A Certain Scientific Clone (Toaru/Raildex Misaka Sister SI)

[Borrowing]

Chapter 9

My heart hammered in my chest at the words on the page. My hands shook, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

I dropped the document. I heard the paper crinkle as it fell through the air and onto the bed. Inching one eye open, I saw it laying next to me, the pages that had been stapled together splayed out like a book, one loose page having fallen out.

I clenched my hands into fists and tried to slow my breathing. Up until now, I'd at least been able to pretend somewhat that I was a normal person - not some sort of experimental clone of a teenage girl, who was given a normal life by the fortune of being able to be more powerful than other clones. Other clones who were real people too, and probably deserved to exist more than I did. But the Dark Side of Academy City - because there was no way this document wasn't made by somebody belonging to it - seemed to be intent on reminding me of my status.

Still, this was probably inevitable, as much as I was loathe to admit it. My new life was intertwined with the darker elements of the city, despite its supposed disposal of me from the beginning.

I almost didn't want to read it. My instincts were screaming at me that I didn't want to know what they'd put on there.

Though knowing the background Academy City had created for me would definitely be useful. It probably had some sort of tragedy happening to me in the recent past, considering the way Yomikawa was acting towards me, and hopefully gave some reasoning as to why I looked identical to Mikoto.

There was no way I could think clearly about this when I was so stressed out, though. So I pushed the discomfort and dark thoughts into the back of my mind, instead thinking about what I could do to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, I held it in for a few seconds before letting it out with a sigh. I repeated the action a few times until my heart, already having calmed somewhat, had reached a steady rate. I took a few more seconds to breathe, then reached out again to pick up the document.

This time, it wasn't nearly as difficult to read past the first line. The first page seemed to be an information page more than anything.

I read down the page. The first section seemed to be about how I was to be referred to, considering how it was laid out. There was a small table with three rows and two columns. The left column seemed to contain the category of names.

The first row read 'Official Designation: Optimal Result (Misaka BEST),' the latter part being in Katakana. Not too much of a surprise (though honestly 'Optimal Result' was a bit weird). My eyes skimmed through the second row, which read 'Serial Number: Misaka 9984.'

I tried not to think about what the original 9984 was like, and how I stole her (very short) life from her.

Going to the next line, I saw the left column read 'Legal Name.' I looked at the right column.

I blinked, then squinted. No, that couldn't be right. I had to be misreading it or something, or the Japanese skills Testament had given me were messing up. I read over it again, just to make sure.

It was still the same.

Frowning, I looked at the top row again, then back at the bottom row. Trying to compare every aspect of the kanji in the top and bottom row, I felt my heart sink.

I wasn't seeing things.

My full legal name was apparently Misaka Minami - and I had no illusions that 'Misaka' had different kanji from Mikoto's. The kanji for 'Minami' read 'Beautiful Wave,' though. I liked that.

I shook my head, focusing on the surname - no time for admiring my own name right now. This was, to say the absolute least, not good. I'd already had reasons to avoid Misaka Mikoto, and this just compounded on them. I hoped to god that I got put into a school as far away as possible from Saten and Uiharu. Don't get me wrong, they seemed like cool people - Saten especially, given that I'd already met her - but I didn't want to meet Mikoto through them (which I probably would eventually if Saten was lucky and we went to the same school as each other, given the shared surname and similarity in appearance and how they'd grow to be friends some time, and how Saten seemed to be looking for me to be her friend), and for her to be suspicious of the sheer similarities between me and her, especially since we shared the same surname - and then she'd puzzle out the existence of Project Radio Noise - and by extension, the Level 6 Shift.

I could probably make an excuse that our similarities were sheer variance to be fair; that seemed like it would be more likely than me being her clone, especially in Academy City.

Still, there was probably a way I could manage to be friends with Saten without being introduced to Mikoto. It wasn't like making friends with her would be a particularly bad thing, after all; I mean, she was a pretty nice person. And having one friend who was like that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, right?

And actually, thinking about it, wouldn't it be good if I could let her know about the Level 6 Shift earlier than normal? I felt a smile start to form on my face. I could save all those people. I could make it so that hundreds of people - maybe over a thousand, even - could live, where before they would have died.

Just as my smile was about to widen into a full-blown giddy one, I froze and my heart plummeted. Accelerator was the one who was the focus of the Level 6 Shift. If I told Mikoto about it early, she'd probably rush in trying to stop him and either die, or not make much difference to it at all - she had barely done much to the experiment in the original timeline, after all.

But then again, this wasn't that timeline, was it?

This wasn't some book or comic, or even an anime. This was reality. There wasn't any kind of author or animator or something controlling these people's movements - they had their own lives, their own histories, and their own motivations.

So maybe, in this world, there was a way that Misaka Mikoto could beat Accelerator.

...yeah, right. I would have snorted if this wasn't as serious as it was. Accelerator was insanely powerful, and there was no way Mikoto could beat him. Almost no-one could.

Almost. But there was one person who could.

I needed to tell Kamijou Touma about the Level Six Shift experiment.

Not now, of course, but the first chance I could get. After all, despite my attempts to convince myself otherwise, I couldn't not interfere when someone was being hurt in front of me. Even if the consequences for it were dire.

But still, I had to reluctantly admit that now wasn't the time to think about that or plan for the future like that. I needed to finish reading this document.

I started reading further.

The first page seemed to mostly be information about me - or rather, information about who they'd made me. My blood type, height, weight, even my birthday (the 21st of August, 2007).

There was also one on my ability.

It read 'Level 3.' A couple of lines below read something like this: 'Misaka BEST is projected to be able to project and control electricity with roughly twice the amperage and voltage of an average Misaka clone as of her current level of ability, or 100000 volts and 2250 amperes. Her ability is projected to reach Level 4 within 4 months, and reach Level 5 within 8.'

"What?"

I just stared at the paper, my mind whirling.

Me being twice as powerful as the Sisters was kind of confusing. I suppose it must have been something to do with Personal Reality? As far as I understood it, the concept worked somewhat like self-delusion.

If that was the case, I knew I was good at that.

Still, the fact that they expected me to reach Level 5 by… January of next year, since right now it was May? And Level 4 by October- no, September even?

That was kind of terrifying. If I didn't reach that level by then, I didn't want to know what they'd do to me. I didn't think I could do that.

Still, there was a part of me that was essentially saying that of course I'd reach Level 5 in that short amount of time, since there was nothing else I could be, clearly.

I winced, trying to squash that part of me. It was kind of embarrassing to me that something so arrogant even existed in me. Even so, it was a part of me, to be fair, which meant I did agree on some level.

That is to say, I felt pretty sure I'd be able to reach Level 4, maybe even Level 5 after that. It might have been kind of arrogant of me, but that was just a part of me that existed. But I wasn't so sure I could reach Level 5 in less than a year. Maybe 5 years, but 8 months? That was just kind of crazy.

But once again, this really wasn't the main point of reading this document. I sighed. Once again, I'd gone on a reading tangent that I shouldn't have.

I needed to find my 'background.'

I turned the page, looking at the back of the first piece of paper, and read the top line of the page.

It read 'Personal History.'

My eyes narrowed. This was what I was looking for.

I straightened out the page and started to read.

Ten or so minutes later, I put the document down on the bed, staring at the paper with a blank expression.

Well… that certainly explained why Yomikawa was reacting the way she was.

Supposedly my fabricated 'family' in this life - who were related to Mikoto's family, oh, and let's not mention the fact that I was supposed to be her biological sister according to this fabricated backstory - had died in a car crash, and I'd immediately been snapped up by the Dark Side of Academy City. I'd been a Child Error who'd been given drugs to attempt to increase my Esper ability that messed up my endocrine system, and Yoshikawa had rescued me from that fate in order to deliver me to Yomikawa for safekeeping.

Then there was the fact that apparently, both my fake parents had been infertile, and as such Misuzu and Tabigake (the name was a bit easier to remember in Japanese than English) had supposedly been willing to give me to them after being surrogates. The both of them. Which meant that officially I was Mikoto's biological sister.

I tried not to think about what they had to have done to Mikoto's parents to make sure my cover story didn't fall through.

Or even Mikoto herself.

Still, the story came uncomfortably close to the truth. Not the adopted part, of course, but the fact that something had happened to separate me from my parents, and had essentially forced me into being a guinea pig for amoral Academy City scientists.

It was just that instead of a year ago, it was now instead.

I sighed. It looked like I'd read the last page of the document. There probably wasn't anything on the back of this page, but it couldn't hurt to check.

I turned the page, looking at the back. I didn't expect anything, to be honest, so I was kind of surprised when I found my name written in Kanji in black ink, followed by what looked like a note.

'Minami,' it read, 'I've gone through some trouble to procure a copy of this for you to read. It should allow you to have some semblance of normality in your life, and integrate into your middle school life, as well as your home life with Aiho. Despite the fact that Aiho has knowledge of the Dark Side of Academy City, she does not have knowledge of your status as a clone of Railgun, or the cloning experiments occurring within Academy City as of yet. However, I was not the one to fabricate the majority of this history.'

I blinked. Hold up. The way this was written sounded kind of familiar. I looked down at the next paragraph.

'My involvement only extends to your given legal name, and the final segment. The rest of this fabricated history was created by other Academy City scientists. Despite that, the majority of this information is considered classified by Academy City, with your background as a clone even further classified, with only those with S-ranked Network Terminals and those involved in the experiment able to access this information.'

I stared. "S-rank Network Terminals?" I whispered. I wasn't totally informed on what that meant, but I knew what S generally tended to imply in Japanese ranking systems.

It meant the very top.

And from what I knew, that meant Aleister Crowley.

I really didn't want to think about what that meant, so I turned my attention back to the note.

'In addition, I have become involved with the project focused around you alongside the Level 6 Shift project, so as such, I will try and do the best an unkind woman like me can to help you live a normal life, to help atone for being unable to stop the city from putting you in such a situation in the first place.'

"Signed, Yoshikawa Kikyou," I mumbled to myself. Below it was a short postscript.

'PS: your ID card is in the envelope this document was enclosed in. Also, please make sure to hide this somewhere it won't be found. I wasn't joking about this being classified.'

I wasn't too surprised about who had written the note. After all, Yoshikawa was the one who'd essentially been the only person to help me through everything I'd gone through after I'd awoken as a clone.

I hadn't had a chance to digest the sheer enormity of the document yet. Still, the fact that Yoshikawa was willing to get me a copy of the document was kind of relieving in a way, and the fact that she'd even gone to the lengths of getting involved with the project in order to help me have a normal life made me feel warm in my chest.

But the fact that she said she was doing this to help atone for putting me in this situation… I frowned. That didn't sit right with me. It wasn't her fault that I'd become, or possessed, or hell, maybe even been reincarnated as Minami.

I didn't even know if it was anyone's fault.

If it was, though… I shuddered. The idea that someone had enough power to do that scared me.

Then I remembered Othinus, the Magic God, who had supposedly destroyed and recreated the world.

Needless to say, if I hadn't hastily squashed that particular train of thought I probably wouldn't have gotten much sleep that night.

I shook my head. Making sure to follow the instructions on the note, I stowed the document behind my pillow. I picked up all the other documentation I'd taken out of the manila folder, including the envelope the document came from (which was surprisingly heavy; guess the ID card was in there after all) and put them all back in the folder.

Still, I needed to set things straight with Yoshikawa and let her know it wasn't her fault. Sometimes things just happened, and there was nothing you could do about them.

Like what happened with me, and how I lost my life, my friends, and my whole family.

The corners of my eyes felt wet, before the wetness started rolling down my cheeks.

I touched a wet area on my left cheek with a finger, pulling the finger away and looking at it. There was a wet spot.

"Oh," I said. "I'm crying."

I wasn't too surprised. This had probably been coming for the last few days. I was honestly somewhat of a crier - sometimes even a crybaby. I cried over the most ridiculous things.

So crying over being torn from my life, family, and friends? I was surprised I'd lasted this long.

I shuddered, and sobs started to wrack my body. God… what were my parents even thinking had happened to me? Had I died, to them, or was I missing without a trace?

I wanted my mummy, and my daddy, and my younger sister (as annoying and nitpicky as she could be), and my puppy, and even my plushies that I liked to lay in bed with.

I could feel the sobs wracking my body now.

God, I wanted to go home.

I closed my eyes, whimpering. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down.

Finally, after a couple of minutes like that, I felt myself start to relax. I tried keeping my mind off of the situation by any way possible - even immature methods like counting sheep.

I stayed like that for half an hour as I drifted off to sleep.

My dreams were filled with odd hugging moments and forehead kisses.

 

[Borrowing]

Between the Lines

Yomikawa Aiho sat opposite Yoshikawa Kikyou at the table at the small western-themed restaurant.

Aiho toyed with the food on her plate. Staring at a particular piece of broccoli, she stabbed into it with her fork. Putting an elbow on the table, she held her head up with it.

She brought the broccoli up in front of her face, staring at it. Thoughts churned through her mind - about Minami, the somewhat quiet but brave girl, whose strong personality shone through despite her trauma. About Kikyou, the woman opposite her whose relationship with her could be best described as complicated, straddling the line between a friend and something more since they'd first met in college.

About the odd feeling she was having in her gut right now.

"Your work at Anti-Skill has put you into situations like this before though, hasn't it?" Kikyou's voice cut into her thoughts

Aiho looked back at Kikyou, putting her elbows on the table and interlocking her hands. "Yeah, with the Special Ability Institute."

The Special Ability Institute. One of the more questionable projects of Academy City, and one Anti-Skill itself had managed to shut down.

"Then surely this isn't much different to that?" Kikyou asked.

Aiho sighed.

Despite the relationship she and Kikyou had cultivated over the years, Aiho sometimes felt that Kikyou wasn't quite honest with her.

"It sure seems that way initially," she said out loud. "Still, it may be a gut feeling, but something feels off about this."

"Are you sure your stomach hasn't just gotten too used to food cooked in those appliances?"

Despite the quip, Aiho's eyes narrowed. "Kikyou. You know what I mean."

Kikyou, before having some semblance of amusement on her face, schooled it into a more serious one. "I wouldn't tell you that you're wrong to be somewhat suspicious. It's always better to think critically in matters like this." She frowned. "Still, gut feelings aren't a very good way to go about things, are they?"

Aiho popped the piece of broccoli into her mouth, chewing for a bit then swallowing.

"Actually, gut feelings are pretty important. It may not seem like it, but our brains are constantly processing information. Gut feelings are really just our brains predicting what's probably important to do by analyzing a lot of tiny details."

Yoshikawa Kikyou frowned. "Is that so?"

"Yeah; have you ever been walking down a sidewalk, and your instincts told you that you should step around a particular spot, then when you look at it you find a tripping hazard on that spot?"

"Maybe once or twice."

Yomikawa Aiho grinned.

"That's because of your brain. Chances are you unconsciously noticed a person in front of you avoiding that spot, or someone almost tripping before righting themselves. The brain is a pretty powerful predictive machine; it's no Tree Diagram, but it can definitely do a lot more than we give it credit for."

Kikyou arched an eyebrow. "That sounds vaguely familiar." She picked up her fork and stabbed it into a potato. "Still, I'm rather curious as to how you know about that." With that said, she put the potato into her mouth, chewing on the rather hot vegetable.

"I'm a member of Anti-Skill. The training there basically drills that information into our heads - we have to be able to enforce the law of Academy City as best we can, after all. Still, what I wanna know is why you don't know about this, or at the least don't remember it."

Aiho took her fork and jabbed it into the air, pointing it towards Kikyou.

Kikyou scowled. "I'm not some sort of omnidisciplinary scientist, you know. I'm more of an Esper expert than anything else, and I'm not one of those people with a perfect memory."

"I suppose that makes sense; you've probably forgotten more scientific concepts than I've ever learned." Aiho sighed.

Taking her knife and fork, she started cutting into the steak on her plate.

"Still, it just doesn't feel right. But I suppose I can leave the worrying for later."

The atmosphere around the table became quiet.

Soft jazz music played through the speakers of the restaurant as Yomikawa Aiho chewed on the medium rare steak.

Normally she would have been drunk by now. But of course, she had a girl to take care of now, and besides, she was driving too. It was a bad look for a member of Anti-Skill to be breaking the very laws they stood for, from Aiho's point of view.

"So," Yoshikawa Kikyou spoke up. "What do you think of her?"

Aiho looked up. "Pardon?"

"What do you think of Minami?" Kikyou picked up the cup on her side of the table filled with water and sipped from it. "Her personality, I mean."

Aiho put her hand on her chin. "Hmm… well, she has a pretty sharp tongue." She thought for a second more. "She's rather quiet, too - but if you manage to get her out of her shell she seems pretty friendly."

Kikyou moved her hands onto the table in front of her, fingers interlocking. "Anything else?"

"Well, she gets embarrassed pretty easily." Aiho chuckled. "She got embarrassed when we were buying underwear, even!"

Yoshikawa Kikyou sighed.

"Aiho, not everyone is as frank as us when it comes to stuff like that."

Aiho scoffed. "Still, it's just underwear. Most people wear it."

"Most people don't normally have to buy underwear with near-total strangers, regardless of how nice they turn out to be."

"...You make a pretty good point there." There was a nervous smile on Aiho's face now. It faded quickly, however, and gave way to a frown. "Still, I'm kind of worried about her. She's pretty clearly not the poster child for mental health."

"I thought as much," Kikyou said. "I'm not entirely clear on the details, though."

Aiho sighed. "I'm pretty sure that whenever I mention her family or do something that reminds her of them, she has to force herself to stop having a panic attack."

Kikyou's eyes narrowed. "Her family?"

"Yeah, you were there the first time she mentioned that. Don't you remember? At the entrance to the Underground Shopping Center?"

"Honestly, I was mostly focused on which internet cafe I wanted to go to." Kikyou shrugged. "Still… her family, huh?"

"That's not all, though." Aiho took a deep breath. "She really doesn't like being told she's brave, apparently."

Kikyou blinked. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Even if she's just done something that's pretty brave."

Yomikawa Aiho looked down at her plate.

"There's a boy who goes to the school I teach who has absolutely horrible luck." Aiho held a hand up. "Now before you say anything about how luck isn't a real thing or something like that, even if it's just variance, it's severely not in his favour most of the time. Now, somehow he got a rather bad concussion from a fall in a changing room aisle."

"...a changing room aisle?" Kikyou's eyebrows shot up to the top of her head.

"Yes, a changing room aisle. He somehow tripped there despite the floor being clean, with no noticeable differences."

"That's-"

"Really unlucky, yes." Aiho gave a wry grin, and stabbed another piece of steak with her fork. "Like I said, his luck is horrible. Anyway, when that happened, Minami also happened to be there." Her grin widened. "She has no phone or anything. Care to guess what she did?"

"What did she do?" Kikyou's eyes betrayed a curious light behind her stone-like expression.

"She ran to me." Taking the piece of meat she had on her fork, Aiho put it in her mouth. "She knew nothing about how to deal with concussions, and she had no phone to call anyone with, so she ran to the first person who she thought had experience and informed them about the situation. Thankfully, my Anti-Skill training as well as my medical training allowed me to be able to help Minami, and by extension my student."

Kikyou arched an eyebrow. "But isn't that just logical?"

"You'd think so, yeah. But I'm sure you've been in a situation like that before, and know how easy it is to freeze up like that."

Kikyou blinked, and her mouth formed an O. "Ah. I guess you're right, then."

"Then she called the ambulance. She didn't manage to get through the call, and had to give it to me, but the fact that she managed it is admirable. A lot of the time, people either freeze up or do nothing. Still…"

Yomikawa Aiho frowned.

"Even after doing all that, Minami's reaction when I called her brave seemed less like something born of being unable to accept a compliment, and more like something born of trauma."

"So knowing you, how do you think you can help with that?" Kikyou asked.

Aiho sighed, her frown turning resigned. "I want to help, but I'm not sure I can."

Kikyou started. "You're not sure you can?"

"Yeah. I'm no therapist, after all, and this is something that's more a therapist's speed. So the best help I probably can give is getting her to a therapist."

Aiho's resigned frown turned back into a full one.

"Still, it makes me wonder. Her problem with being reminded of her family is a bit more obvious, but with that and her feelings about being called brave, it still makes me wonder… What did Minami go through that made her feel like this?"

 

[Borrowing]

Chapter 10

"Hey, kiddo! Time to get up!"

I groaned, trying to ignore Yomikawa's voice by keeping my eyes squeezed shut.

"Seriously, get up! I'm not gonna be around all day, you know!"

Grumbling, I opened my eyes into a squint. An unfamiliar wall greeted me.

A few seconds later, memories of last night floated into my head, and had I been more awake, I would have winced.

I stuffed those memories away as quickly as I could. I really didn't want to start crying my eyes out in front of Yomikawa, after all.

Even as I slowly got up, my eyes had started to close once again. I had to squint pretty heavily to keep them open.

Finally, after a few seconds of fumbling, I was sitting up on my bed. I sent a hollow stare at Yomikawa, who was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. "What time is it?" I asked, my throat hoarse.

"0630 hours."

I just stared for a few seconds, then sighed. Even here, it seemed like I couldn't get out of being woken up early.

"Now come on; I won't be around forever," Yomikawa said. "I at least need to show you around the kitchen and the rest of the house, so you don't get lost or get into anything you shouldn't. Or get bored out of your mind over the next couple of days."

"Really?" I asked, my voice at a mumble.

"I would've done it yesterday but you were already asleep by then." Yomikawa shrugged, her eyes closed. "So, I'm doing it this morning."

I put my mouth into a thin line and just stared at Yomikawa, my eyes half-lidded. When were people going to learn I wasn't a morning person?

After a few seconds, though, I slumped. Yomikawa wasn't wrong. I didn't want to suddenly find a big red button which I didn't know the purpose of and press it on accident only to find it really didn't do anything good for me. So I took a deep breath, then spoke.

"Fine."

Yomikawa grinned, walking over towards me and putting a hand on my arm. "Alright, then! Time for the tour!"

What followed was a blazing tour of the house, where Yomikawa basically dragged me around (not literally) and showed me everything that I needed to know about the house.

"So this is the bathroom. I have a spare toothbrush in the top left drawer - it's the red toothbrush, not the green one; that one's mine. Also, you need to have a shower soon."

"This is my bedroom; if you ever really really need me and it's actually late, this is the bedroom you need to check in with."

"This is the kitchen."

As Yomikawa led me into the kitchen, I looked around the room. There were all sorts of cooking devices that looked high-tech, but they mostly looked untouched.

"And this," Yomikawa said, "is my collection of the greatest invention ever known by mankind."

I looked back at her. She seemed to be gesturing towards the… "Rice cookers?"

About five of them lay along a bench, steam rising out of them; they were pretty clearly in use.

I remembered seeing them last night, of course, and a vague memory of Yoshikawa mentioning how she used them for everything floated up in my head. But 'the greatest invention ever known to mankind?' What?

"Of course," Yomikawa said, a smug look on her face. "Rice cookers can do anything you want, after all - they can bake, boil, simmer, or steam, and you barely have to prepare anything, since they do the cooking for you."

My eyes were half-lidded at this point, and I gave Yomikawa a stare, my mouth straight and my arms crossed. "...I thought Yoshikawa was exaggerating, but you really do use rice cookers for everything, don't you?"

"Hey, I've never found any reason to change it." Yomikawa shrugged. "Kikyou thinks it's lazy, but I think it's perfect."

After a couple of seconds, I sighed, my arms falling to my sides. "Well, that's fair, I guess. It's not like I can really judge you for that, either." After all, I wasn't one to really cook in my other life - my one attempt at making cookies had gone rather poorly, having been dubbed in one of my circles as the 'alpha cookie,' and I had once guided someone through the process of making an omelette thanks to my own experience of making them, but otherwise I tended to use the microwave or toaster.

Yomikawa chuckled, crossing her arms. "Hey, what's there to judge, anyway? These things are pretty useful." Turning towards the rice cookers, she pointed at them. "This one is steaming rice, and this one is cooking some miso soup - enough for two people, in fact. I've also got some natto in the cupboard. A pretty decent breakfast, don't you think?"

It sounded pretty simple, and I knew it was actually a rather common breakfast for people who lived in Japan - it felt rather odd, just knowing something I hadn't known before, but I still knew it. "...Yeah, it sounds like it's not that bad."

"Not that bad… ha!" Yomikawa barked out a laugh, her head turning upwards. "You're going to have the surprise of your life with this meal, Minami." She turned towards the rice cookers and leaned down, holding her fingers up to them as if she was checking something on them. After a couple of seconds though, she paused and turned back. "Oh, I forgot to ask. Do you have any dietary requirements? I'm worried Kikyou might have missed something."

Dietary requirements… I winced. "Uh, I have one, but, well, it's kind of embarrassing." I looked away, my face lighting up like a christmas tree.

"Ah, don't worry; I won't judge." Yomikawa smiled, putting her hands on her hips. "So what is it?"

"Well, uh, um…" I looked down at the floor, bringing my hands together and looking for a particularly interesting speck on the back of one. "Imafraidoffruit."

Yomikawa was silent for a couple of seconds. Then she spoke. "Uh… I'm sorry, but could you repeat that a little slower? I didn't quite catch that."

"Okay, okay," I said, trying to ignore the stress. I could do this; no, I knew I could do this. There was no way I couldn't do this. Taking a deep breath in, I closed my eyes and did the only thing I could do: blurt it out.

"I have a phobia of fruit."

"...ah."

Even from just that word, I could almost taste the disappointment in Yomikawa's voice. I screwed my eyes shut further, preparing for something horrible.

"Well, that's kinda disappointing. I'll have to scrap a few meal ideas I came up with earlier."

Huh?

I cracked an eye open, looking back up, when I felt a hand on my head.

"Don't worry, Minami," Yomikawa said, ruffling my hair. There was a smile on her face. "I'm not gonna judge you for something like that."

I felt heat spread on my cheeks and smiled. "Ah… thank you," I said.

Yomikawa chuckled. "It's not a problem." Then her face turned serious. "Now, go and take a shower. You need one."

I paused and sniffed at the air.

My face screwed up, and I held a hand up in the air to try and wave away the scent from my face. I grimaced when it didn't leave. "...You're not wrong."

Having said my piece, I turned around towards the hallway, walking towards the bathroom, when I stopped.

I turned back to Yomikawa. "So, uh… where are my new clothes? And where can I get a towel?"

"Ah." Yomikawa put a finger on her chin. "Your clothes are in your room; I moved them there after you fell asleep. As for a towel, you can find one in the space under the vanity."

I nodded. "Got it. And, uh… thank you. For everything." I said the last part underneath my breath, hoping she wouldn't catch it.

"It's no problem," Yomikawa said, a smile appearing on her face that looked as natural as a smile could be.

I turned around real quickly after that, trying to ignore the fact that my face hurt from the smile that had appeared on it.

----

I sighed, content. Just standing in the shower and letting the hot water run over me felt really nice. It had probably only been a few days since, well, this happened, but it still felt like it had been forever.

I looked down at my body, then winced and looked away again. It wasn't too bad, but it still felt kind of wrong - like I was looking at someone else's naked body rather than my own.

I refused to think about it any further, though. Instead, I reached out towards the panel the shower used to control the water - it was pretty intuitive (or at least, I had an intuitive understanding of it on a surface level, which was pretty common when it came to most pieces of technology).

Pulling the towel down from the divider on top of the bath door, I started to dry my hair, which fell down the back of my neck now that I'd taken it out of my ponytail - my straight hair. Well, mostly straight; there were a few hairs sticking up but I'd resigned myself to that. God, I'd wanted to have straighter hair for so long, but I'd never had a chance to straighten it; now that I had it, I'd make sure to take care of it as best as I could.

Though, I would have try to find out the best way to take care of it. I paused, looking up and squinting one eye. Was it bad to dry my hair by just rubbing it with the towel?

...eh, I'd look it up later (or forget it entirely; chances are it would be the latter though, knowing myself).

Taking the towel off my head and tousling my hair a little, I dried off my body - first the front, then the back. I was just finishing up, having stepped out of the shower and wiped my face, when I heard a knock on the door.

It was at this point I remembered Japanese views on nudity were, well, very different than Western views on it, and thanked my lucky stars that this wasn't a sliding door, considering the muscle memory gained from my last sliding door.

"You nearly done in there, Minami?" I heard Yomikawa say from outside. "I was about to start up a short shower myself."

"I'm done!" I called out. "Just have to get dressed and you can use it!" My piece said, I looked over to the clothes I'd brought in and sighed.

A white blouse and a black skirt lay on the top of the closet next to the light switch, with some plain underwear and a sports bra too - my eyes just reached over the top of the closet, which was kind of a trip to be honest. I probably would have towered over it before. There were a few frills and ruffles on the blouse, but the skirt was mostly just long and pure black. It had pockets, thank god, but they were pretty well-hidden.

I'm not describing the underwear.

I reached out and pulled the clothes down, pulling on the underwear and bra, then the skirt, and finally the blouse. Turning towards the vanity, I looked at myself in the mirror.

My height aside, I kind of looked like someone in her early teens. Of course, with the height, I probably looked like a little kid with a hair sticking out of her head - not too far, but a little.

I also looked a lot more like Misaka Mikoto than I wanted to.

I groaned. Walking over towards the vanity, I took the hairtie I'd taken out of my hair off the bench and put it in my pocket, inwardly hoping to ask Yomikawa to teach me how to do my hair up, before walking over to the door and opening it.

Yomikawa stood leaning opposite the door, arms crossed and attention elsewhere. She looked over at me when I opened the door. She raised her eyebrows, before smiling. "Huh. You look nice without your hair done up."

Of course, the truth of the matter was less that I looked nice and more that Mikoto looked nice, since my body was just a cloned version of hers. Still, it was rude to turn down a compliment, so I smiled back, even if it was somewhat strained. "Thanks." As I stepped out of the doorway and to the side, I hid my inner resentment that I didn't know how to do my hair into a ponytail.

Yomikawa stepped forward, moving towards the door, when she paused and looked at me. "Oh yeah, before I forget, I left some breakfast for you on the table."

I blinked. "You mean, the rice and miso soup?"

"Yeah; some natto too, and green tea with that. And trust me, you're gonna like it." She walked into the bathroom and pushed the door mostly closed, before peeking through the crack. "Oh, by the way, if you really need me, just call out and I'll be right there."

With that said, she pulled the door fully closed, leaving the hallway quiet.

I stood there for a second and thought.

Rice, miso soup, and natto. Rice was really the only food I'd had before, to be totally honest, but I was genuinely curious about what the miso soup and natto would taste like. There must have been a reason it was such a popular breakfast in Japan, right?

As for the green tea, well, I wasn't particularly big on that (milk black tea was my favourite, with a couple of sugars) but I might as well try it, right?

I walked out of the hallway and over to the kitchen, my eyes scanning the familiar sight once again. The rice cookers still lay on the bench, but now on the table there were a few bowls - on one side, the side closer to the window, the bowls were stacked on top of each other, but on the other the bowls were separate and had steam wafting out of them, with chopsticks set on that side of the table.

Walking over to the table, I pulled out the chair and hopped up onto it. From where I was sitting, I could see out the window, and Academy City's sprawling skyline, which was a really impressive one, disappearing into the distance.

The sun, not too far into the sky but far enough that it clearly hadn't just risen, shone onto the right side of the buildings, making for a beautiful and futuristic sight.

I looked down at the table. The scent from it was pretty strong, and considering over the past few days I'd basically had hospital food and not much else, was definitely appealing. According to what I knew, you were supposed to eat rice and natto with chopsticks, and drink miso soup by holding it up to your mouth - something not unfamiliar to me, considering I'd used chopsticks to eat rice for a while and occasionally drank up the remainder of some soup dishes I'd had back before, well…

I winced, took a deep breath, and picked up the chopsticks, burying the memories and thoughts in the back of my mind. Bringing over the natto towards me, I noticed the strong smell getting stronger - it smelled a little like old cheese.

Maybe this wouldn't be as good as I thought…

Taking some of the natto into the chopsticks, I gulped. Holding it up in front of my face, I waited for a few seconds.

My hands shook.

My stomach grumbled.

I squeezed my eyes shut, opened my mouth, and took the plunge.

My eyes popped open. "It'sh good!" I exclaimed through the mouthful of fermented beans.

And really, it was; although it was a little sticky, the taste was overall nice and sweet, with a little bitterness mixed in there that only enhanced the flavour.

Barely a minute later, I'd devoured the natto, and turned my attention to the miso soup.

A lot less apprehensive, I pulled the bowl of miso soup towards me and held it up to my lips. It smelled rather nice, to be honest. I took a quick slurp, and the taste… well. It was rich, nice and savoury… I don't know how else to describe it. It was just really nice.

It was also pretty hot, though. I occasionally had to stop and sip at the green tea, the sweetness contrasting well with the savoury flavour of the miso soup. Eventually, I'd finished drinking up the miso soup, too, and turned to the rice.

My chopsticks found themselves back in my hands, and even without the salt I used pretty regularly, the rice was actually rather delicious; the flavours of the other foods blended together with the nice chewy rice - which was just the exact right consistency; neither too tough nor too waterlogged. I found myself polishing that off with a speed unfounded.

I was sitting at the table and sipping at my green tea when I heard the door to the bathroom open. I looked over at the hallway.

Yomikawa stood there, clad in a green tracksuit with her hair in a ponytail. She had a devilish smile on her face. "Seems like someone enjoyed breakfast quite a bit."

I smiled, taking another sip from the teacup. "I did. Thank you for the food, Yomikawa; it was pretty good." Especially for something from a rice cooker.

I'd never diss those marvels of modern machinery again.

Yomikawa chuckled. "I thought you might." She looked up at the clock in the living room. "Hmm… about half an hour, huh? I guess that's enough time to show you a few more things before I get ready."

I blinked. "A few more things?"

"Yep! Actually, hold on a second." She turned around towards her room and darted into it, quickly coming back out and throwing something at me. "Here, catch!"

I barely had the time to put down my tea before my arms flailed to catch the square object to my chest. Thankfully, I managed to do it without spilling any on the table. My heartrate had spiked pretty hard. Pulling the object away, I looked at it, trying to ignore my beating heart.

"A keycard?"

"Yep," Yomikawa said. "If you really need to leave the apartment building, you can use this to get back in. The door out front is a self-locking door, so you'll be unable to return if you leave without this."

"Ah." That sounded like a disaster. Imagine if I'd accidentally gone outside without a keycard and had gotten locked out. That'd be pretty shortsighted, wouldn't it?

"I made sure to register you with the building too, to make sure it would work. You probably want to go out sometimes, right?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "I actually kind of want to go to that arcade you brought me to yesterday this afternoon."

"Oh, to meet your new friend?"

I felt heat bloom on my cheeks. "...maybe," I muttered.

She chuckled. "Oh, don't worry about that. I can drop you there after I've finished with teaching, since I don't have Anti-Skill duties today - although…" She paused, seemingly contemplating something as she looked to the side. "...no, that's probably less important than this, and besides I can do that afterwards anyway." Her mind seemingly made up, she turned her head back to me. "Anyway, you probably wanna know what you can do for fun here, right? Being that you're a kid and you're just getting settled in and all."

I growled inwardly. I was a bit childish, sure, but I was nearly 22 years old! I wasn't a kid!

Instead of airing that grievance though, I kept my face blank and gave a slow nod. "Um… yeah."

Because, well, I kind of did want to know what I could do for fun here.

"Alright!" Yomikawa gave a smile and clapped her hands together. "So there's the TV - it has a couple of streaming services attached on one of its sources, so you should be able to watch a bunch of stuff. That's the remote - the one with the big red power button." She pointed behind me, and I followed her gesture to look at a TV remote, lined up at the edge of the table near the couch with a few other remotes. "If you get bored with that, there are a few books I keep around." She gestured vaguely in the direction of the closed cupboards next to the TV. "Most are adult-age, but you might end up liking them anyway. Aside from that…" She trailed off, before ending on a helpless shrug. "There's… your phone and laptop, I guess? Those are in your room, if you need them. Anyway, I've got to start getting ready." She turned around towards her room, throwing a glance over her shoulder. "Help yourself while you can." That said, she started to walk back down the hallway.

"Thanks," I called out.

"You're welcome!"

After a couple of seconds, I turned around towards the couch table and practically pounced towards it. Turning on the TV, I changed sources until I reached a source that looked awfully familiar.

Netflix.

They had Netflix here.

I moved the remote to create a new profile (Yomikawa's was already there, titled Aiho, so I titled mine Minami) and waited for the shows to load in.

After a couple of seconds, my eyes widened at one of the shows that said 'new episodes.'

It was the Gekota show. The same one that I'd watched in the hospital.

Unconsciously, a wide smile spread across my face. It looked like I didn't need to ask someone what time it was on after all.

I started the show faster than one could say 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' and as the theme tune played, my smile widened even further. This show…

I was already in love.

Shut. Up.

 

[Borrowing]

Chapter 11

Only a few things interrupted my watchthrough of Gekota. First, Yomikawa left with a pack full of stuff, telling me that I had to make sure to eat lunch and letting me know where lunch was (there was supposedly some instant ramen in the cupboard, which was actually kinda cool since I'd wanted to try out ramen for a while). Second, there was me needing to use the little girl's room. Third, and last, was me actually needing to have lunch.

When I felt the pain of emptiness in my stomach, I tried to ignore it. After all, food could wait for later; right now was Episode 15 of Gekota.

Keyword being tried.

After a few more minutes, I started to hear a low rumbling every so often. I stayed strong, though. I would conquer Gekota Episode 15, even if it killed me!

----

I didn't conquer it.

Barely 10 minutes later, I sat at the table, instant ramen filling the bowl in front of me and a large cup of milk next to that. I stared into the bowl, my eyes empty, hoping to find the answers that I was seeking in the murky depths of the broth. But I had no such luck.

I sighed and began stirring the bowl with my chopsticks. A lone noodle floated to the top. If only I could restart the show with my... mind…

Wait a second.

My eyes shot wide open.

I probably could do that.

I was an Electromaster, after all. And one who was expected to be one of the most powerful Electromasters in Academy City in less than a year.

So I thought about things for a second, trying to think about how I could do that.

And after a few seconds of thought, I came to a conclusion: I could restart the Netflix show remotely, but I'd need to focus pretty much entirely on that for like half a minute, and that's if I didn't short out the TV - which Yomikawa would probably not be pleased about.

I pouted.

Right now, my brain helpfully supplied, the main things I could do were shoot lightning spears and exude electricity in general, sense electromagnetic fields with a little focus, move magnetic objects and materials (that did include iron sand, but not to the sheer insane extent that Mikoto could), and manipulate electronics nearby, with a bit of concentration (or next to none, depending on how complex the object was). I could magnetically cling to walls too.

I blinked as the information ran through my head naturally, like I'd known it all along. That was odd. Though to be honest, it was probably more Testament than anything else. After all, it kind of felt the same as when I woke up and realized I knew Japanese.

Though, if that was the case, what happened with the underground mall and the phone number then? Those felt, well, different. Like the information was being fed into my head...

After a few seconds, I shook my head with a sigh, looking back down at the instant ramen bowl and grasping a few noodles with the chopsticks. It was probably nothing - some kind of weird issue or something. After all, Testament was apparently supposed to give me even more information or something like that, but it had messed up - maybe this was a consequence of that.

I pulled the noodles out of the bowl and brought them towards my mouth and slurped at them.

My eyes popped open wide. This was delicious!

I scarfed the rest of the ramen as quickly as I could, every so often taking a sip of milk afterwards. Once I'd finished the ramen, I gulped down the rest of the soup, threw away the cup it had come in, put the chopsticks and cup I'd used for eating and milk near the sink, and it was back to Gekota.

Humming the cheery theme tune, I walked back to the couch, almost but not quite skipping, and planted myself on it. Picking up the remote, I pressed play, and returned to Gekota.

----

When Episode 21, the last of the season, finished and the credits were rolling, I just sat there, hands on my legs and staring at the screen.

That… was amazing.

It probably wasn't the only piece of Gekota media (it was far too saturated to have just one TV show) but seriously, this show was AMAZING!

Giddy laughter bubbled up in my throat as I remembered the last episode. It'd featured all the characters we'd gotten to know throughout the whole series - there was Gekota, Pyonko, Keroyon… All the gang was there! And everything fit together in such a serious manner that it all ended in a gutbustingly funny final sequence!

God, I loved it.

I just sat there doing nothing for almost ten minutes as I giggled into my hands, imagining scenarios I could put into a fanfiction that I'd probably never write. The characters were just so perfect for stuff like that!

After I'd calmed down, I sighed before looking over at the clock.

It was barely 2PM.

I wilted.

"Dammit," I grumbled. What the hell was I supposed to do to pass the time now? I know Yomikawa said there were some books and movies, and there was also more Netflix and streaming services, but I'm the type of person who can only really watch one thing before doing something different. In addition to that, chances were that Yomikawa was going to finish up in like an hour or something, if my instincts and my experience from being the daughter of two teachers was right.

I thought about it for a few seconds. Instinctually, my mind went to 'look on the internet,' but I shook my head. I didn't have a phone any more, after all-

Wait.

You know those dial-up sounds? If you could hear my brain then, that would be what you were hearing.

I did have a phone.

I bought it with Yomikawa yesterday. It was probably sitting in my room doing nothing all day, alongside the laptop.

It and the laptop had probably been the most expensive purchases all day, but thankfully the cost had been mitigated by the fact that we'd been using the Student Resources card.

I stood up. Turning around and exiting the living room, I walked towards my room and opened the door.

Looking on the floor, I spotted the bag with the electronics in it. Leaning down towards the floor, I used one hand to steady myself while the other picked up the bag. Standing up and brushing myself off, I tried pulling the bag up with me. After a bit of struggling I managed it, though. That done, I strained my arms to lift the bag onto the bed, shifting to holding it with both arms from the bottom of the bigger box after a couple of seconds.

I dropped the bag on the bed after a couple of seconds and breathed out with a sigh of relief. I couldn't wait to get taller, and by extension stronger, again.

That done with, I hopped onto the bed and lay down, the top of my feet on my pillow and my elbows supporting my head and upper body. I reached forward and pulled out the phone package from the bag.

The phone was a smartphone; a good one, too, I realized as I read over the box. Actually, scratch 'good'; it was downright criminal how insane this thing was. It boasted 4K 60FPS resolution, 7G internet connection (I didn't even think 7G existed back… you know), and 32GB of RAM and 5TB of storage, with superconductor-based machinery and a cooling system that kept it at room temperature with most usage. And this was a low-end smartphone.

Tearing open the packaging, I pulled out the manual, giving it a quick readthrough before tossing it aside and taking out the real prize - the phone.

It looked… well, it looked like a regular old smartphone - like a Galaxy or a Huawei. Nothing new or special about it.

Well, aside from the fact that it seemed enormous. My hands could barely hold it.

Being small again kind of sucked.

What mattered was the phone's operating system.

I searched for the button that the manual had said was the on/off/lock button. Finding it, I held onto it and waited for the phone to start up.

The logos bloomed into view - the first was just a white circle with the word 'Maken' written underneath, while the second was white letters that said 'ACsoft' with a stylized blue picture of an atom behind it. After a few seconds, a white screen popped up, Japanese characters spread out across on it.

I frowned. "Enter your Academy City ID number?" That was concerning. Did Academy City have a nationalized operating system or something? I didn't know whether to be happy or even more concerned at the idea.

My ID number, though… hadn't my ID card been in that envelope that I'd opened last night?

The envelope was in the manila folder, too, which I'd left somewhere in here. I glanced over the side of the bed, looking to see if the manila folder was there.

After a couple of seconds of seeing nothing but floor, I was about to call it quits when I saw the corner of a manila folder pointing out from underneath my bed.

I grinned. Leaning over the edge of my bed and reaching down, I wrapped my fingers around the corner and pulled it out. Still holding onto it by its corner, I pushed myself up with my other arm, rolling onto my back.

Opening the folder, the envelope stood out among the pages. I took a breath and rotated it, flipping it open.

Reaching inside of it, I pulled out a small plastic (or something) card, the side of it I was looking at half-blank with a few small symbols plastered on it.

I turned the card around.

The side now facing me was a lot different than the back. It read 'Academy City ID' in blocky romanji and had a picture of my face that looked like it had been taken in front of a grey background without my knowledge. I don't know where that could've happened, outside of maybe when I was shopping, and even then that sounded a bit wrong.

Maybe it had been when I was lying in the hospital, and they had just photoshopped the background? But how had they gotten a camera? It wasn't like I'd had any visitors other than Heaven Canceller and Yoshikawa, besides that.

That didn't matter right now, though. Instead, what mattered was what was on the bottom of the card: the ID number.

Repeating the ID number to myself several times in my head, I looked over towards the phone. Picking it up, it took me a few seconds to find a comfortable way to hold it. Eventually I just gave up and pressed the box where I was supposed to enter it.

An on-screen keyboard popped up. I entered the number, glancing back over at the ID card every few characters. Finally, once I'd gotten it all in, I selected 'OK.'

A loading screen appeared as soon as I touched it. After a couple of seconds, the screen read 'facial recognition successful. Welcome, Misaka Minami.' After that, the screen changed to a home screen.

I blinked. That was kinda quick.

Also concerning, that it could tell who I was through facial recognition.

I tried not to focus too hard on that. Instead, I started to explore the phone.

It came automatically with an internet application, Google Play, even an ACsoft App Store. I opened the internet app.

It looked better aesthetically than the majority of internet applications I'd used before, and ran better than most of the PC internet browsers I'd used. It was amazing. Any false button press was easily corrected before I even had to do it myself.

A thought came to me. There were a few sites I liked to frequent online, weren't there? Maybe I could check them. See if, well, a version of me existed in this world.

About ten minutes later, I stared at the screen, my gut churning.

Everything I'd remembered was different.

Discord didn't exist, instead being replaced by some sort of chat app called 'Genie.' The websites I frequented were there, but all the names were different - a few were familiar, but none of them were the same.

And my family didn't exist.

I tried to take a deep breath in, then out.

I'd never get to see my family again. Not my mummy or daddy (shut up, I like using those names), not my younger sister, not the puply, not even my grandparents.

Well. They weren't my grandparents or parents anymore, though, were they? At least, genetically.

I shook my head. No, now wasn't a good time to think about this. I could look up something else instead. Like… 4chan!

Smiling as the idea came to my head, I typed in the URL. There was no way 4chan would have changed that much from how it was in my world!

I am over 18. Shut up.

As I scrolled down the front page, the name of a board I didn't recognize caught my eye. I looked at it more closely.

"...Frog?" What would 4chan need a frog board for?

I pressed the link.

Once the page had loaded, the title of the board, /gkt/, stared me in the face, and I scrolled down.

"...oh."

----

At around 3:20, I was reading through a particularly incensed thread which was arguing who the best girl was, with one particularly incensed Pyonko fan talking about how she was obviously best girl and everyone who said different was a dummy (well, the word was obviously more, intense, than 'dummy,' but I really would rather not say it), when I heard the door swing open. "Hey, Minami!" That was Yomikawa's voice. "Are you there?"

I stiffened. Wait. School finished around this time! "I-I'm here! Just, wait a second!"

Turning around on the bed, I put my feet on the carpeted floor and stood up, then locked my phone and put it in my pocket. On second thought, I also grabbed my ID card too. The bag on my bed could stay there, I wasn't too worried about that. The other bags, though… I jumped towards them, rifling through them and taking the first pair of socks I could find. That done, I slid open the door as quickly as I could and walked down the hallway towards the living room at a brisk pace.

As I reached the kitchen, I could see Yomikawa standing at the table. "Ah, Minami, there you are!" She held up a hand in greeting, a smile on her face. "You were going to go to the arcade this afternoon to meet up with your friend, right?"

Well, Saten wasn't exactly my friend just yet… but Yomikawa wasn't wrong, so I settled for an awkward smile. "Er, um..." I could feel my face grow hot.

Yomikawa's smile widened. "Yeah, I thought so," she said, and crossed her arms, chuckling. "Now, you remember what time the Arcade meetup you were having is?"

I blinked, then thought back. "...she just said after school," I said, thinking to myself.

Yomikawa winced. "So you might already be late."

My eyes widened. I didn't think of that. "...maybe," I said underneath my breath.

"Well, let's go then!"

"Hold up, I need to put my shoes on first!"

----

I looked out the window at Playland Gau. It was just as colorful as it was yesterday, maybe even more so. Through the windows I could see all sorts of people - I couldn't quite see Saten, but I was pretty sure she was in here.

"You ready, Minami?"

I looked across at Yomikawa, who sat in the driver's seat, and nodded. "Yeah." I checked in my pocket to make sure I had my ID, my phone, and the apartment card. "You're sure that's your phone number?"

"Absolutely certain." Yomikawa's voice brooked no doubt. She gave me a smile. "Now get going; I'll probably be back just before curfew, if Anti-Skill doesn't need me for an emergency."

I nodded. "Got it." Opening the door of the car, I stepped out. Before I shut it, I gave a smile to Yomikawa, and waved. "See you later!"

"See you, Minami!" She waved back.

I shut the door, waving a bit more as Yomikawa drove off, before turning to face the arcade again. I tried not to gulp.

I didn't know how to feel about this. I wasn't big with people, generally staying on my own most of the time. Sure, I could talk to people; god knows I was good at that, and I was rather good at making friends, regardless of bad first impressions. But being around friends? Nope.

I sighed, and stepped forward into the dragon's den. There would only be one way if I could find out if this was going to go well. And that way was to actually at least try and make some friends.

When I walked in, I couldn't see Saten from the entrance. That wasn't a surprise, given how big this place was.

That meant I had to take a look around though. Sighing, I started to walk through the arcade in search for Saten.

Walking towards the fighting game area, I paused when i heard a familiar voice.

"...you heard the reason why our teachers are getting laid off? There's a rumour that the next Level 5 is going to be at our school, and the teachers are being replaced by higher quality ones!"

That was Saten.

My head swivelled towards the area where I heard it from, but it was blocked by some arcade cabinets.

As I walked around them, I heard another voice, this one more childish and something I'd expect from a shy person.

"Don't be so ridiculous, Saten; I'm sure they'd choose a school other than ours to raise the next level 5. After all, we're barely on the radar."

When I walked around the corner and saw the source of that voice, I nearly froze.

"But that's exactly why they'd choose us, Uiharu! After all, who would expect the dumpy little Sakugawa to house one of the most powerful people alive?" Saten gave a determined stare at Uiharu, a smirk on her face. She was about to continue when her eyes flitted over towards me, and she started, spinning to face me. "Ah, Minami! I was wondering where you were!"

I just stood there and stared.