Tuesday, 20th of May 2003, One Year and 2 months before the start of Canon A Certain Magical Index
"-id you hear? I heard that the MiGo Clique framed the Infirmary Empress for the attack on Miss Kazan'in! Supposedly Anti-Skill came to the dorms and black bagged her over the weekend!"
"Oh that's awful! Those uppity nouveau riche must have had their public servant mother bribe Anti-Skill to remove her daughter's competition. We should complain to Chairwoman Unabara!"
"Some of her clique tried yesterday! Apparently, the school is sweeping all of this under the rug and saying that they will dissolve the clique if they don't pick a new leader by the end of the week!"
"LOOSE!"
I release the string at the club captain's shouted command but my distraction paying attention to the gossiping hens beside me in the tryouts costs me. I had inadvertently turned slightly to hear them better and my arrow goes wide.
I tsk as I draw another arrow from my quiver and try to reset my stance like the online tutorials showed me. Normally I'd calm myself down by making fun of those bitches with Dolly in our head but she is sleeping right now. How dare they claim that Misaki would lie about something like this! Or that Mama would have a classmate arrested just to help Michan's clique ambitions!
"Excuse me?" a red haired upperclassman asks as she walks up to me.
"Oh? Yes upperclassman, can I help you?"
"I was hoping you would let me help you actually. Your footing is slightly off in a way I recognise. Did you watch the All About Archery MeTube video series in preparation for this?"
I can feel a blush starting to creep in, "I did yes. Are they bad?"
"Well they aren't awful but they are below the standards our new captain has set. I used them myself last year to learn the basics." she laughs with a voice like chimes, "I would have been kicked out if our current captain was captain back then. Thankfully she wasn't. May I give you some help?"
"Please." I say with a sigh while slumping.
"Well for a start," she says, stepping behind me and placing a hand on my lower back. Making me squeak in surprise and straighten up. "Make sure you stand up straight." My blush won't be receding anytime soon. The upperclassman steps closer, pressing against my back and gently takes my hands in her own. My breath shudders as she moves my arms and legs into the proper positions with small nudges from her own limbs. I am being such a perv. She is probably being completely innocent and unaware of the romantic implications! Like Big Sis is! Curse Ruri-senpai for making me aware that older girls are pretty!
"LOOSE!"
This time my arrow hits the first circle outside the bullseye.
"There you go!" The upperclassman says as she steps away and pats my shoulder. "Just try to keep the right posture and the arrow will do the rest on its own."
"Wait!" I say as she steps away to help one of the girls who was gossiping earlier. "My apologies upperclassman. I didn't get your name or introduce myself." I bow, "I am Lifeline Misaka Minori. Please take care of me."
"Heh." she reaches out to ruffle my hair, "My name is Yumiya Iruka. It is nice to meet you kouhai. I hope to see you in the club."
"Right!" I salute. Oh no what am I doing? I am making such a fool out of myself. "I h-hope to see you too, Yumiya-senpai!"
================================================================
Monday, 7th of July 2003, One Year before the start of Canon A Certain Magical Index
I really don't think we should be doing this Dolly…
[I know Minori but if we don't then Michan will and she will be much less understanding about Miss Mitsuari threatening Misaki than we will.]
'Than you will.' Just because I was outvoted and won't stop you doesn't mean I want my name attached to you intimidating the poor girl after what she went through last week.
[Fine. 'Than I will.']
We are waiting just outside the school gates for Miss Mitsuari to arrive. She isn't part of any school clubs or social cliques so she has no need to stay in school. Technically school isn't over yet, this is still the last period, which today is a free period for study and/or clique business.
Normally we would be with our sisters at the room our clique has reserved for ourselves planning out our final recruitment attempts before the summer break and strategizing for the student council elections in October but this week we are trying to nip whatever problem Miss Mitsuari has with Misaki in the bud.
According to Miss Hokaze and Misaki she was part of the Clone Dolly: Ideal lab before it was shut down and was a sort of big sister figure to all the other subjects. Neither they nor Yumiya-senpai in the archery club, who was also a subject at Ideal apparently, have any clue why she would hate Misaki. Misaki doesn't even remember meeting her like she did Miss Hokaze and Yumiya-senpai in passing before the accident that got it shut down.
[Ah. Here she is.]
Dolly pushes off the wall to stand up from our place leaning out of sight and steps out to walk beside Miss Mitsuari as she exits school and heads towards the exit from School Garden. Our stealth lessons with Mama and Michan must be working well because it takes Miss Mitsuari half a street before she registers that we are right next to her.
"Waaaah!" she screams when she finally spots us and jumps in surprise.
"Hello." Dolly waves politely.
Miss Mitsuari instantly slips her hand into her bag, probably for her phone, and goes on guard.
"What do you want? I told your mother I don't want anything to do with Bee Sting or the rest of you."
"I know. I just want a short talk about boundaries and then I'll be on my way. Lifeline Misaka Dolly, since we haven't been formally introduced before." Dolly says with a shallow bow.
[For a moment it looks like Miss Mitsuari is going to back down or automatically return my greeting out of politeness before she firms her shoulders and takes out her phone, not pointing it at me yet but holding it ready at her side.]
"I've already set my boundaries. Now piss off before I make you wet yourself in public."
Wow. Look who grew a backbone over the weekend.
[That's a bit mean-spirited Minori.]
Just because I don't want to harass the poor girl doesn't mean I like her or am going to stand by while she talks shit about Misaki.
"Well you see, that is the thing. You set your boundaries but we, that is the whole family, haven't had a chance to make ours known. It isn-"
⭍ Zap! ⭍
"I war- what!"
"Ow." Dolly says as she rubs the side of our head. "That tickles you know? Anyway, your mind control won't work on us. Not even Misaki's can anymore so don't feel bad."
"Heh. Heheehehe. Ahahahahahahahaahahahahah!" Okay now we are worried. "-hahahahahahaha! Ah. Good to know I'm not coming in second to Bee Sting on this at least~."
[...I'm not going to tell her that her attempt to mind control us felt much weaker than Misaki's]
Good plan, Dolly.
Dolly clears our throat, "Anyway. We simply want to make sure that you don't cause any incidents at school or elaborate revenge schemes for whatever it is she did to upset you outside of school. I'm not demanding you like Misaki, she's one of my best friends and my sister and I don't always like her, but we would prefer if all of us could live and let live."
"That is easy for the winners to say." Miss Mitsuari spits, "Bee Sting never did anything to me personally. She probably doesn't even know my name. However, I can't forgive her for stealing my future from me! I was going to hold her Level 5 seat before she came to the city and proved cheaper to develop. But whatever! I don't care about that anymore!"
[It sounds like you care quite a bit, Miss Mitsuari.] "I am through defining myself by my ability! I have a boyfriend and friends who like me for me! Not for Mental Stinger. Not for Ideal."
"Oh. Okay. Good for you. Well, so long as you keep to just disliking Misaki then we won't have any problem. You can be rude to her in the corridor or whatever. She's a big girl," Miss Mitsuari rudely snorts, "She can handle herself. However, if you start an actual bullying campaign we will have a problem. Understood?"
"Yeah. Yeah. So that is all you wanted to say? 'Stay out of our way and we will stay out of yours'? Can't believe I'm going to be late for my date for this…" she grumbles. Well it would have taken less long if you hadn't been a bitch about it Miss Mitsuari.
[Minori!]
What she is!
[...okay maybe but it is still rude.]
"In that case I hope you have a pleasant date Miss Mitsuari." Dolly says with another bow. "Good day."
Miss Mitsuari just rolls her eyes and stalks off. Rude.
================================================================
Friday, 8th of August 2003, 11 months before the start of Canon A Certain Magical Index
"Gurk!"
We roll to a stop on the roof after being blasted through the collapsing skyscraper by Full Course's Sous-chef. If we hadn't cushioned the blow with our Iron Sand that attack would have killed us. This isn't like sparring with mama or our sisters. We might actually die! I don't want to die!
[Minori!]
Our arm moves without my input and tendrils of iron sand slice apart another of sous-chef's water blasts.
[Head in the game! I know you are scared!]
The top floors of the skyscraper we are on break apart into concrete chunks as Dolly makes them orbit around us like Mama does, blocking and smashing apart sous-chef's attacks. Our body floats in the centre of our own small storm within a storm. The Typhoon winds and rain not even reaching us past our electromagnetic barrier. Though our combat suit is still soaked through from sous-chef's water control ability.
[Because I'm scared too! But I need your help! I can't fight him alone!]
How did Director Nakimoto hide such a powerful esper in reserve! He is controlling almost as much liquid mass as Michan! Maybe more! The water kaiju he is using as his main means of defence and attack is the size of a skyscraper!
Dolly moves our body in an evasive flight pattern to avoid his next strikes. Every missed blow smashes holes in the surrounding buildings. If all the civilians weren't evacuated to storm shelters already then our fight would be killing thousands in collateral damage! This is insane! Even if Nakimoto wins this war with Mama the other Directors would eliminate him for causing so many deaths!
[Fuck it!]
"Yeargh!"
Massive
arcs of
plasma connect our body and Sous-chef's water kaiju as it starts to steam even in the chilling Typhoon winds. Wha? Oh. Dolly is trying to use electricity to dissociate hydrogen and oxygen molecules within the water to remove it from his control.
"I have rain!" The sous-chef shouts even as his construct falls apart as he is caught by tendrils of water sprouting from a skyscraper's plumbing system. Right, of course, it doesn't matter if Dolly destroys his current construct. He can just make a new one with the tons of rain pouring from the sky.
[But the pause to do that will give us an opening! Use that technique you were so proud of Minori!]
R-right!
[I utilize the incident electromagnetic radiation reflected from my right eye as the basis for my calculations. Light is just another form of electromagnetism afterall! I just have to align the photons and… There! The low power laser I learned from watching Yumiya-senpai forms an ionized channel between us faster than sous-chef can react and I pump just enough volts into him that he should fall unconscious but hopefully not die.]
Dolly sends a cushion of iron sand out below him to catch him as he falls.
[Something isn't right.] we think in stereo.
Sous-chef is slumped and looks unconscious but the water is still under his control and holding him in place out of our iron sand's reach.
Almost before we can react the rain drops around us sharpen into needles and try to stab us! Our orbiting debris and electromagnetic field deflect most of them but we still get some cuts where the armour of our combat suit doesn't cover.
[Oh fuck. If we hadn't worn the armour like Michan insisted we'd be dead right now.]
"Good thing I have Grade A!" sous-chef yells at us as he reforms his water kaiju and punches us. Our distraction from our brush with death letting him hit us despite our attempt to dodge and sending us through another 3 buildings. We are close to the area where Misaki is fighting the Chef and Saucier of Full Course now. It is a twisted maze of half collapsed buildings, ice and metal wire.
[He must mean he is on Body Crystal.]
That explains how and why Nakimoto kept him underwraps. But how is he keeping such fine control while high on Body Crystal? Didn't Mama say that it sent abilities out of control?
As we take control of some of the metal wire the chef left lying around and fly back on a platform of rebar and concrete to fight the sous-chef we catch Misaki turning a section of the Typhoon into a
blizzard while giant constructs of metal wire try to catch her and the mind controlled Saucier as they hop between momentary
ice platforms which Misaki is forming on the sides of buildings from the immense quantities of water in the air from the typhoon. We can't see or sense the chef, and Misaki mustn't be able to either or she would have already mind controlled him as well to win.
[They have prepared for this fight. Not as much as they could, Mama is right that this is Nakimoto panicking and striking early, but they obviously picked who would fight who carefully. If Chef fought us or Big Sis he would lose instantly. The same if sous-chef fought Misaki.]
That just makes me worried about who they have fighting Big Sis and Michan! Especially if they are all doped up on some kind of new Body Crystal that lets them keep control.
As if to answer my question the already howling Typhoon winds pick up where Big Sis is fighting close to the city wall. Two massive air drills are launched at the Meltdowner lab, vaporising the skyscrapers in their way. One is split in two by some kind of
giant green shield before it can hit the lab and destroys the city walls on either side of it. That must be Meltdowner! But I thought she was too injured to fight?
[Not too injured to stay in place and defend herself at least.]
The other air drill is blocked by a
massive Iron Sand wall from Big Sis. It is a less clean block than Meltdowner's, the iron sand wall is completely blown apart, but the lab and the city walls are both undamaged.
[Please let Big Sis be okay.] We think together.
[For now, we need to focus on our fight!]
Right! Then we can help our sisters!
[Ranged isn't working.]
So we will get in close!
Sous-chef tries to stop us of course. His water kaiju swings its arms and tendrils of water sprout from the sewers and buildings to attempt to stop our approach. There are too many for our concrete platform to dodge, so we hop from one building to another using the knock off
Rampage
Dress we learned from Miss Hokaze. We surround ourselves with a spinning
shield of
iron
sand
orbs with an
electric
net between them. Any water that gets close is smashed into droplets and vaporised by the
current running between the orbs. When we get close enough he condenses his kaiju into a smaller and more agile water armour. From here we can see that his eyes are strange, bright yellow irises with vivid red sclera. That must be a side effect of the Body Crystal doping. We armour ourselves in the
iron sand that was forming our orb shield as we start to brawl through the sky. Jumping between the wreckage of District 14 and clashing with punches and kicks at speeds and with strength that humans normally can't reach without powered suits. Our respective ability shrouds absorbing and dispersing the impact of our superpowered blows
[He is bigger and stronger than us naturally, but with our ability formed powered suits that doesn't matter!] we think as we block a haymaker and retaliate with a jab to his windpipe. [Plus, he is less skilled at martial arts than us!]
We drop him to the ground near where Michan was fighting with an axe kick and
explode the air behind us to race down and land a punch to his gut powerful enough to shatter the ground into an impact crater! He tries to start a grapple with us but I easily break it and straddle him, starting to rain punches down on his face. His attempt to guard himself I blow right past! Now he's the one scared for his life! Not so fun is it huh!
[Minori!]
Our arms are wrenched out of my control by Dolly. In the distance a
massive lightning strike illuminates the sky.
[We won. You can stop now.]
The sous-chef is unconscious beneath us. His face is a mess of bruises and broken bones. I can't see his eyes anymore from his eyelids swelling shut.
O-oh. T-thank you Dolly.
[Of course. Anytime.]
We stagger off his limp body and throw up next to his head. Oh fuck. Did we- did I kill him?
[He's alive. I'm not as good as Mirei at treating humans but we can treat him quickly before we go to help our sisters.]
O-okay. Right. Let's do that.
After Dolly stabilises sous-chef and we deposit him on higher ground sheltered from the wind and rain Misaki contacts us via our earpiece. Big Sis and her have beaten their respective enemies and are moving to meet up with us at Michan's location who is the only one still fighting. We rush to where Michan is.
When we get there everything is
Grey. Grey dust covers the surroundings where it looks like the buildings have half melted, half dissolved into dust. Four girls even younger than us are spread across the area, they must have been Michan's opponents. A short haired redhead is tending to and covering an unconscious pink haired one with her coat. A long haired brunette is dangling from Michan's hand around her neck struggling in vain while a raven haired girl with a knife is trying to hit Michan.
"-re you hurt Naru like that! I'll kill you!" The jet haired girl screams as she tries to kick Michan, who dodges with strange ease. As if she can tell where the girl is going to hit next. Looking closer, Michan's forearms are a lighter colour then the rest of her skin and her combat suit is shredded up to the elbows. What happened here?
"Hi Dori!" Michan says as she spots us. "Could you-" she dodges another stab, "Could you knock them all out safely for me? I would do it myself but right now I'm afraid I might kill them by accident. Which," another dodge, "Ya'know this twerp," she shakes the choking brunette in her hands, "kind of deserves for letting the pink haired one almost kill me but Mum would get on my back about killing kids unless it was the only way to save my own life."
"R-right!"
A quick
electric
shock later all four girls are unconscious, this time we were able to take the time to be careful so none of them should have any complications. We pull Michan into a hug after the two of us have laid the girls safely out of the rain.
"Are you okay?"
Her hands are shaking as she returns our hug.
"Honestly? No. I had to reconstruct my arms from the shredded gore that fucking paper controller made of them." We hold our oldest sister tighter, "The brown haired bitch could change the specific gravity of liquids. At first she couldn't affect all of my Liquid Shadow at once, too much mass, but then she took some kind of liquid Body Crystal when I had the rest of her team pinned and she took away my power completely. Even the molecular sized droplets didn't work anymore."
"You. You said you reconstructed your arms. But these feel like flesh and blood rather than Liquid Shadow? Did you break your specific gravity limit?" We ask as we step back and look at her untanned arms.
"No. I had a deeper breakthrough. I went even smaller than the droplets. Atomic nuclei. They have a high enough density from me to control and I guess count as close enough to a liquid for my personal reality. The pink haired girl had me pinned against a wall with a giant drill made of paper. It was slowly shredding my arms. She was taking her time, the cunt. Enjoying my screams. As I was reaching for something, anything, I could control it just, clicked. I tore her paper and half the surrounding buildings to atoms."
Michan
pulls the dust from the ground and
condenses it into a brick before
dispersing it again and
remaking it and more dust into a
stone bench we can sit on.
"If I hadn't done all that work with Mirei on human anatomy I would probably still have bled out. But I took the wrecked meat and bone from my arms and remade them. Then I beat the pink haired one unconscious and was going to start on the brunette until the friction controller, that is the black haired one, started trying to stab me. Like I said, with this new power I could probably have knocked them out by messing with their brains but I didn't want to risk it."
We just sit next to our sister and keep hugging her. When Misaki and Big Sis arrive, Misaki brings both the Chef and Saucier of Full Course along with her as mind controlled drones, and have what happened explained to them they join us in the hug.
Apparently the massive air drills that Big Sis and Miss Mugino blocked earlier injured the esper making them from blowback but she wouldn't give up even with broken arms. Big Sis was forced to knock her out for her own safety, Big Sis being so controlled and caring makes us feel guilty over our own behavior but we don't think anyone notices.
Misaki, as we suspected, finished her fight as soon as she was able to trace the wires back to their controller. He apparently made it as difficult as possible but she was able to freeze and shatter most of his constructs until she could trace his complicated web back to him and take him over.
Miss Mugino arrived at some point while we were all talking and is just standing there awkwardly covered in bandages when we all sense someone approaching from the sky.
As we look up and get ready to fight again we see it is the 2nd ranked. Dark Matter. Kakine Taikoku floats above us, held aloft by six perfectly still
white wings, with his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his face.
"Wow. You kids really made a mess huh?"
Miss Mugino clenches her fists and yells, "What the hell do you want Number 2? And I'm not a kid! We are the same age!"
"Personally? Nothing to do with this. But the Chairman promised me a whole lot if I brought your little rebellion against the city to an end."
"Hey!" Big Sis interjects, "Miss Mugino and Aunt Tina aren't rebelling! This is all Director Nakimoto's fault for attacking us when we were just helping her!" Miss Mugino grits her teeth at Big Sis' words but doesn't dispute them.
"I really don't know all the details but the 5 of you turning District 14 into a warzone while your mother's MAR fights Anti-Skill in the streets across the rest of the city sure looks like a rebellion from the outside."
"She's not my mother!" Big Sis and Miss Mugino yell back as Misaki mumbles something to herself, aims her remote at Mr Kakine and
presses a button.
-poof-
All that happens is a small cloud of
white powder floats away from Mr Kakine's head.
"Did you really think I'd show up without a defence against mind control?" he asks
"No. But it was worth a shot." Misaki says as the rest of us shake our heads while Miss Mugino looks embarrassed.
"Speaking of shots." Mr Kakine says, which is the only warning we get before
white feathers shoot from his wings at Misaki. Even with his defences he must see her as the biggest threat. All 6 of us form shields in front of her but Miss Mugino isn't used to fighting alongside us and it shows, her
particle-wave shield is out of place and destroys Big Sis'
shield of iron sand. Fortunately Michan's
shield of metal, my
shield of iron sand and Misaki's
shield of ice still manage to block his attack.
"Come on. Is that the best you've got? Banka can do better." Mr Kakine taunts us as Michan, Misaki and our defensive shields that caught his feather attack all start to turn into salt and fall out of our control.
"
You want some! Fine!" Michan and Miss Mugino yell in unison as Michan
retakes control of the salt from the destroyed shields and fashions them into
giant spears she sends
flying at Mr Kakine while Miss Mugino charges up four
particle-wave cannons and fires them at him. He doesn't even bother to dodge. Just yawning theatrically while refracting the light hitting his
wings into lasers which destroy Michan's spears and disperse Miss Mugino's beams before they can hit him.
While he is distracted by Michan and Miss Mugino, Big Sis and Misaki launch their combination attack of an
ice sheathed railgun. This attack Mr Kakine actually makes the effort to dodge and deflect, even after the railgun dart impacts his wings and glances off it goes on to pierce multiple buildings behind him, with the shockwaves of its passage causing them to crumble even further. As they get ready to fire a second round Dolly and I realise that we can understand the calculations Big Sis uses for the first time. Have we?
[One way to tell.]
[We manipulate a concrete block containing embedded rebar, aligning it with a dual rail system, formed from our electromagnetic AIM field, directed towards the center mass of Dark Matter. With a yell, we establish a magnetic linkage between the rebar and the rails, utilizing Lorentz forces to facilitate its acceleration and!]
Completely miss. Our attack hits the building above the unconscious foursome's heads and we have to scramble to catch the debris with our
magnetism before it crushes them. Our missed railgun shot makes everyone pause.
"Dori!" our sisters cry while Miss Mugino yells "Another one!"
"Well that's interesting." Mr Kakine says softly, "But I think it is time I showed you all the gulf between a mere Level 5 and
the true pinnacle."
What looks like a
heat haze flows from his wings, warping and burning everything it touches. Miss Mugino avoids it be
blasting herself atop the ruins of a nearby skyscraper with the recoil from her particle-wave cannon while Big Sis grabs hold of Misaki and
magnetically levitates them both out of the way. Michan and we grab two of the girls she was fighting each before escaping, ourselves by
magnetic levitation like Big Sis and Michan by
reforming surrounding rubble into bat-like wings that
lift her up into the air. It is lucky we did. Misaki tries her best to save the members of Full Course by having Chef carry them both out away from the attack with his metal wires. However, Saucier is caught by Mr Kakine's attack. Her body warps and tears while burning up until what is left looks more like a grotesque art piece than anything which was once a living human. We feel vomit start to rise in our gorge but our fear of being vulnerable before Dark Matter helps us keep control of our stomach.
Thankfully, before the fight can continue Mr Kakine gets a call from his ear piece.
"What do you want Aleister? Things were just getting a bit interesting. It turns out all of them are real Level 5s now. Kihara Mitori finally completed her evolution."
"..."
"Yes, I said all of them. Including the clone."
"..."
"What do you mean withdraw? I'm winning! Even with all five of them working together they don't stand a chance against me!." The worst part is that he probably isn't wrong.
"..."
"Ugh.
Fine. But you had better still give me what you promised or I'll make this scuffle look like a polite disagreement. Got it?"
"..."
"Yeah whatever." he puts his phone away and calls out to us. "Fun's over kiddies! The Chairman and your mother have worked out a plea deal or something. Someone else is taking the fall for all of this apparently." He ignores Miss Muginos' angry protestations that they are the same age and that Mama isn't her mother as he flies off.
As the rest of us slowly untense from battle readiness Dolly and I can't help but worry about Mama and whatever deal she made to save us all.
================================================================
Sunday, 21st of September 2003, 10 months before the start of Canon A Certain Magical Index
"Welcome everyone to today's third event in the newly renamed Plantinaburg Memorial Stadium! We are coming to you live from the location in District 18 as the Girl's Obstacle Course for the top ranked school bracket is about to begin! I'm your host, Lifeline Tina, and joining me is our contestant commentator for this event, Miss Kumokawa Seria of Acertain High School!"
"It is a pleasure to be here, Miss Director. Today's contestants are Nagatenjouki Academy's Red Team, Moonegi High School's White Team, Tokiwadai Middle School's Red Team and Acertain High School's White Team. I hope our listeners will forgive me for my bias towards my own school."
"That's right Miss Kumokawa! Regular watchers will be familiar with our normal rules for the use of esper powers in this event, in short: no attempting to purposefully harm other competitors, no flying over the course entirely and no directly altering the obstacles themselves, but today is a special day! Not 1,"
"Not 2,"
"But 3 of our city's legendary level 5s are on the field today! To ensure a fair match, and avoid any accidents, all of these remarkable individuals have special restrictions on their ability usage for the event. In ranked order they are:"
"The 3rd Ranked. Tokiwadai Red Team's Misaka Mikoto! Her ability's name is 'Railgun'! She can generate over 1
billion volts of electricity and use that charge to affect the entire electromagnetic spectrum! For this event Miss Misaka has been banned from using her electrical discharges directly, her railgun technique and from igniting oxygen in the air to cause explosions."
"The 5th Ranked. Moonegi White Team's Mugino Shizuri! Her ability's name is 'Meltdowner'! She can manipulate electrons and give them the properties of both a wave and a particle! For this event Miss Mugino has been banned from using her famous particle-wave cannons to give herself a recoil boost or to blast through obstacles."
"Last but not least we have the 6th Ranked. Tokiwadai Red Team's Kihara Lifeline Mitori! You heard that name right folks! Our very own host's daughter is competing today along with her little sister Lifeline Misaka Dolly. Her ability's name is 'Atomic Shadow'. She can psychokinetically move atomic nuclei! For this event Miss Kihara Lifeline has been banned from using her ability to alter the physical makeup of the course in any way."
We tune out the rest of Mama and her co-host's patter as we stretch and limber up before the race. Since we are not officially a Level 5, and won't be for as long as Mama is on the outs with the Chairman, we don't have our restriction publicly broadcasted but Mama made clear that any restrictions for Big Sis went for us too. We look over the obstacle course, we have all been briefed on what to expect but I want to make sure there haven't been any last minute changes.
[Minori, there won't have been any changes. This is a sports competition. Not one of Mama's training simulations.They don't want anyone to get hurt on international TV. Everything will be the way they told us to ensure as much safety as possible.]
Probably, but what if one of Mama's enemies wants to embarrass her by having an accident on her watch? Or try to assassinate one of us? Or-
[It. Will. be. Fine. Relax Minori. Try the breathing exercises Mama has been teaching us to help with the nightmares.]
I'll try.
Inhale for 10. Exhale for 10. Inhale for 10. Picture Yuigahama Beach. Exhale for 10. Inhale for 10. Focus on the glass castles we made with Big Sis. Exhale for 10.
Thank you, Dolly.
[I'll always be here, Minori.]
The nightmares started soon after the Chairman told Mama that Level 6 Shift would be going ahead. Big Sis gets them too, probably thanks to the three of us harmonising our AIM and electromagnetic fields more to let us communicate telepathically with each other. The images and sensations of an albino high schooler killing us over and over again don't need much interpretation. At first we weren't sure if it was just our minds making things up to match our expectations but after we skatched the albino for Mama she confirmed that it was an almost exact match for Accelerator. Something which Big Sis and we had no way of knowing beforehand.
We know that Mama was cowed by threats to our lives but Big Sis and ourselves have agreed that, even if directly trying to stop this would just get us killed before they continued the experiment anyway, we have to do something. After weeks of brainstorming the only thing the pair of us can think of which would make the project actually stop is if the clones themselves refuse to participate. So we have been trying to talk to them in our nightmares but so far we haven't had any luck. Our little sisters seem intent on ignoring us and continuing with the experiment no matter what we say to them.
[They are starting Minori. Time to focus on the present.]
Right. I shake our head, focus on the here and now. What I can change rather than what I can't. Like Mama Harumi and Papa said.
I open our eyes and watch as the first contestants step up to the starting line. The event consists of 4 identical obstacle courses, each team sends one member down the course at a time. If a runner leaves the course for any reason they are out and score no points for their team. If they reach the end they score a number of points based on if they came 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th. Then at the end the team with the best overall score gets the gold for the event, collecting the maximum festival points for their school. The silver and bronze teams still score some festival points for their school as well. Only the 4th place school gets no festival points.
Tokiwadai's first runner is Mibuki Kazan from the Hasekura clique. Her skill at deflecting attacks immediately becomes useful as Nagatenjouki's runner starts trying to use her ribbon control ability to trip her up and drag her out of bounds. Thankfully Miss Mibuki's… we aren't actually sure if it is an ability or a skill, we should borrow Mama's Bank access later to check, let her deflect all of their attempts. Sadly the infighting between our two schools for first place actually lets Moonegi claim first place on this run. With Miss Mibuki securing 2nd place for Tokiwadai.
We are next up to run the course. We are competing against Muria Takahiro from Nagatenjouki, a Level 0 but that just means she is likely a top athlete so we shouldn't underestimate her, Shiratori Okibi of Moonegi, a Level 3 aerokinetic and Takeuchi Umika from Acertain High, a Level 2 Clairvoyant.
On the start signal I push off from the starting line using iron sand tendrils to give ourselves a
boost. The first obstacle is a rope net over a mud pit. We can either crawl under the net through the mud or run over the net. Mibuki chose to run over the net so we think we will go under, we have already heard some of the other girls complaining about getting mud on their clothes so we should give our teammates a good example that it is okay to get muddy.
I use our iron sand to
pull ourselves flat to the ground quicker than we could without it and have it pull us through under the net. The rope in front of us presses down into the mud as if struck from above, that must be the aerokinetic, but we easily lift it back up with more iron sand. We pass the obstacle first by a fair margin, our esp tells us that Miss Muria and Miss Shiratori are neck and neck behind us without needing to turn around to look.
The next two obstacles are a 10 foot climbing wall and then a set of monkey bars over a pit of water. If you let go and fall in then you can get out at either end of the pool to continue the race but only the end closer to the start has handholds to help you up. We could just have the iron sand carry us through the course but we should put on a show.
We use the Rampage Dress calculations from Miss Hokaze to make a superhuman
leap and reach the top of the climbing wall in a single bound. We
magnetise our hands to the monkey bars and start to swing across. We are over halfway across the bars when Miss Shiratori makes it to the top of her wall, Miss Muria having fallen down after losing her grip. Miss Shiratori starts to swing after us but with our lead she has no chan-
Somehow our magnetic attraction to the bars fails and we plunge into the water below. We are momentarily stunned but recover and swim for the surface after a brief pause. Sadly that pause has been long enough for Miss Shiratori to make up most of the distance between us. How did that happen? My magnetism should have kept me attached no matter how slippery the bars or our hands were?
[No time. We need to swim. Let me take over.]
Right!
Dolly quickly swims forwards, even if our magnetism doesn't work we can still reach the top without needing to backtrack to the handholds. When we reach the end, at about the same time as Miss Shiratori, Dolly
controls the water to lift us up to the platform. Our second order control of water isn't enough to take over from a more focused hydrokinetic like sous-chef or Miss Hasekura but it is more than enough for a competition like this.
After Miss Shiratori and ourselves take the flying fox down from the platform we face the fourth obstacle. Rotating weights, padded of course, that spin above a balance bar and try to knock us off into another pool of water. Like with the monkey bars, falling into the water is not a disqualification but it will slow us down. As Dolly takes the first step onto the bar our foot slips out from under us sending us straight into the water. What! The bar wasn't even wet! Damn it, how can we save our sisters if we can't even manage a stupid race!
[Miss Shiratori must be messing with us through her ability somehow. Messing with our inner ears perhaps? Anyway it is time we strike back!]
As she swims past the obstacle Dolly uses our
magnetism to change the speed of the weights, but Miss Shiratori instantly notices and adjusts her speed to compensate. She reaches the end of the obstacle just before Dolly does and lifts us out of the water.
The next 6 obstacles left in the race go similarly, we are faster than Miss Shiratori but it doesn't matter because she keeps slowing us down with subtle tricks and dodging our own attempts to counterattack. In the end Miss Shiratori takes first place for Moonegi again while we are a bare second behind her in second place with Miss Muria from Nagatenjouki taking third.
"Fuck!" I shout, not loud enough to be heard by the stands thankfully but Miss Mibuki looks shocked at our language.
[Minori!]
Oh fuck off Dolly. How can you be so calm! Our sisters are being industrially slaughtered in a lab while we can't even win a children's game! I feel so useless!
[You think I'm happy about this? Everyone I love has a gun to their head and 20,000 of them are being killed one by one! Of fucking course I'm upset about all this Minori! I'm just not taking it out on my sister and headmate because of how powerless I feel!]
I know she's right but I don't want to admit it and calm down right now. Being angry at losing a race is allowed, no one thinks I'm weird or having a lady's day if I'm grumpy about this. I don't have to staple on a fake smile and pretend to be happy when I'm not. Neither of us back down so we settle into giving each other the silent treatment.
As the next set of runners take their turn we look around the stands for Mama Misuzu. As we look we wave at the commentators box where Mama is, we can't see or sense her from here but her co-host Miss Kumokawa assures the crowd that she is waving back, something which gets a lot of laughter and cooing noises from the crowd.
Eventually we see Mama Misuzu in one of the VIP boxes near the base of the stands next to a man and woman in very fancy clothes, we think that is the owners of white spring holdings, and a couple of visibly poorer and very intimidated looking families. Those must be the parent's of some of the other espers Mama's company develops. She had mentioned she got them all good tickets to the event every year.
We wave to Mama Misuzu with a strained smile and get a stilted wave back. We've connected a little bit more with her this past week but not much. The family dinner we had with Big Sis, her and Papa (via phone) yesterday was awkward, we just didn't have much to talk about. Big Sis tried to bridge the gap but Mama Misuzu just doesn't understand our plurality.
We knew from Mama Harumi and Papa that the outside world was less accepting and understanding of people like us but we hadn't really understood until Mama Misuzu called Dolly a 'phase'. We know she isn't being mean about it, she is just worried about us and doesn't understand but it still hurts. We hope that Big Sis doesn't let Mama Misuzu's questions about if she was dating any boys stop her from dating Misaki.
While we were distracted by our argument and thinking about Mama Misuzu, Nagatenjouki scored two first places while Moonegi and Tokiwadai scored another first place each. Bringing the score to Moonegi in the lead with Nagatenjouki and Tokiwadai fighting for second place. Nagatenjouki has more first place runners than we do but we have more consistently gotten the second place bringing our average score up to match theirs.
I hope that Misaki, Tatsuki, Hokaze and Yumiya-senpai are having a better time on Tokiwadai's white team. I think that team is split between a diving contest and the three legged race right now. Sadly Acertain High is trailing a long way behind and has no chance of catching up. Neither of us have heard of their school before so they were probably seeded here to give Nagatenjouki and Tokiwadai easy wins. The same is probably true of Moonegi but they are beating all expectations.
More sets of runners complete the course, Michan manages a first place for Tokiwadai and the best time of the event so far of course. Our oldest sister is amazing. Finally the set of runners including Big Sis and Miss Mugnio are up to run the course. The event organisers of course set things up to pit the current rank 3 and the former rank 3 against each other as the final showstopper.
At the signal they burst from the starting line, Big Sis and Miss Mugino already in the lead. We knew Big Sis was more athletic than us but we had no idea Miss Mugino was so fast. Despite Big Sis using the same iron sand trick as we did, Miss Mugino actually beats her at the rope crawl! When they come to the climbing wall Miss Mugino is able to make the wall in a single jump, something that Michan, Big Sis and ourselves all needed to use our abilities to use but we can't sense Miss Mugino using anything like Rampage Dress. Did she do that with pure muscle power? She must have.
She takes the monkey bars 3 at a time, brachiating with such speed that even with
Rampage Dress Big Sis has only just cleared the climbing wall as Miss Mugino reaches the flying fox. Big Sis doesn't waste time doing the monkey bars normally like we did, she
swings from them using magnetism instead, taking them 3 at a time like Miss Mugino. We wish we had thought of that!
However, despite Big Sis's best efforts Miss Mugino has too commanding a lead and scores another first place position for Moonegi High. Not just the fastest course completion of the day but setting a new record for the festival apparently according to Miss Kumokawa from the commentator's booth. Giving them just enough points that they take first place for the event over all. Miss Mugino's schoolmates crowd around her and lift her into the air cheering as Mama announces this massive upset to the expected scores. Miss Mugino looks completely shell shocked and even starts crying as she is held and congratulated by her team and her school's teachers.
Big Sis scored second place for Tokiwadai, giving us second place in the event overall but she doesn't look disappointed. If anything she looks fired up as she grins Miss Mugino's way and sends her a thumbs up. Miss Mugino's answering smile and thumbs up is scary but we think it is meant in a friendly rival way.
================================================================
Sunday, 5th of October 2003, 9 months before the start of Canon A Certain Magical Index
[I grin into our kiss as I let Mirei pin me to the wall and stroke our shoulders. My own hands are busy holding her waist and playing with her hair. Minori is asleep currently, keeping to our general privacy agreement about make out sessions. Mirei and I don't actually mind the audience but Minori feels awkward about it ever since we joked about charging for the show. Mirei starts kissing across my jawline causing me to groan and take firmer hold of her twin tails, though I don't pull her away from me yet.]
"Reichin~. If you leave lipstick marks there everyone at the clique meeting will know that we were just kissing~."
"Mhm~. That's the plan Dorrin~."
"Ah~! I could just wipe it off, you know?"
[Despite my words I don't make any moves to stop her beyond lightly tugging on her hair. Which just makes her moan slightly as she moves from my jaw to my neck and starts leaving hickies.]
"I'll just need to leave something more permanent then~"
[I squawk in mock outrage and really do pull her away from my neck this time.]
"Damn it Mirei!"
[I say without any real heat as I feel the area she just bruised] "The Dorm Mistress at the inner dorm isn't as scary as yours in the outer dorm but she's still not going to ignore that! You are going to help me cover that up with makeup once the meeting is over."
[She just chuckles and nods as she licks her lips. My girlfriend is infuriating sometimes! Best kisser in the school though, we did extensive empirical testing, and I know she will actually help me cover it up later. She just likes embarrassing the more sheltered members of the clique like Miss Hokaze. Somehow that girl had been completely serious about not noticing Misaki and Mikoto flirting that first day we met. I'm still not sure how she could miss the textual lesbianism of Emi-chan loves Aki-chan. Ugh. Thinking of Miss Hokaze has ruined my good mood.]
"What's that frown for Dolly?"
[Mirei askes as she takes my hand and we start to walk down the halls to the clique meeting room.] "Sorry if I went too far with my teasing."
"Not at all Reichin. I love it."
[I give her a last peck on the lips to reassure her before wiping her lipstick off my chin with a handkerchief.] "I am just not looking forward to dealing with Miss Yumiya and Miss Hokaze's interpersonal problems after the all members clique meeting. Especially since this is the first full clique meeting since before the Daihaseisai so I am worried that they might boil over in public again."
[Mirei nods understandingly.]
"Ah yes. They're little lovers quarrel that cost us the three-legged race."
"I wish it was a romantic issue. That would be easier to handle. Miss Hokaze is so dense she still hasn't noticed how Miss Yumiya follows her around like a lost puppy."
"That still sounds like a romantic problem to me, Dorrin. Yumichin just needs to work up the courage to confess so that Hokun can let her down easy."
"Oh Minori and I have tried telling Miss Yumiya that. That is the problem and why I do not think it is a romantic issue. At least not entirely. Miss Yumiya has some kind of middle school disease complex about needing to 'prove that I can stand on equal ground and make her acknowledge me' with Miss Hokaze before they can even be friends again after Ideal. Let alone girlfriends."
[Mirei doesn't know the details of Ideal, neither do I honestly because Misaki insists that it is private and up to its victims to tell if and when they want to, but she knows the broad strokes thanks to being fully read in on Minori and I's time with Clone Dolly.]
"Well we are middle schoolers, Dorrin."
"I suppose so."
[I admit with a sigh.]
[Soon enough we reach the meeting room, a traditional room that is only just big enough to hold our rapidly increasing numbers, if this latest membership surge caused by Misaki and Mikoto's heroics at the theatre fire doesn't slow down by the end of the week we will need to ask for a bigger room. Michan won't be happy about that, this is already the biggest room with traditional japanese stylings in Tokiwadai and she is quite attached to the theming she decided on for the clique.
We are not the first to arrive but thankfully are also not the last. Michan is sitting seiza on a cushion in front of a flag bearing the hiragana for 'Mi' and the number 'Go'. Apparently the clique name is a reference to one of the horror stories she uses for cosplay inspiration. Most of the girls in school don't get the pun and just default to calling us the 'Kihara' or 'Lifeline' clique but it makes Michan happy.
There are four cushions in front of Michan for Misaki, Mikoto, Mirei and ourselves, the four 'Captains' who are incharge of particular duties within the clique. Misaki and Mikoto are already here with Misaki sitting in Mikoto's lap. I am so glad that their first official date getting interrupted by a fire didn't cause them to fall back into mutual pining. Mama's emergency response lessons for all of us really helped make sure everything went well apparently. Mirei and I take our seats, thankfully Michan doesn't force anyone else to sit seiza so the four of us are free to lounge casually as my sisters welcome us. Michan gives Mirei and I a wink and a thumbs up when she notices the marks on my neck.
Behind the four captain's cushions are the eight cushions for the 'Lieutenants', initially Michan had wanted to call them 'Sergeants' but Mirei made a good argument that most Tokiwadai girls wouldn't settle for being called NCOs so we picked a more prestigious sounding name. Their responsibilities are less defined than the captains but they act as assistants to us and Michan as well as serving as go-betweens for any clique members who are too intimidated by us to come to us directly.
Behind the lieutenants are the 29 cushions for the rest of the clique in rows of seven. There is significantly less room than before the Daihaseisai when there were only 21 unranked members. The general clique members are not assigned to particular captains or lieutenants but in practice they stick to a particular 'Division' based on interests and friend groups. Our relatively regimented structure was a tactic that Michan proposed when we were first starting up the clique, partially to keep it more manageable but mostly to set us apart from the looser structure of the Sha, Mikagami and Hasekura cliques. While I wouldn't have thought that the girls of Tokiwadai would appreciate a gang-like or military-esque structure, Michan has proven me wrong.
Most of the lieutenants haven't arrived yet but the ones already here include Michan's kouhai and personal assistant Iori Mashiro. The two of them take care of the finances and administration for the clique, such as booking rooms like this and also organise the social events that are the main attraction we offer our members. Meetings with potential research institutes, carefully vetted to avoid Dark Side influence of course, networking lunches with businesses and potential high schools as well as just pure relaxing fun like cosplay parties or afternoon tea to take the pressure of Tokiwadai off for a moment. Iori has a very similar ability expression to Michan's before she reached Level 5, able to psychokinetically control 0.9% saline solutions with uncommon range and no meaningful mass limit, and has similar interests in computers. She has basically become Michan's disciple including, unfortunately, her tendency to leave her top mostly undone.
Miss Hokaze is already seated as well, and just as scandalised by my hickies as Mirei wanted. She and the currently absent Miss Ibotanokikouji work with Mikoto and our four most combat oriented girls to protect the rest of our members from any bullies or other cliques in school and from any Dark Side or Skill-Out threats outside of school. Formally they are called the 'Protection Division' but informally most clique members call them the 'Gekoers' thanks to Mikoto and Miss Hokaze's well known love for the mascot, despite Miss Ibotanokikouji's vocal complaints about the name.
Obviously Mikoto's status as one of only two Judgement members in Tokiwadai right now means that she can't take the lead on dealing with interclique conflicts which are mainly left to Miss Hokaze. Miss Ibotanokikouji focuses more on dealing with Skill-Out and any Dark Side attention. Which leaves Mikoto mostly focusing on dealing with bullying issues, where she is most happy regardless. Miss Hokaze's physical enhancement electromaster Rampage Dress and Miss Ibotanokikouji's pressure manipulation Killer Press are both well suited to direct combat and crowd control. The division also runs supplementary self defence classes for any clique members that want them and has members in some of the martial arts clubs.
Misaki heads the five girl strong 'Intelligence Division' with help from Lieutenants Houjou Arei, Yugure Kanaria and Ouyang Qian. Miss Houjou was already friends with Miss Yumiya before she joined and came as a package deal with her friend. Her ability to hear people's emotions as sounds and acrobatic talent are excellent for finding people with secrets or who are in distress. Ouyang is an ex-member of the Sha clique who believed us when we exposed her for attacking Miss Kazen'in and framing Miss Enjou for it. She can control and share the senses of birds. Giving our clique unparalleled views from the sky in a denable way.
Yugure on the other hand doesn't have an ability suited for espionage, her Micro Dying lets her selectively kill any microbes she can touch, but has a true investigative spirit. She was Mikoto's one and only recruit to the Clique, they met while training for Judgement, and is probably her closest friend alongside Miss Hokaze. Yugure couldn't make the athletics cut for Judgement but she still wants to be an investigator so she has joined the newspaper club and is the real main force behind the division with Misaki mainly making sure she doesn't work too hard or look in dangerous areas without backup.
Their most public duty is keeping up to date on school gossip and sharing it with the full clique, which gets them labelled as the 'Gossips'. However they also spy on the other cliques, do true investigative journalism outside of school and perform counter espionage to protect the secrets of the members of the clique such as DNA maps, AIM field readings and business contracts. Another service we provide for members which has drawn in quite a few girls this semester.
Speaking of recruitment, that is Minori and I's duty as the heads of the 'Outreach Division', the largest division with eight consistent unranked members. Our job in school is recruiting new members to the clique, campaigning for the Student Council and placing clique members on school committees while out of school we network with research companies, high schools and businesses that the Gossips have vetted and work to get them on board with working with our clique and members.
Finally we also do charity projects and community outreach, though nowhere near as much as the Sha clique used to. Working with three Level 5s and the daughters of a Director is of course an easy sell but managing Misaki. Mikoto and Michan's time while making sure that our clients also help the other girls in the clique requires quite a bit of finesse.
Minori and I are assisted by Minori's friend Miss Yumiya and my friend Lin Lihua as lieutenants. Lihua is a florakinesist, and wants to be a botanical researcher making her the third member of the "BioNerd Trio" with Mirei and myself, while Miss Yumiya's ability Wave Conductor allows her to manipulate, reduce and enhance existing waves of any kind, though she mainly sticks to light waves and sound waves. Most members of the division are ex-Sha clique girls who joined with Lihua and wanted to continue doing charity work so we've picked up a nickname as the 'Philanthropists'.
Last but not least is Mirei's Medical Division. She doesn't have any lieutenants helping her but she has a loyal stable of four clique girls who share her passion for medicine. They offer free and private health check ups for the clique members, avoiding the paper trail of a hospital visit, customised diet and exercise plans, and patch up any injuries that the Gekoers and Gossips get during their activities. They also work with Tatsuki General Hospital, who came crawling back to Mirei and her parents after Mama became a director, with all of them having training placements at the hospital. They have the fairly self explanatory nickname of the 'Doctors'.
Finally everyone has arrived and is sitting comfortably on their assigned cushion rather than each other's laps. Well most of them are, some girls insist on sitting seiza like Michan for some reason that is beyond me. Michan starts the meeting by tapping the floor with her bokken. We were surprised when she joined the kendo club at the beginning of the year but with how much she enjoys the sukeban/samurai larp in running the clique maybe we shouldn't have been? I mentally prod Minori to wake her up for the meeting, it is easier for both of us if we are both awake for important events like this so we don't need to repeat everything to the one who had been asleep.]
Wow, that make out session lasted a while.
[Actually it was relatively short. I just wanted to give you time to rest while we waited for the meeting.]
Ah. Thanks.
[You're welcome Minori.]
"As Head Captain of the MiGo Clique I hereby call this monthly all member meeting to order. Lieutenant Iori shall read the agenda for today." Michan says.
Miss Iori stands and bows.
"Thank you, Head Captain. The agenda is as follows:
- Introductions for our new members. Covering the clique officers explaining who they are, their duties and how to contact them before the new members introducing themselves.
- Regular Reports from the Division Captains
- Strategy briefing and assignments from Captain Lifeline Misaka for the Student Council elections.
- Extraordinary Report from Captain Shokuhou regarding suspected industrial espionage against Tokiwadai and the Clique.
- Any Other Business.
- Closing Statement from the Head Captain.
- Dismissal."
Her piece said Miss Iori bows to Michan again and sits down. The room continues the murmuring that had started with her fourth point until Michan bangs her bokken against the floor again and calls for order. After introducing herself, what she does and the structure of the clique each of the captains stand in turn to introduce themselves and explain their division before finally the lieutenants stand and introduce themselves while informing the new members what division they work with.
After the new girls have all introduced themselves the regular division reports are mostly as expected. Misaki confirms that Mitsuari Ayu has settled into her new position in the Hasekura clique well, seeming to make fast friends with Hasekura's informal lieutenants Mibuki Kazan and Asato Kisa. Hasekura seems to be tutoring her in leadership so we can expect that she will inherit what remains of the Hasekura clique next year after the 3rd years have graduated. Additionally, there has been some kind of drama between a mounted combat club member and the stables but her division is still investigating. The rest of her report is the kind of gossip which Dolly and I tune out but which the rest of the clique eats up like a limited-time parfait.
[Of course, most of our girls can't know that the reason for Miss Hasekura distancing herself from our clique and Miss Mitsuari suddenly deciding to join the Hasekura clique is part of the top level manoeuvring from the Chairman to build a block of Level 5s to counter Mama.]
Yeah. At least Miss Mitsuari doesn't seem to be any happier with getting drafted for that plan than Miss Hasekura. At least according to Miss Hasekura's secret communications with Misaki via their compatible hydrokinesis.
Mikoto reports that Kirifu Megumi and her hangers on have finally gotten the message to not bully our girls even when they think the protection division isn't around since the last all member meeting in September before the Daihaseisai. Additionally the Skill-Out gang that had taken to loitering near one of the malls on the southern edge of District 7, in the thin strip of city between School Garden and District 10, have been convinced to vacate the area. There should no longer be a threat of mugging for girls that want to shop there but they should still avoid the alleyways as much as possible.
Dolly talks about the charity work and volunteering the philanthropists have been doing with Asunaro Park as well as the agreement of IDOLDOL Inc to a meeting with Michan to discuss tryouts for any of our girls that want to perform and the possibility of internships for girls interested in becoming producers. That news starts another storm of murmuring which Michan has to calm down with her bokken.
Finally Tatsuki reports that everyone in the clique who use her division's services are still in good health and presents figures showing that clique members from before the summer holidays who followed her division's exercise plans showed statistically improved athletic performance at the Daihaseisai over those that didn't. She finishes by asking the new members to contact her to organise a physical exam to provide a baseline.
I stand up again to deliver the strategy briefing for the elections. Dolly likes negotiating one to one with lab directors and business leaders. This sort of popular engagement on the other hand is my preferred part of our duties. Miss Lin and Yumiya-senpai stand up as well and start distributing fliers, campaign sashes, buttons and a schedule of events to the rest of the clique.
"I'll keep this relatively brief. As the largest clique in the school thanks to our new members we are in a strong position going into this election but need to avoid complacency. Our main rival this year is the Hasekura clique. As such our priorities are making sure that Mikagami doesn't throw her weight behind Hasekura and attracting votes from the independent students. Mikagami's girls will vote for her unless she tells them otherwise but she won't attract many votes from the rest of the school unless she drastically changes her strategy. If she does do that then the Outreach Division has contingency plans which we will distribute and implement if they become relevant." I hope it doesn't come to those. It will be hard to win the election if 40% of the school unites against us directly.
"In the meantime please keep a campaign button on the lapel of your uniform at all times, except the wash of course." I add the aside with a meaningful glance at Big Sis which gets an indignant 'hey' from her and chuckles from the room. Thank you for playing along sis. "Along with some fliers in your pocket or your handbags to offer to friends, clubmates and anyone who asks you about our campaign. We only ask you to wear the campaign sashes while staffing or attending the scheduled events which we have provided you all a program for." I fall back on my public speaking lessons to get through the next part without tripping over my own tongue.
"This coming Wednesday we will be hosting a 'town hall' open to all students of Tokiwadai in classroom 205 of building 3. There they will be able to ask the Head Captain and the four Captains any questions they wish about our plans if we win the election. We will also have additional town hall sessions in the same classroom on the following Wednesdays for the rest of October. Clique members are welcome to all of these but try to spread yourselves out, we don't want to intimidate independents or other cliques from attending." Having clear policy and open communication is key to any successful campaign.
"On the next three Fridays we will be hosting bake sales with the aid of Ryouran maids. All the baked goods being sold will have been cooked by clique members, including the five captains. Between the five of us and the philanthropists we have enough current volunteers to supply and run all of these but if any other aspiring chefs among us want to contribute contact Miss Lin after today's meeting to organise your contribution." The bake sales are Miss Lin's pet project for the election but I have high hopes that they will help us present a more humble and approachable face to the independents.
"We have received permission from the staff and sitting student council to place campaign signs in public areas such as the courtyard, cafeteria and on the school bus service. The Outreach Division will be setting this up this coming Tuesday. The Outreach Division will also be performing a door knocking campaign at the interior dorms next again Tuesday evening and another door knocking campaign at the exterior dorms the Tuesday after that. If any volunteers wish to assist please contact me, Miss Yumiya or Miss Lin after school on Mondays to sign up." These direct methods of drawing attention are less normal for Tokiwadai than the prior events and I can see some girls in the audience looking shocked at acting so common. However, I've looked at voter engagement trends for independents in previous years and they are awful. Most often say they missed the entire event.
Of course, even with all of these measures we face the serious obstacle that things have, with the notable exception of Sha Danshan's arrest, been going well for Tokiwadai this year. There just isn't any real space to promise meaningful improvements. Certainly, we came second at the Daihaseisai but we did manage to beat our traditional rival of Nagatenjouki and no one could predict that Miss Mugino would defy all laws of probability and common sense to almost single handedly win her school every event she participated in. Our other large obstacle is, of course, Miss Wu Lili's small Wu clique who would never vote for the people who 'framed' her empress in her mind and who would be dedicating herself to getting people to vote against Michan. Thankfully her number of die hard Sha fanatics is small. Before Mikoto and Misaki's heroics at the theatre I had been worried that Miss Hokaze and Yumiya-senpai's public cat fight would harm our chances but that should mostly be taken care of now.
"Finally, our three key talking points for this election are: Mitori will be Reliable as President, as a second year she will stay at Tokiwadai until the next election while Hasekura will leave in march and take much of her council with her. Mitori will be Driven as President, our clique has grown explosively in only 6 months to the largest in the school. Mitori will bring Fame and Investment to Tokiwadai as President, as the only Level 5 running for a student council seat in the city and as the daughter of a Director." I bow to the room, "Thank you for your time. Remember everyone, the MiGo clique gets results! I yield the floor to the Head Captain." and then retake my seat. There is applause, I hope that is genuinely for doing a good job but it is probably just because they feel they have to.
[You did a good job Minori.]
Thanks Dolly.
After the applause has died down Misaki stands up and clears her throat. Misaki still isn't very comfortable with public speaking but she is much better than she was back in our first semester. I hope my own nerves weren't as obvious.
[I don't think they were.]
You're biased in my favour sis~.
After a second to psych herself up to her bouncy persona Misaki strikes an idol pose and begins her report.
"✧ Thanks to Yagure's snooping ability~ ✧ the Information Division came across evidence that someone was using an ✧ esper ability ✧ to spy on Tokiwadai power development classes." That news instantly sets the cat amongst the pigeons again. Michan has to actually stand up and call for order this time.
"Thank you~ ✧ Mitori ✧. As I was saying, we of course did our duty as ✧ responsible ✧ students and reported this up the chain to Judgement, Anti-Skill and the teachers. While the Daihaseisai was going on Anti-Skill used their own investigation ability~ and determined that there was no foul play at work." Multiple mocking scoffs come from the room at Misaki's words. While no one here was in school when it happened, everyone in the school knows about what happened to Takebayashi Yayoi.
[Only because we have spent the last 3 months subtly spreading the story through the school rumour mill.]
"Exactly~. We suspected that Anti-Skill succumbed to their ✧ greed ability ✧ and was bribed so we did more digging of our own after the festival. The esper ability in question uses ultrasonic sound waves to send and receive wireless information from drones and spy cameras placed around campus." Misaki smiles thinly and preempts the explosion of questions this time. "With the ✧ help ✧ of Miss Yumiya we have already made sure this room is secure against such spying ability~."
Along with making sure we are meeting when Miss Mitarai Ayane is busy and not on watch.
"The esper in question," Misaki continues, "is Miss Mitarai Ayane of ✧ Shidarezakura ✧ but, before we all start calling for a school feud, she isn't working on behalf of her school. Which means this is not an internal School Garden issue we could work out with a street brawl~." An upsetting number of our classmates look disappointed by that. Including Tatsuki, who should really know better given we have already gone over this with the officers.
[She didn't forget. Mirei is just still sad that she doesn't have an excuse to cut any of the Shidarezakura girls.]
…That's worse Dolly. You do get how that's worse right?
[Mirei is cute when she is murderous. Besides, she wouldn't do any lasting damage.]
You are impossible.
"-orking for a company called Antikythera. Officially they do R&D for Femto-reactors but in reality they work to copy esper abilities using samples of ✧ Dark Matter ✧ taken from the 2nd ranked esper. They make use of a subsidiary company called Montgolfier as a patsy to take all the blame ability~. We've been able to track them with esper abilities but their ✧ scheming ability ✧ is annoyingly~ high. We don't have enough hard evidence admissible in court to get Anti-Skill or the school to take action."
"How are we going to stop them then?" one of the new girls asks. We think her name is Kobayashi, "When Miss Takebayashi took things into her own hands against Tanrei chemicals she got expelled and arrested even though she was the Majesty." The rest of the clique nods along and murmurs agreement.
[Not to worry. You planned for this.]
Michan stands up and addresses the room.
"You are correct Miss Kobayashi. However, we will learn from Miss Takebayashi's mistakes. To start with, no clique member is to take any action against Antikythera or Montgolfier on their own initiative, we will act as one or not at all. Secondly, I will be presenting this information to the other clique leaders and the Judgment branch captain of Tokiwadai to seek both their support and an official search warrant." The younger girls seem confused by that. They probably think that Big Sis is the branch captain rather than Ruri-senpai. Michan taps the tip of her bokken against the floor, "Finally, we will strike with the numbers, speed and force to prevent Antikythera from escaping and turning the tables on us by bribing Anti-Skill and the teachers again. We will show them our power!"
"OUR POWER!" the clique echoes. Pumped up to go and crack some heads. Why do all of our classmates have to be such thugs? Only Misaki shares a look of sympathy with me as she sits down at being trapped with such violent friends and family.
[Well you have been priming them for this for months, Minori. It might have been Michan and Mirei's idea to use Antikythera's industrial espionage as a way of uniting the school behind us for the election but you agreed and did most of the planning. Don't get cold feet about our plan to counter the Board's attempts to polarise the school now when we are about to complete it.]
I guess. I know I said this kind of social engineering was what I enjoyed earlier but using it this way feels unpleasant.
The All Other Business portion of the meeting goes quickly after that. Most of the questions are normal school stuff like; when the next cosplay party will be and what theme to prepare for, in November and gothic lolita Michan answers, and if the weekly Monday tea parties will be continuing during the election season, they will be.
The only disruptive question is from Miss Kobayashi, who asks when and how Miss Hokaze and Yumiya-senpai will be punished for their actions during the Daihaseisai. Michan answers that the officers will be dealing with the underlying issues in private and announcing their public punishments tomorrow during the Monday tea party. Miss Kobayashi seems satisfied with that and soon afterwards Michan gives her final speech before the unranked members and most of the lieutenants leave.
Now that the meeting is finished it is time for the part Dolly and I have been dreading. Working out why Yumiya-senpai and Miss Hokaze's got into an actual fight on live tv during the three legged race of the Daihaseisai and somehow fixing whatever it is. Big Sis and Tatsuki leave as well to guard the door and windows.
Leaving only Clone Dolly survivors and Miss Houjou in the room. Yumiya-senpai had requested her presence and said she already knew everything that had happened at Clone Dolly Ideal so wouldn't be intruding on Miss Hokaze's privacy.
"... So." Michan says after a long awkward silence, "I don't want to make this into a clique thing. But I will if I have too. We can't have two high ranking members getting into televised fights. I want to work out what led to this so we can address the actual, like, causes. Rather than just give you punishment duties like the teachers already have. Everyone in the room was a subject at Clone Dolly. You don't need to worry about normies judging you."
Yumiya-senpai and Miss Hokaze stay silent and won't meet Michan or each other's gaze.
Michan sighs after we all sit in silence for about five minutes.
"Okay. Fine. I'll start. I had a fairly normal time at the workshop until I was introduced to Dolly." Dolly uses our powers to form an iron sand body of herself as she would be if her body hadn't died. Well, our best guess of what she would have looked like as a third year anyway. She is probably being overly generous about our bust. She colours it with a mix of Michan's old trick and my own light bending calculations.
"That would be me." she says with a wave. Yumiya-senpai looks shocked and confused. Of course, I've never actually told her about Dolly have I?
"She was an illegal clone of Mikoto," Now
that surprises both of the squabbling girls, "they were performing experiments in accelerated aging on her. Her isolation was resulting in bad data so they roped the most expendable child they had, myself, as her playmate. At first I didn't know what experiments they were running on Dolly but when I found out I confronted the researchers about how they were killing my friend. So they locked me up in solitary isolation for 6 months." Miss Hokaze gasps and even Yumiya-senpai is looking at Michan with pity. I hope she doesn't blow up at either of them for looking down on her like she did with Mirei when we told her.
"I'm not telling you two about this to look for sympathy," she says while looking away and growling. Better than yelling at them at least. "I'm just trying to show that you aren't alone here. We get what you went through, at least a bit. Think of this like a. A Clone Dolly Workshop Anonymous if that helps."
"A-In. In that case I will go next if that is alright?" Miss Hokaze asks. At Michan's nod she continues, "The Ideal subproject specifically was about trying to train a Level 5. Miss Yumiya, Miss Mitsuari and myself were the top candidates. During an experiment trying to manipulate our AIM fields with machinery something went wrong. I don't understand what. H-half of our friends died instantly from brain haemorrhages. Some kind of, I don't know what it was but it possessed one of the researchers and gave him all of our powers. He went mad and tried to kill us. We tried to fight him off but Miss Yumiya got hurt." Miss Hokaze grips her skirt tightly and starts crying, "I wasn't strong enough!"
"What!" Yumiya-senpai interrupts, "What are you talking about! I lost my eye because of my own weakness! You didn't fail! You never failed! You are amazing, Miss Hokaze! You saved us all!"
"No I didn't!" Miss Hokaze shouts in a way I've never heard her do before, "H-he killed Dr. Toomine! Miss Mitsuari was able to stun him long enough for me to get a final strike in and drive the possession out of him. I. I don't know if he survived or not. I couldn't save anyone! I was so weak!"
"You are not weak! You can't be! You were the one who would be Level 5! You are incre- You are the Ideal I've been chasing ever since then! So you can't be weak! Be- Because if you are. Then what am I?" Now Yumiya-senpai is crying as well. It hurts to not step in but this feels like something the pair need to say to each other.
"I am weak." as Yumiya-senpai goes to interrupt again Miss Hokaze shouts over her, "I am! I cannot reach Level 5! Because of my own failings… My power hurts my body when I push it that far. It can't handle the strain. I- I have my own Ideal I've been chasing," her eyes flick over to Misaki. Huh. Why Misaki specifically? "But I can't reach it. No matter how hard I try."
Yumiya-senpai grabs Miss Hokaze's hands in hers.
"Ev- Even if you don't reach Level 5! You are still amazing, Miss Hokaze! You didn't fail to protect us! You saved me! And you didn't kill Arei's brother!"
"Iruka!" Miss Houjou yells from the sidelines where she had been leaning against the wall.
"Oh!" Yumiya-senpai drops Miss Hokaze's hands and bows to Miss Houjou, "I'm sorry Arei! That wasn't my story to tell."
"What do you mean?" Miss Hokaze asks, looking back and forth between Yumiya and Miss Houjou who sighs and drags her hand through her hair.
"The researcher who was possessed. He is my big brother. Iruka was telling the truth. He is still alive, though his body is a wreck. You destroyed his face and the possession fried his nerves. He can't feel or express much of anything at all now."
"I am sor-"
"Don't! You saved his life. The AIM Burst was burning him up from the inside out. If you and Miss Mitsuari hadn't done what you did he would have died. I don't blame you. Like Iruka, I want to reach your level."
Misaki clears her throat. All three of the Ideal lab survivors jump as they suddenly remember they had an audience for all of that.
"As the owner and lab director of Clone Dolly following the passing of Shundou Toshizou I would like to formally apologise to all of you." The three of them try to reassure her that she doesn't need to apologise but Misaki bulls over them, "I thought that shutting down that lab was enough to help you all. I hadn't considered the long term effects. Even after Mother educated me on what it means to be a leader I still didn't reach out and make restitution to you or the other survivors." She kneels in dogeza, "If you will accept the help of this foolish girl then I would like to offer you all help."
Miss Hokaze and Yumiya-senpai keep saying she doesn't need to go so far but Miss Houjou looks at Misaki with an appraising eye.
"What kind of help?" she asks and ignores Yumiya-senpai and Miss Hokaze's shouts of dismay.
"Free medical care by some of the best in the field for your brother for a start Miss Houjou." Misaki says, "Along with accepting all three of you back into the Clone Dolly Workshop for esper development. This time we would
really help you reach Level 5."
"Are you sure about this Misaki?" Michan asks.
"I am."
"Then we should explain the full truth about Level 5 and the power development curriculum to them." I say as Dolly and Michan nod.
"The full truth?" Miss Hokaze asks.
"What, are the dumb asses in Deadlock actually right or something?" Miss Houjou says at the same time.
Dolly shakes her head and explains.
"No, though they have an inkling of the truth. Level 5s don't prevent other espers from developing but it is a lie from the teachers that hard work or talent is the main determiner of ability level."
"The truth," I pick up, "Is that the biggest determiner is funding and the skill of the assisting researchers."
"Ideal never planned for either of you to reach level 5." Misaki drops the bomb shell. Yumiya-senpai and Miss Hokaze both lose strength in their legs and collapse to the wooden floor.
"What?"
"Was it all a lie?"
"The initial plan was for Miss Mitsuari Ayu to be the sole Level 5 produced there, these things used to be decided years in advance. Mikokun for example was chosen to be a Level 5 when she was seven years old."
"Used too?" Miss Houjou asks.
"That is jumping ahead slightly." Michan answers, "Miss Mitsuari was replaced by Misaki when Clone Dolly acquired her, Misaki was cheaper to develop and they only wanted one mental Level 5 at the time."
"At the time?" Miss Hokaze picks up on Michan's wording.
Misaki nods and continues the story, "Things changed in May. When mother and Mitori were promoted. Level 5s are chosen by the Board of Directors you see. Due to, personal family matters, they were promoted as a punishment aimed at mother by her political enemies."
"How is being a Level 5 a punishment!" Yumiya-senpai asks in astonishment.
"It is if you don't meet the requirements." Michan explains, "Surely you all noticed how my ability changed over summer break? When I was promoted in May I was still a Level 4 in reality. The plan was to hold the threat of 'revealing' that mother had fraudulently had me promoted as a political weapon against her."
"But you are a real Level 5 now? So it is possible to level up even without the Board's approval." Miss Houjou notes.
I nod, "Exactly, provided you have enough funding and skilled support staff. Equally, it is possible to be Level 5 in abilities but not be promoted due to politics. Such as Dolly and myself. We also reached Level 5 during the holidays."
Miss Houjou turns back to Misaki.
"So that is what you are offering? To fulfil the promise that ideal lied about?"
Misaki gulps, "For Miss Hokaze and Miss Yumiya, yes."
"But not me. So talent does still have an impact."
"It does," Dolly draws Miss Houjou's piercing gaze away from Misaki. "But we don't know what your talent is. We do know that Level 3 is roughly the floor for an ability user who receives adequate funding and applies themselves. So you would gain at least one Level if you take Misaki's offer, getting into Tokiwadai as a Level 2 certainly shows that you have the drive to reach higher Levels. But without a DNA map and a psych profile we can't say if you could reach level 5 or not. Misaki is just trying to not promise what she can't deliver."
"What about Miss Mitsuari? Or Miss Yumiya's older sister?"
"That gets into the politics of the situation. Are you sure you want to know?" Michan asks, "So long as you don't tell anyone about the secret about funding then you can walk out of that door without getting involved in the city's Dark Side. If we tell you why we can't help Miss Mitsuari and Miss Yumiya Rakko then you can't go back to ignorance."
"What! How do you know my sister's name? Tell me!" Yumiya-senpai gets right up in Michans face. I start to get up to stop her but Dolly holds me back.
"They are both already part of the Dark Side. In different factions than our own. Mum has gathered too many Level 5s and other powerful people to her banner. It was why she was given a seat on the Board of Directors but it has also led to efforts to set up a counter block of Level 5s to balance her. Miss Mitsuari was chosen as one of those Level 5s to counter Misaki. She will be officially promoted in December. Miss Rakko works under the 2nd Ranked who has been drafted as the figurehead of that balancing faction. So neither mum or Misaki can take on Miss Mitsuari or Miss Rakko as clients in esper development."
"So. What? If I side with you, you'll expect me to fight my sister?"
"No." Misaki interjects before Michan can speak, "Absolutely not. My apology for failing you all 2 years ago does not mean you would join our faction in city politics." I nod along in agreement with Misaki.
"It kind of does." Michan points out unhelpfully with Dolly supporting her. "Not that we would draft you to fight for us!" she hurries to explain at Yumiya-senpai and Miss Houjou's angry looks, "But it would be seen as you being our allies by our enemies."
"I think," Miss Hokaze says before things can devolve further, "That Miss Yumiya, Miss Houjou and myself need some time to consider your offer in private. Unless that would be a problem?" She says while glaring at Michan.
Michan holds her hands up in surrender.
"Not a problem at all. It's a big decision so take your time. Whatever you decide, know that you are still welcome in the clique and are also free to leave it if you are no longer comfortable with us. Would you just like the room for a bit to talk or do you need a day or two to think?"
The three agree that they need at least a day to contact Miss Houjou's brother. Dolly dismisses her construct and the 7 of us get ready to finally leave the room when Michan snaps her fingers.
"Oh! I almost forgot. Miss Hokaze. Miss Yumiya. As punishment for disgracing the clique on international television, you are hereby banned from our tea parties for the month."
"What! Nooooooo!" Miss Hokaze cries as Miss Yumiya pats her shoulder in pity.
================================================================
AN:
Minori continues to be a bisexual disaster just like her sisters.
Just to be clear, I do not support shaking down other kids just because they bad-mouthed your sister. What Dolly did here, and what Mitori wanted to do, was bad actually. Even if it turned out okay and is a reasonable trauma response.
Also in hindsight I should have included the results of the fighting in the previous chapter. Sadly I hadn't written them yet lol. The perils of serialised fiction.
As well as being the largest chapter I have ever written, and hopefully the largest I will write for this story, this was also the most involved fight scene with the most moving parts.
Also the debut of Dolly/Minori's system name! Just the first syllable of their own names lol. Despite looking similar to Dolly when pronounced in japanese it is quite different due to the lack of a double 'r'.
Mugino finally got an unambiguous win and positive reinforcement from her peers!
Unlike her siblings Dolly is not a disaster at romance! She takes after her mother more in terms of just being honest about her feelings and letting the chips fall how they may.
Is the idea for a clique divided into sub-cliques with an official hierarchy blatantly ripped off from Mental Isekai? Yes. Though I hope that Mitori's different character and inspirations came through.
Working out where I wanted to take Iruka and Junko in the last section was
hard! Definitely the part of the chapter that took the longest. Though not the part with the most revisions, that was the fight.
