled her eyes. "As you've told me before," she sighed.
"Of the available districts, District 10 is the closest of sufficient ill repute to go unguarded, says Misaka, considering which districts are least likely to have a heavy tourist presence," Rei suggested. "We should find somewhere secure there, and then perform reconnaissance, decides Misaka."
__________
Our first data-gathering target was quite simple. We wanted to gain access to the Tokiwadai news club's articles- assuming they existed- and, from there, we'd be able to get the information we needed on the most critical of immediately-identifiable problems… namely, ourselves, and whether they were individuals to be approached or avoided.
We'd holed up in an out-of-use building, using a combination of psychometry and electrical scanning to make sure nobody had reason to keep an eye on the place. After that, we'd needed to figure out how we'd actually gain access. We narrowed it down to me and Rei. I could easily breach the passwords with a bit of the old mind-reading, while she'd completed the electromaster rite of passage of power-driven hacking.
The main issue, we decided, was that I could get in more easily, but I lacked any means of boosting my electronic range, and if my psychic snooping was detected by alternate-Shokuhou then I'd be incredibly vulnerable to being caught by alternate-Hokaze or alternate-Shirai. Rei was weaker, but her electrical means of intrusion was much less immediately-threatening given how much more common and less directly-dangerous it was; she was the better bet, we agreed.
Hokaze was very disappointed that she didn't know how to hack things. Tatsuki dutifully added it to their esper practice to-do list.
Given that she'd be in the whims of the Level 5s (hopefully nice ones) if she got noticed, regardless of anything else, it was decided that I'd trail her for support. I'd keep her at the edge of my range in case anything went wrong, and to help her with her disguise. Tatsuki would be coming with me to close in on Rei quickly if anything went wrong- Hokaze was too recognisable, and both faster and more resilient than the rest of us, so she'd stay in reserve at base.
With that, we had our plan of attack. It was a very nice friendly attack to do nothing but steal their free digital newspapers and then run away, admittedly, but still a plan of attack.
However, we still needed a means of communication, as nobody had phones. We couldn't do much with Hokaze once she left our radius, but we decided to include her in the practice run of 'wandering around while making an improvised MISAKA Network with a bunch of untrained schoolgirls'.
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "I find the presence of untrained users to be even more unusual than the absence of users," I comment idly, "though I also do not find it unpalatable."
ID=Shokuhou0: "It's a bit awkward to format."
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "That's not surprising," I say.
ID=Hokaze0: "Can we share pictures? 
"
ID=Tatsuki0: "...Did you just think 'colon capital D' to send a smiley directly into my brain?" accuses Tatsuki.
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "None of you are using consistent formatting," I point out reasonably.
ID=Shokuhou0: "You've already explained that it would get very confusing if we did this once you're hooked back up with the other girls, I'm entitled to be a little lazy about it! And besides, we don't really have the response time to figure out what we want to communicate and whether we want to communicate it to the whole network, since we're not used to the same communication methods."
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "...I am looking forwards to reuniting with the rest of the Network even more now," I complain, despite being aware that this is far more efficient than other methods of ranged discussion we could be using.
ID=Shokuhou0: "We'll give you dibs on choosing what we do for lunch for putting up with our shenanigans."
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": I look around surreptitiously, and identify a building of interest. "I have been wondering what chilli tastes like…" I mutter, seeing a building that looks like it may serve such an intriguingly-spicy dish. I sigh, and shake my head, before continuing on my way towards the Tokiwadai Middle School. "I will resume focusing on the school," I say.
ID=Tatsuki0: "Say, were you ever on any of those elementary-school RP websites?" asks Tatsuki out of curiosity.
IDMisaka10037, filter == "Rei": "No, why?" I ask, tilting my head in confusion.
ID=Tatsuki0: "Never mind," replies Tatsuki.
ID=Shokuhou0: "lmao"
ID=Hokaze0: "Oh! Did you use any sites in particular? I might know some of them!"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Hmm. There was one called 'Hands of Darkness' that I used to frequent," Tatsuki recalls.
ID=Hokaze0: "My goodness, I used to use that one too! Did you ever see a thread called 'Endless Night of the Wretched Abyss'?"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Supposedly it was the most gruesome thread on the entire forum… It was the only one with any degree of gore and violence even approaching biological accuracy! And the manga-like art that the author used to include sometimes, subverting the expectations of the shoujo genre so dramatically… I must say, I did try to sign up a few times, but there were never enough places," I grumble.
ID=Hokaze0: "Oh no! D: I most certainly would have signed you up for it if I'd known we'd be friends in middle school! That's so sad!"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Wait, you wrote that?!"
ID=Hokaze0: "Umm"
ID=Hokaze0: "Oh there is free Gekota merchandise that is extra cute over there, please excuse me from the conversation, I may cut out unexpectedly if I exit my Queen's range"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Hokaze?"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Queen Regent?"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Get back here and give me some context damnit!"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Hokaze?!"
ERROR: UNPROMPTED DISCONNECT. Admin comment: Hokaze has exited the chat due to distance.
ID=Tatsuki0: "You can't just say something like that and then pretend like nothing happened! I demand answers, Hokaze!"
ID=Shokuhou0: "lmao 2: electric boogaloo"
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "...And I am looking forwards to reuniting with the rest of the Network even more now," I say, making a reasonable complaint about the situation.
I considered the test run to be a resounding success, all in all, so once we confirmed that Hokaze hadn't encountered a bluescreen error and was ready to keep our improvised base secure, we were ready to launch our data raid.
__________
Rei encountered a problem with our plan fairly immediately.
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "The school's security is more effective than initially believed," I say, frustratedly staring at the disruption in the school's electromagnetic field through my visor.
ID=Tatsuki0: "Typical," says Tatsuki, giving Shokuhou a side-eye as she notes she still isn't having her extraneous comments translated into first person."
ID=Shokuhou0: "Have you considered just speaking in first person?"
ID=Tatsuki0: "I'd sound ridiculous!" points out Tatsuki.
ID=Shokuhou0: "You kind of already do."
ID=Tatsuki0: "...Given that I'm already in the habit, I may as well commit to it," Tatsuki says sharp-wittedly. "Miss Misaka? Is there anything we can do to assist you past the barrier?"
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "...A view of the electromagnetic signals given off by a verified phone to bypass the security systems would help significantly," Rei suggests, after having pondered the question. "Estimated period needed for an accurate visual: Thirty seconds. I can affect the security enough that I can provide you with my visor if you phase past the gates, so if you enter, gain a visual, and leave, we will gain access to the school's wireless fidelity."
ID=Tatsuki0: "Phase in, retrieve the helmet, view an individual whose phone is on," Tatsuki summarises. "Given the school's policy on phone usage, it may be difficult… But obtaining the intelligence we need to effectively conceal ourselves is critical. It's unfortunate that we didn't bring our Tokiwadai uniforms…"
ID=Shokuhou0: "Damn. Even if we get caught, it shouldn't be too critical- between the three of us and the fact we're not facing armed guards or anything, we can extract you well enough- but still…"
ID=Tatsuki0: "We're not exactly staying under the radar if we're trespassing on grounds as scientifically valuable as these, I understand. We'll just have to be careful," states Tatsuki, after careful consideration. "The interior defences of Tokiwadai are surprisingly lax, so once we're past the outer perimeter, our chances will increase dramatically."
She was quite correct in her assessment. Tokiwadai placed a lot of focus on being fancy over practical, and its security system was no different. If your goal was to keep out intruders, well, Tokwadai was a hornet's nest if the girls inside got mad at you. So they basically just made a very strong wall with a lot of sensors, and called it at that, because what sort of fancy young lady wanted to be under constant surveillance? Tatsuki also had her own suspicions that it was also to avoid offering 'unfair advantages' in clique politics, since anyone who could read into such systems themselves would be at a massive informational advantage.
So we bypassed the wall with a mix of well-placed fog, electrokinesis, and extradimensional phasing; it took us a few minutes, but soon enough Tatsuki was inside, and she readily caught the visor when it was tossed over the fence. She gave Rei- still waiting on the other side of the fence- a nod, and Rei nodded back.
Then she headed inside, stepping into the treeline to conceal her approach.
ID=Tatsuki0: "The school forest should enable an easy approach," Tatsuki observes.
ID=Shokuhou0: "I still don't get why we need forestry classes."
There were advantages to Tatsuki's approach- namely, that she could leverage her intelligence better to stay hidden. But there were also flaws… Namely, the abundance of organic matter.
In this environment, if someone tried to chase her down, Tatsuki was basically just a somewhat-athletic middle school girl- and while most of her potential pursuers were also somewhat-athletic middle school girls at best, if she was caught by someone like Misaka, Hokaze or even the dorm manager in a situation like this, she was going to get curbstomped if she didn't surrender.
Fortunately for Tatsuki, this was a scenario she was entirely prepared for. People knew that the forest was a good place to plan clique shenanigans, and as the leadership for active clique defence, Tatsuki knew a lot of the best plans of attack. Ideally, someone had their phones on and hadn't been caught by Shirai and Makagami's coworker, but that wasn't a guarantee, so we had three main avenues to get an active phone to view.
First was the obvious- steal it, hack it with Rei, turn it on. But we'd have to remove it from the grounds to do that, and if they noticed its absence, they could set it to shutdown mode faster than Rei could read the info she needed from it.
Second was to stalk a Judgment officer. Their phones were always on, but they were also risky to follow due to being on higher alert than other individuals.
The third was to steal Alternate Tatsuki's (Altski's?) phone. We could reasonably infer that Tatsuki's biometrics were identical to Altski's biometrics, which meant she could unlock her own phone and use it- with the added advantage of the same DNA meaning that she wouldn't even need to use gloves to keep herself from being caught. That plan relied on being able to locate a single person, but it did have some notable upshots.
ID=Tatsuki0: "If she's anything like me, she'll have a change of clothes and spare glassers in her gym locker," Tatsuki says. "And they're arranged alphabetically, so I can easily disguise myself as… well, myself. If I'm lucky, she may even have left her phone inside."
Tokiwadai had multiple buildings, and the changing rooms were separate from the others. They were, however, adjacent to the forest- and at an angle that would let her get in without the security cameras catching her in the act.
ID=Shokuhou0: "I'm not detecting anything. Proceed with caution nevertheless- I can't scan the area at full power if my doppelganger's around."
Tatsuki stuck her face through a wall to take a look inside. The interior was dark, but not enough to be a difficulty, given the slot windows high up on the walls; she could work with it- so she slipped into the building, leaving the visor outside.
She headed to the lockers she was familiar with, and phased her hand through one, patting around inside briefly. It was empty. "Not that one," she muttered. "We'll have to check sequentially, says Tatsuki, as she rummages through the lockers…"
An alert came up on my scans.
ID=Shokuhou0: "Shirai's coming. Get to cover."
Tatsuki's eyes widened- she quickly phased into the locker, just in time, as Shirai teleported into the room.
ID=Tatsuki0: "Are we blown?" asks Tatsuki, fairly alarmed.
ID=Shokuhou0: "...Apparently we aren't. She's appears to be, uh… Let's just say her thoughts are significantly more 'Onee-sama~' than I'd expect if it was our Shirai, and leave it at that."
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "Would this not be a good opportunity to view the fields from her phone?" I inquire, believing that she is more likely to be a Judgment officer than not, given the personality of the Shirai we are familiar with.
Shirai moved with purpose, her footsteps and the shifting tones of a Shirai in full gremlin-mode just barely audible to Tatsuki's hiding place. In response to Rei's question, Tatsuki frowned.
ID=Tatsuki0: "Can we confirm that her powers don't give her any degree of undecimoreception?" asks Tatsuki. "If she does, then any significant movement could be something she detects…"
Undecimoreception meant 'eleventh sense'. She was basically asking if Shirai had any awareness of the eleventh dimension passively, in the same way that Misaka Mikoto could sense electric fields. It wasn't a question I'd had reason to ask before.
ID=Shokuhou0: "I don't think so? I'm can't say for certain, though; it's not like the eleventh dimension usually does much for her to pick up on. I can't check without active reconnaissance. It could be worth it if we get what we need here and now, though."
ID=Tatsuki0: "She's a person you're familiar with in our version of reality. The alternate Lady Shokuhou could be angered by interfering with her if she notices, compared to most other students, so I'd rather let this opportunity pass us by and wait- neither you nor Shirai would be convenient to fight against," Tatsuki decides.
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "...I do not believe our Shokuhou would be unreasonable in that situation," I consider.
ID=Tatsuki0: "It's best not to assume she's like ours," Tatsuki warns.
ID=Shokuhou0: "Best not to rely on me being nice in a situation like this, either… That'd only work if alt-me didn't think your good intentions were a trick, or otherwise get a bit overzealous- and she's got more friends nearby than we do."
I really did not want to see how hard I'd chase me down if I decided that our-Tatsuki was from an intentional attempt to replicate the Dimensional Reader, rather than having stumbled into it… and it wasn't like she could read my mind to check, given how my power interacted with Mitsuari's.
ID=Tatsuki0: "...How could good intentions be a trick, if you can check them directly?" asks Tatsuki, out of curiosity.
ID=Shokuhou0: "Well… The assumption that everything someone thinks is real, it's a great way to get caught out by somebody with their own mental manipulation- and the reason to follow through with it, of course, it's not a small thing to do. I've had people use it once or twice though, and I'm liable to get pretty mad when people go that far to sell a lie, let me tell you that now."
ID=Tatsuki0: "I suppose you're not a fan of lies," Tatsuki recalls.
ID=Shokuhou0: "That I am not. She's approaching, but still hasn't detected you; stay calm."
As Shirai came closer, Tatsuki held her breath. At this range, she could hear Shirai's muttering. "...if I switch out this shirt with one on Monday, then she won't notice its absence… and in addition to that, it will reduce the amount of strain she has to commit herself to do as a part of the washing machine rota- perhaps reducing the amount of stress she's under right now… fufufu, does my devotion know no ends…?"
ID=Tatsuki0: "...Shokuhou. Is Shirai sneaking into Miss Misaka's locker to steal her clothes?"
ID=Shokuhou0: "Yes. Yes she is."
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "I motion to mug her and steal her phone," I say in response to her disrespect of our big sister.
ID=Shokuhou0: "Veto on tactical grounds."
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": I sigh despondently.
Tatsuki restrained herself from following through on Rei's suggestion, as Shirai closed Misaka's locker back up, and teleported away again. The silence returned.
ID=Shokuhou0: "...She's left, but we've lost time. The schedule might be tight if you want to get in and out before lunch is over."
Tatsuki nodded, and got to work in extracting the change of clothes.
Soon enough, she was back in Tokiwadai uniform, having hidden her 'delinquent clothes' in a nearby tree. With her cunning disguise of 'literally just Tatsuki Mirei' in place, the next phase of her plan was to simply walk into Tokiwadai.
Of the things in her locker, one that Tatsuki and Altsuki shared was a false panel in the back that they stored their counter-intelligence notes in… although in Altsuki's case, a lot of them were simply 'intelligence'. It seemed that unlike ours, this Tatsuki was an independent, running the Tatsuki Clique as she'd originally planned to do.
ID=Tatsuki0: "It makes me wonder…" Tatsuki muses. "Did this version of me decide against joining your clique, after the trial period? Or was it just unlikely for me to have that idea in the first place? Her handwriting is very similar to mine, so these dimensions can't be too different."
ID=Shokuhou0: "Your guess is as good as mine."
I used Mental Out to log the information as she read it. The cliques were definitely different; the Shokuhou Clique appeared to have never found the 'Constitutionals' name (or Altsuki simply didn't care enough to write it down), and seemed to be using different meeting rooms. Kobayashi didn't have a clique of her own, instead being within the not-Constitutionals, and a lot of other cliques seemed to be using smaller meeting rooms than I'd expect- or were entirely absent, such as Yonaki's clique. The cliques of particular note were also different- Inubashi's clique wasn't as prioritised as I thought it would be, for example.
From this alone, the applicability of our understanding of Tokiwadai's social structure was very much in doubt. Which meant our understanding of the people involved might be wrong, too.
Most of Tokiwadai's doors were wood, but the information she'd found- and her own knowledge of herself- gave her a good guess at which room was owned by the Tatsuki Clique. In particular, Altsuki was researching updated biometric scanners, so when she saw the room she suspected was also the room with a fingerprint scan on the door, she knew she had the right place.
Unfortunately, my lack of active scanning had left me with a gaping hole in my scans.
"Where did you get that?"
Tatsuki stiffened automatically, then turned around with relaxed muscles. "Miss Misaka," she said, trying to keep her nerves under control as she saw the look on the face of an unfamiliar Level 5. "Is there something I can help you with?"
ID=Shokuhou0: "Shit. I can only detect her by interference, I didn't even realise she was there!"
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "The visor has put her on high alert," I warn, alarmed by the sudden realisation of big sister's presence.
"The goggles," said Misaka Mikoto, cooly, fixated on the visor held in Tatsuki's off-hand. "Where did you get that, Tatsuki?"
ID=Tatsuki0: "Shit. Give me some ideas, Rei!"
"Hmm? These?" asked Tatsuki, stalling for time as Rei fed her the info. "Why, they're a pair of Electron Night Vision Goggles!" She grinned. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a hold of technology as recent as this… I'd ask that you keep this between us, but I'm doing some penetration testing for the Clique, you see," she explained- penetration testing meant 'checking for security vulnerabilities in a physical or virtual space by trying to break into it'.
"Who sold them to you?" pressed Misaka, eyes still narrowed, stance still incredibly hostile.
Tatsuki quirked an eyebrow. "What's that information worth?" she countered. "You're acting rather strangely, Miss Misaka- and it's a rather odd question to ask. If it's their use for tracking your AIM field that you're concerned about, I can assure you that I'll be putting them away by the time lunch is over. And otherwise…" She smirked. "I don't give things for free," she said, guessing at how Altsuki would behave.
Misaka glowered. "You said you were doing penetration testing?" she asked. "Fine. I help you, you tell me where you got them. Deal?"
Tatsuki pretended to consider for a moment. Then she extended her hand with a smug smile. Misaka took it in her grip, a static sting running up Tatsuki's arm, but Tatsuki didn't break eye contact. "Deal," she replied.
ID=Shokuhou0: "Phew."
ID=Tatsuki0: "You're not the one in the room with her…"
Tatsuki pressed her thumb to the biometric scanner for Altsuki's clique; it bleeped pleasantly, and opened. "Welcome to the clique room," she said grandly, spreading her arms and spinning around to gesture to the whole space- and letting her gaze snag briefly on Altsuki's phone, left on her desk.
She closed the door behind Misaka, picked up the phone, turned it on, and slipped it into her pocket. Then she slipped the visor over her head- the interference from her own phone signals would be visible, and as long as she drew this out, Rei would be able to get her readings. "Right," said Tatsuki, grinning as she faced Misaka. "Tell me what you see with your electromaster eyes!"
She glowered, but nodded. "Of course," Misaka replied.
The whole process of 'look at hotspot, point out hotspot, mention ways it could be used and abused, provide fixes' used up a majority of the time that Tatsuki needed for Rei to crack Tokiwadai's internet security, but didn't take quite as long as she'd hoped. Once Misaka had pointed out the encryption vulnerabilities of every hotspot in the room, Tatsuki had to have her answer ready.
"...so just make sure nobody puts a data shunt in the wall here and you'll be fine," she finished. "That's everything. So now you owe me an explanation- where did you get those?" Misaka asked again, rounding on Tatsuki.
Tatsuki sighed dramatically. "Fine," she replied. "They were sold to me privately by an individual from the Mizuho Organisation Pathology Analysis Laboratory. They had an excess for some reason, and with their recent closure, there's been a few available if you know where to look. If you're looking to purchase one for yourself-"
"I'm not," Misaka interrupted. She let out a frustrated exhalation, her suspicions presumably both confirmed and denied- she'd confirmed that they were from Project Radio Noise, and had been denied any indication that Tatsuki had obtained them in an egregiously-underhanded manner.
"Before you go," Tatsuki said, cocking an eyebrow. "Why are you wandering around here at this time, anyway? I've given my reasons, but you never did give yours, did you?"
"...I was looking for Kuroko," said Misaka, caught a little off guard by the question. "She left lunch early. I'm making sure she's not doing something perverted again…"
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "Task complete," I state.
"I saw her teleporting out of the locker room with a set of gym clothes," Tatsuki replied, readily throwing Shirai under the bus now, while simultaneously ensuring that Misaka was motivated to check elsewhere first. She gave a shit-eating grin. "Given the assistance you've lent me today, I hope you find it useful."
Misaka clenched her fists, starting to crackle, with her attention now thoroughly diverted. "Kuroko…!" she growled, and stalked out of the room.
With Misaka gone, Tatsuki let out a sigh of relief. "That felt like an eternity, says Tatsuki," she muttered to us. Then she took the visor off, and started to put everything back precisely as she'd found it.
ID=Shokuhou0: "Cutting it close, Tatsuki."
ID=Tatsuki0: "Don't worry. I'll be out with time to spare- and with the data we needed. Seen anything of interest," asks Tatsuki?
ID=Misaka10037, filter == "Rei": "Miss Shokuhou with long flowing hair, a fancy purse, and a shorter-than-usual skirt, doing a charming idol-like pose," I reply, reading through these new and interesting sources of information with great eagerness.
ID=Tatsuki0: "What?"
ID=Shokuhou0: "Eh?"
