Mikoto/Defused
"
...and today...Today, we're going to teach you a lesson."
The coin is out of my pocket and in my hand, and I've just started charging up when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn to face Kuroko, who's frowning at me.
"No, Onee-sama," she says, shaking her head. "They have hostages. For all we know,
we're hostages. Let us handle this, for now."
"No, let me—there's got to be
something I can do—"
"Not right now. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this situation is
extremely delicate. Allowing these lowlifes to know that you are present could be the factor that pushes them over the edge."
It's infuriating. Every instinct I have screams at me to say no to Kuroko, to go and show these psychopaths what happens when you piss off a Level 5. But...she's right. I don't know how to handle this. I didn't even have a plan in my mind besides "railgun the asshole", which...yeah, would have likely gotten us all killed.
It's a stark reminder that I usually shy away from the whole superhero thing. Kuroko's been trying to recruit me for Judgement almost since I've known her, but it's never been for me. I mean, I'll help someone out if I see them in trouble, but I've always felt like as soon as you start
looking for people to save, you start wondering why you aren't dedicating more of your time to doing so, start wondering why you aren't helping out as much as possible, and before you know it you're putting on a mask and spandex and calling yourself Captain Electron. My future includes the phrases "Misaka Mikoto, PhD." and "high-energy particle physics", thank you very much, and despite what the American comics tell you, people don't generally have time to be both. (Not to mention that I don't even want to think about what I'd look like in spandex.)
Kuroko, on the other hand...Apparently satisfied that I'm not going to screw things up, she turns to her fellow Judgement officer. "Uiharu. Tarantulas?"
Uiharu nods immediately; she's already got a smartphone out and a pair of thin, utilitarian Judgement-issue AR glasses on, and is rapidly glancing through screen after screen of information. "Tarantulas. Mixed gang, not affiliated with Zero-Sum or any of the big esper factions. Zeroes and Ones, mostly; couple Twos. Leader's a guy by the name of Ikeda Tsuyoshi, a Two who can do light manipulation. Lasers, mostly. Goes by "Trick". Guy down there is definitely a decoy; his voiceprint matches Hakamichi Touya, One with sound manipulation. Explains the instant PA system. Though he's not supposed to be powerful enough to do much more than some fancy ventriloquism."
Kuroko nods. "We've got Plusers, then." While Uiharu keeps going through the information, my diminutive roommate pulls out her own phone. "Shirai from 177 to Central, priority one," she says immediately, before she's even had time to enter a number. "Two large explosions at Seventh Mist Mall. Casualties unconfirmed but highly likely. Responsible parties claim to have mall on lockdown; threatening further explosions if anyone leaves or enters. Level Plus users likely. Officer Uiharu from 177 is here with me; going to have her handle negotiations while I see if I can locate the bombs. In the meantime, I need a cordon around the mall, I need Anti-Skill watching every way in or out, I need
everything."
I suddenly realize that I've never seen Kuroko in full Judgement mode before. All of the painfully refined speech and mannerisms, all of her inappropriate comments or longing looks towards me, everything that I think of when I think of Kuroko is suddenly shoved aside in an instant.
She looks over at Uiharu again, snapping the phone shut and tugging on her Judgement armband—green, with four parallel white lines around the circumference and a green shield symbol in the center. "Bombs?"
"Working on it!" Uiharu says, slightly frantically. "Cryo on the Rig's still spinning up. Should be just a couple more minutes."
"Understood," she responds, donning her own pair of AR glasses. "Let's see how long he keeps talking."
The guy down in the rotunda has indeed started talking again; he's amplified his voice even more to be heard over the screaming. "...
fucking obvious! Bread and circuses, people! They're keeping y'all distracted while the elite harvest your minds and powers to feed the military-industrial complex! It's all part of it—TV, the Web, Twitter, GBPlus, everything is designed to make you into a nice, conforming...uh...conformist, too afraid to speak up!"
"Uiharu?" Kuroko's watching the crazy guy impatiently.
"Cryo's running. Processing the feeds now." I see a distinctive video through the back of her phone's transparent screen. It looks like smoke being sucked into something...oh. It's the explosion in the cell phone store, running in reverse. I watch the storefront reassemble itself in slow motion, and a marker appear at what looks like the approximate center of the blast. I try not to think about the people in the video rising back to their feet.
"So nobody complains when children disappear off the streets, never to be seen again! Nobody complains when they find huge bloodstains in back alleys! And nobody can do anything about it, because the more power they give you, the more they brainwash you! Well, not anymore! Level Plus has given us power! Power to rise up, to challenge the greedy suits and amoral scientists who play with our lives like we're characters in a sick fucking video game! Power to shake the very foundations of this corrupt city!"
"Got it," Uiharu says. "Bomber identified. Looks like delayed-release esper powers, not actual bombs; nobody in the gang has powers like that on file, but, well, plusers. Don't have a face on her yet, but I've got a profile, clothes, and probable locations for at least eight...nine...eleven bombs. Looks like they're ordinary objects in the stores, but they're emitting lots of heat. Everything's on your phone and glasses already."
"Got it. Game plan?"
"Priority one is to locate the bomber. I don't know if she can disarm the existing bombs, but we can definitely ask her. I'll handle negotiations like you said. We—"
"Wait a sec." An idea has just crossed my mind. Spiky's leaning on the balcony not too far away; I run over and grab his arm, yanking him over towards Kuroko and Uiharu. "I think this guy can probably disarm them."
"And who, exactly, is 'this guy'?" Kuroko asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Kamijou Touma," Uiharu speaks up. "IPD nullification. If anyone can do it, he can."
"Wha—how did you—" Spiky—Kamijou, I guess—stares at her goggle-eyed, then shakes his head. "Right. Judgement. Yeah, that's me."
Kuroko's expression suggests that for the first time in her life, she is grateful for the presence of a man, and she's not quite sure how to deal with that. Then she snaps out of it and grabs his arm. "All right, then. Come with me." She stands still there for a second, then frowns. "Why can't I teleport you?" Then she smacks her forehead with a palm. "Right. Looks like we're doing this the hard way. We'll need a distrac—"
"And
this is your answer?!" The yell comes from over to my right: it's the silver-haired girl who was with Kamijou, calling out into the rotunda in precise, slightly accented Japanese. "You want the people in charge of this city to stop killing people, so therefore you kill people? I admit, I'm a bit confused about what exactly you're trying to accomplish there!"
"
It's not about killing people, it's about making a statement! We are smashing the symbols of this corrupt society—"
"And yet
peopleare dying!" she responds. "How can you expect to have people support you when they have every reason to fear you?" There are shouts of agreement from throughout the mall.
"She has a point, you know!" I hear a much louder shout from my other side, now. I look around suddenly—it's Uiharu. She's leaning over the balcony, speaking directly into her cellphone, which is doing a surprisingly good job of amplifying her voice. Kuroko and Kamijou are nowhere to be seen, meaning they've probably gone off to do unofficial bomb squad duty. "You're only hurting your cause by killing innocent people."
"
Oh, look. Is that a Judgement armband? Looks like the pigs' trained attack dogs are here, everyone!"
"Call me whatever you want. Okay, look, you said people could call the cops or whatever? Well, they have, and Anti-Skill will be here soon. Let's talk about how we can make this end peacefully, all right? Nobody else has to die today.
"
* * * * * * * *
Touma
Oh, good. Judgement's here in time to help. I guess one out of eighty bajillion isn't
too bad. Also, apparently they're on a recruitment drive, and I looked like the perfect candidate!
Okay. I should, I should probably stop with the internal snark, but I'm not sure what else to do because bombs have gone off and, and people are
dying—
No. Okay. Okay, I've got this. Okay. The tiny Judgement chick—and she
is tiny, shorter than 'Index' despite her Shidarezakura uniform marking her as a high-schooler—is apparently hiding some serious muscle in that miniscule frame, because she seems to have absolutely no trouble dragging me into an emergency stairwell via her death grip on my right arm. "Where are we going?" I ask her.
She turns around and shushes me with a finger to her lips, glaring. "Quiet," she whispers. "Can't let them know we're looking for the bombs."
"Right," I whisper back. "So where
are we going?"
She cocks her head in an odd way, the way that people usually do when they're trying to get reality to line up with something on their AR glasses. "Tell you when we get there."
Naturally. As she takes me up the stairs, I can't help but wonder if 'Index' is going to take this whole incident as proof that the lizard sorcerers from Mars have put magic worms into her brain, and proceed to get us all killed via attacking with the powers that totally are/are not magic. Not like I can do anything about it now, though. Best get this over with and get back to her as quick as possible.
When we reach the fifth floor, she finally releases my arm—I reflexively massage the little welts she left on it—and briefly vanishes into thin air. She opens the door from the other side a moment later. "Hmm. They're not covering the stairwells," she says, more to herself than to me. "Stupid of them."
"I don't get the feeling that keeping people from moving around
inside the gigantic ready-to-blow death trap is as big a concern for them as keeping them from leaving," I reply.
"Good point. That, and I don't believe there are all that many of them. Twelve or thirteen at most; most of them would be occupied covering the exits. This way." I wince in anticipation as she reaches for my arm again, then wince harder when she actually grabs me. Pretty soon we're in front of a slightly shady-looking retro video game shop (the only kind of brick-and-mortar video game shop that exists any more, incidentally; you haven't been able to buy a physical copy of a game for two console generations), all the shadier-looking due to the lack of people inside it. The Judgement girl scans the shop quickly from the outside—I catch a glimpse of what looks like a thermal overlay on her glasses—then vanishes again. She's back a moment later. "Found the bomb. Not sure if moving it will set it off, so I'm not going to risk it. Now. You say you can do power nullification—"
"It was actually your friend with the flowers who said that," I point out.
"—Yes, whatever. But you can, correct? Does that include neutralizing delayed-release IPD emission points?"
"Yeah, I've done it before."
"Would using your powers to neutralize the bomb risk setting it off?"
I have to think about that one. "...Probably not?" I think back to Index's backpack. "There's sometimes a little energy release, maybe enough to break whatever the power was used on, but nowhere near as much as the power has to be storing in it. It should be okay."
She sighs. "I can't take 'probablies' and 'shoulds'. I need a yes or no."
"Then no. It won't set off the bomb."
"You're sure."
"Yes."
"I hope you won't mind me standing behind cover, just in case."
"Not in the slightest." In truth, I'm nowhere near certain about whether or not this is actually going to blow me up. But hey, if it doesn't, I've saved the day, right?
"Good. In the middle of the display on the right wall, there's a shelf with three discounted PlayStation 4s, out of their boxes. The bomb is the farthest one from the entrance; it's emitting a significant amount of heat. Do whatever you do."
"Roger." I smirk and snap a salute; she sighs and vanishes, reappearing a significant distance down the deserted hall.
All right. Here goes nothing.
I walk into the abandoned game shop, following the Judgement girl's instructions as I push past tables covered in dusty, obviously bootlegged DVD cases. Right where she said they'd be, there's a trio of old, slightly dusty PS4s. I hold my lefthand a couple inches above each of them, just in case she got turned around while finding the bomb. Sure enough, though, the farthest one from the exit is giving off heat in waves; it feels like holding my hand above an active stove. That's it, then. I lower my mostly-ordinary left hand and raise my Right Hand of Blatant Cheating. Then, trying not to think about all the ways this could go horribly wrong, I tap the old game console with one finger and immediately dive to the floor.
The loud popping noise nearly gives me a heart attack, but eventually I figure out that I'm not dead or horribly maimed, and I dare to lift my head off the ground. There's no visible damage to the shop, so I slowly raise myself to my feet and examine my handiwork. The PlayStation has shifted a couple inches, and it's definitely ruined—there's a huge, gaping crack across the casing—but other than that, there doesn't seem to be any sign of anything exploding violently.
Well, then. Guess I get to be the hero today.
* * * * * * * *
Mikoto
"Heh, oh man, you Judgement assholes don't even get what we're doing here, do you?"
"Let's say no. Explain it to me.
"
"You wouldn't—You wouldn't understand. You're part
of the system, little girl. You think we're all crazies because that's what they
want you to think."
"I don't think you're crazy," Uiharu says, and despite her voice echoing throughout the rotunda, she manages to make the statement sound so gentle that
I almost believe her. "I think you're angry, and frustrated, and the way you saw it, the only way to achieve your goals was through violence. I just want to know why."
"Of course violence was the only way! People don't pay attention to anything else! Y'all have been conditioned to, to react to violence in the movies, in the news; nothing else even gets your attention!"
"Okay. That's, that's fair. That's a fair criticism. I still don't understand, though; what are you trying to accomplish? What do you want?"
"We want. Uh. We want to destroy this symbol of consumerofascism, and all the others like it! Then we want to overthrow the government of Academy City and replace it with one that isn't corrupt and amoral!"
Wow. Nobody can accuse these guys of aiming low, I guess.
"All right. I'm going to pass those demands on up to my superiors. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to switch off the microphone here for a minute so I can do so, all right?" At Hakamichi's assent (combined, naturally, with various threats regarding plans against him and his gang), she puts her phone back to her ear and starts speaking in a low voice. There's a tense few moments of relative silence; after a while he starts ranting again, spouting more of the same vague anti-establishment, anti-consumerist rhetoric.
Finally, though, Uiharu lowers her phone, then holds it out again. She patiently waits for him to finish yelling, then speaks up. "All right. I've talked to some of the people I report to, and they have a couple questions. First off: Are you in charge of the Tarantulas?"
"Why—why do you want to know? You wanna know if the whole gang's gonna fall apart if you take me out? Not gonna happen, either way!"
"It's all right. We're not going to take you out. I just want to know if they'll follow your orders if you say to attack, or to stand down."
"We're not gonna stand down! You hear me? We'll never surrender to you pigs!"
"All right! All right. Okay. I understand that. I just need to know if I'm talking with someone who can negotiate on behalf of the whole gang."
The guy doesn't speak for a moment; eventually, he abruptly yanks a cellphone out of his pocket and flicks it open. Much like Uiharu, he speaks on it for a couple minutes, his voice no longer amplified, then covers the mic on it. "
All right," he says, his voice re-amplified."
Boss says I can tell you that, uh, I'm not the boss, and he's willing to talk. Through me.He says,
uh, the mall's getting leveled either way. But if General Superintendent Jeikoson and the entire AC Board of Directors hand in their resignations immediately, and if every one of the Tarantulas is allowed to leave here free, he'll wait 'till the mall is evacuated to give the signal."
"Okay. Understood. I'm passing that on up. Is there anything else?"
"
Uh, yeah. He says, uh, the AC government has to tell us who the names belong to. What happened to them."
Uiharu frowns. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand. Which names?"
"
The fucking names, man! You don't hear them? Over and over again?! Haruue Erii! Nomura Takeshi! Harada M—"
CRACK.
Both Uiharu and Hakamichi freeze. He moves first: he crumples to his knees, a hand clasped to his chest. He pulls it away, stares at it, and even from here I can see the bright crimson. Slowly, he collapses to the ground. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I realize that this is the first time I've seen a person die.
* * * * * * * *
Touma
It's not exactly difficult to guess what that sound was. The Powers That Be were tired of listening to Loudmouth's incoherent babbling, and decided to shut him up. Probably using a ridiculously large sniper rifle fired by a cyborg Anti-Skill Total Badass (TM) in a chopper halfway across town. What's slightly more difficult to guess, however, is why they chose to do so before this half-pint Judgement officer (whose name, by the way, is Shirai Kuroko; around the fifth bomb I pointed out that she was sending me into lethal danger without us even being introduced) had confirmed every bomb was taken care of. And, in fact,
after she had reported that we had missed one the first time around.
Gee, it's almost like they had a reason to shut him up right then, isn't it?
In any case, the point is quickly rendered academic in my mind, because said half-pint—who was until now exploring a bookstore, attempting to track down that last bomb—suddenly appears in front of me. Specifically, she appears carrying an even-halfer-pint girl who's sobbing like it's the end of the world, and travelling forward rather quickly, while airborne and yelling "GET DOWN!"
Well, it's not like I have a
choice about it.
Her flying tackle carries the three of us just behind a corner that blocks us from view of the storefront in question, and that's probably what saves our lives. The explosion is, without a doubt, the loudest thing I have ever heard, and the first coherent thought that pops into my head once it's gotten out of ARGH GONNA DIE PANIC mode is
Are my ears still gonna work after this?, followed rapidly by
Oh God I just almost died
holy fucking shit. (My mind is not known for having its priorities entirely straight.)
Shirai rolls off of me and sits up, dusting herself off, then helps the little girl do likewise. "Are you all right, sweetie?" I hear her ask over the ringing in my ears. "Are you hurt at all?"
The little girl—she can't be much more than seven or eight—is still sobbing, but she manages to shake her head. "N-no. My ears hurt a little, but I t-think I'm okay."
"Okay. Hang on just a moment." Shirai holds a finger to the side of her AR glasses. "Shirai here. I'm a little banged up, but on my feet. Too close, though, far too close...No. No, I told them I had missed one, I was going back for it...I know. I've got a little girl here..." She looks over at the girl in question. "All right. What's your name, sweetie?"
"R-Rinko."
"Okay, Rinko-chan. Do you know where your parents are?"
"S-satoko-nee-chan says they're in h-heaven." Oh god, it's just sob stories everyw—
shut up, snarky part of my brain. Really not the time right now.
The Judgement officer doesn't even flinch at this revelation. "Okay. Do you know where Satoko-nee-chan is? Was she here with you before the explosions started?"
"Y-yeah. When the big bang happened, everyone ran out of the bookstore at once, and then I got separated from Satoko-nee-chan, and she said if we ever got separated I should stay put right where I was, so I stayed right here. Is she gonna come back for me?"
"I don't know, sweetie. But I think it would be faster if we tried to find her. Uiharu? All right, I'm on my way," she says, tapping the earpiece of her glasses again. "Close your eyes for a second, okay? I'm going to take you to someone who can help you find her," she says to the girl. As soon as the little girl complies, they both vanish, leaving me to contemplate my solitude.
She's back a moment later. "Sorry. I have many things to deal with right now. There're at least five more gang members outside of the building, most likely all espers, and I don't want to know what'll happen when they realize their grand hostage strategy failed. Your help is
greatly appreciated, but I'd rather not get civilians involved more than absolutely necessary."
"Wait, but—I'm good in a fight—" But she's already gone. Damn.
Well, nobody's saying I can't try and track 'em down myself...
* * * * * * * *
Mikoto
Somewhere below us, there's a
bang that shakes the floor beneath my feet.
Uiharu stares on for a moment, shocked. Then she shouts into her phone: "Shirai! Status!" There's a long, tense pause, and then she half-relaxes. "Thank God. What were they thinking? Did they even know the bombs were...
what. What in the
...that is
insane. Okay..." There's a longer pause. "All right, I heard, I'll help her out. I think I've got camera locks on the rest of the gang, including the bomber; sending them to your glasses now."
"What? What happened?" I ask.
"Ah, it seems there was a miscommunication of some kind with ACPD and Anti-Skill. I, uh, can't really say more than that. It sounds like nobody else was hurt, however. Shirai-san should be back in just a moment."
Sure enough, Kuroko pops into existence a moment later, bringing a tiny little girl with her. "All right, go ahead and open them."
"Whooooa," the little girl says as she open her eyes. "How'd you do that? Are you an esper, lady?"
"Yes, I am," Kuroko responds, smiling. "Now, Rinko-chan, Uiharu-san here is going to help you find Satoko-nee-chan just as soon as she can, all right?"
"O-Okay." The little girl's sniffling a little bit, I notice.
Kuroko nods. "Good. Stay on watch, Uiharu. I'm going to track down the targets." She vanishes again.
That does it. I've had enough of standing by and watching, and maybe now that the situation's not quite so delicate..."Okay. Uh. Uiharu, I know I'm not Judgement, but is there anything I can be—wait." I peer over the guard rail again; both the cellphone shop and the anime store are smoking, half-collapsed ruins. "I'm going to go see if there's anyone I can help down there!" Without waiting for her to reply, I vault over the guard rail into free fall. I close my eyes and focus on the magnetic fields around me, feeling them, strengthening them, and grabbing hold of them. A web of electricity arcs from my body across the rotunda, crackling across the mall like the world's flashiest safety harness, gradually slowing my fall until I descend, gently, to the first floor, not far from Hakamichi's cor—
no. No, don't think about that. You're helping the people who might still be alive right now.
My feet hit the ground, and I suddenly realize that the entire crowd is staring at me. There's faint whispers, looks of awe—maybe even fear?—on some faces. That
was kind of flashy, I guess. I take a long, awkward moment to come up with the right words. "C-come on! People might still be alive under the rubble! Help me dig them out!" I run over to the ruins of the cell phone store and start hauling chunks of shattered concrete away, magnetizing the rebar in the bigger pieces I can't get a good grip on.
After a moment, people start rushing up to help me. First among them is a big redheaded guy in a long black coat that looks like it just came off the set of a Western, who starts digging next to me, followed quickly by a middle-aged salaryman and a couple of girls my age.
It's a long, hard, process, even with my powers, but...we eventually uncover five people from the rubble.
...Two are still alive. One, just barely. I hope an ambulance gets here soon.
The anime shop is a little more fortunate; six out of seven make it. The bookstore was empty when that bomb went off, thankfully.
But that's four. Four who...who didn't make it. There...there was a lot of blood. Oh god, there was a lot of blood.
* * * * * * * *
Ruiko
Phew.
Damn. There she goes. Jumping off a railing like gravity's a thing that happens to other people. Which for her it kind of is, I guess!
I watch Misaka descend to the floor like some kind of electric angel descending from Heaven, watch her start trying to dig people out of the wreckage of the bomb. Man, she almost had me fooled for a minute, making me think she was just an ordinary girl like me. There's
nothing ordinary about her. Nuh-uh. It's not just me, either; everyone else around me is watching her with the same expression of awe. Except for that weird silver-haired girl. She actually looks kinda grumpy about something.
A sniffle from behind me catches my attention. The little girl that Shirai handed over to us is looking at Kazari, who's still flipping through images on her phone ridiculously fast while muttering something about whiskey tangos being foxtrotted into her glasses' mic. Man, how does she even keep up with that? In any case, I decide to take the initiative. "Rinko-chan?"
The little girl looks over at me. "What?"
"Kazari-chan's a little busy right now. You want me to help you find your older sister?" Kazari looks up and gives me an appreciative nod.
She pouts. "But the other lady said flower-lady would help me find her."
I laugh sheepishly. "Flower-lady's
really, really busy. Are you sure you don't—"
"I wanna go with flower-lady!" She runs over to Kazari and attaches herself to her skirt, holding on for dear life.
I grin at her, then put one finger to my lips. I make a show out of walking out of Kazari's line of sight, then tiptoeing up behind her while her attention is on her data feed. Then, all of a sudden, I reach for The Mobile Flower Garden and yank it off of Kazari's head. "And lookee here," I say to Rinko. "Now
I'm flower-lady. Wanna come with me?"
Rinko takes a minute to think about that, scrunching up her forehead. After a minute, she says "O-okay," apparently satisfied with my logic. Kazari's still busy being Judgement and responsible and stuff to respond properly, but I glimpse a little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
* * * * * * * *
Touma
Because today is apparently the kind of day where
miracles happen, this Shirai girl is apparently a rather competent Judgement officer, which, I have to admit, I thought was kind of a contradiction in terms before today. Unfortunately, that means she gets to accomplish all the heroics—did I say unfortunately?
Fortunately, that means she gets around to fighting off a whole bunch of homicidal Level-Plused espers long before I ever get to them. The closest main exit and the nearest emergency exit are already clear by the time I check them; I don't even get to see her in action until the third exit.
I open the door and immediately close it again, as a brick impacts the wall just to my left with a sound like a gun going off. Then I open it again, more carefully this time. There's another dude in a leather jacket with a bandana over half his face, much like the late Loudspeaker Man, looking around wildly. He finally catches sight of something, and sweeps his hands up through the air like he's trying to splash someone with nonexistent water. In response to his motion, another brick tears itself out of the sidewalk and hovers into the air. He steps back and draws one arm back as if preparing to throw something.
Then Shirai appears out of nowhere on his right, and, before he even has time to look around in confusion, slams her foot into his stomach. She doesn't let up after that, vanishing again and reappearing on his left, already shifting into a leg sweep that knocks his feet out from under him. She teleports once more, actually catching his head before it hits the ground—if there's one thing Judgement in general
is good at, it's avoiding accusations of police brutality—then pulls out a small, gun-shaped device and fires it at his chest. Two wires spring out, and the guy twitches a bit before collapsing. (Huh. So
that's a taser. Faster than I thought it would be.) Without warning, a number of silver spikes spontaneously materialize, pinning the gangster's leather jacket and baggy jeans to the ground. She taps her ear, says "Shirai here, got another one, east emergency exit, telekinetic, looks out cold but stay sharp, checking next point." Then she's gone again.
I let out a low whistle. Maybe it was the teleportation making her moves look faster than they really were, but I think that girl could fight
me. Without powers. I haven't met a lot of people I can say that about.
In the meantime, I try and think up the next place to go. If she's circling the mall clockwise, same as I was...best way would be to skip two of the next exits. I check a nearby directory—so that's a department store exit, then another emergency exit, so...next emergency after that.
I run for the door and fling it open.
...Hey, I recognize that girl. Wasn't she the pyro mugger I saved a couple of guys from a couple weeks ago?
...aaaaaand she recognizes me. "Shit!" I hear her yell. "Nullifier's working with the cops! Bug out!" She sends a scorching fire blast in my general direction without really aiming, forcing me to dive to the ground—shit, she had trouble making fireballs the size of a golf ball last time, she's
definitely hopped up on Level Plus—and runs for it. I figure she's going to run into the Anti-Skill cordon that has no doubt been set up by now, until she suddenly bends her knees, there's a burst of fire under her feet, and...does pyrokinesis even
work that way?
Apparently it does, as she manages to jet-leap onto the roof of a building across the street. God
dammit.
* * * * * * * *
Mikoto
Ugh. That's...that's not a sight I ever want to see again. I don't...I don't handle blood well. Even if it's just, like, a normal blood test. And, and that much...I found a doctor, at least, and she said the badly hurt ones would probably be all right until an ambulance got here...but oh god, their
faces...that does it. Judgement, Anti-Skill, I don't give a fuck any more. These murderous psychopaths are going to regret this day.
I rise from my knees in front of the last pile of rubble. My Shidarezakura uniform is ruined, soaked in sweat and blood and caked with concrete dust. Slowly, I turn towards the nearest entrance to the mall. Kuroko's out there right now, I know, securing all of the bombers. But who knows if she's cleared them all out yet?
I run towards, then through the entrance. ACPD's already here, it turns out; cops and paramedics rush by me as I leave. Kuroko's out there, talking to a couple of riot-geared Anti-Skill officers. She notices me and walks over; I quietly ask her if any of them are left.
"None guarding the mall," she half-whispers. "Several of them made a run for it; a couple are converging on a small van illegally parked on North 7th." She sighs. "Is there nothing I can say to stop you, Onee-sama?"
"No."
She looks me over, then buries her head in her palm. "White Toyota EasyCruise, license plate
ka 84-51. At least try to just disable it."
I nod, once, as I dig Maika's little earplugs out of my pocket and place them in my ears. Then I'm off.
The thing about my powers is that while I can't easily make most things that aren't magnetic normally be magnetic, I
can effectively magnetize myself. So if I need to get somewhere in a big hurry, well, as long as I can find something electroconductive to use as a booster...like, say, two tons of steel...
I keep running until I hit the parking lot, and jump onto the hood of the nearest car, magnetizing both it and myself so that I'm securely attached. I charge up for a moment, carefully feeling out the balance of electrical and magnetic fields, and then reverse the field around myself, letting the sudden repulsion fling me into the air, high enough to land on the nearest power line. I hook into the electric field around the line as I land, letting me balance upon it. Then, in a flurry of sparks, I push off, sliding down the the high-tension wire like a skateboarder with a death wish. I don't usually travel this way—it tends to cause blackouts wherever I go—but it's surprisingly fast when I do. I amp up the electric field higher and higher, accelerate faster and faster, carefully timing the jumps over each utility pole.
There.
I'm a few streets up from Seventh Mist when I spot the bombers' van, with ACPD patrol cars in hot pursuit. It's careening down the streets of Academy City with little regard for things like speed limits, traffic laws, or even which side of the street it's on, and the police are having some trouble catching up with it as a result.
The police have limits. I don't.
I dig an arcade token out of my pocket as I draw level with the van, and begin to direct the flow of electricity along my arm. Too unstable to do the little flip right here; I just hold it out on my finger, which I point at the van. Electricity crackles across my skin, and my earplugs seal, ready for the imminent sonic boom.
It's now or never. I aim for the van's rear left wheel, and
fire.
* * * * * * * *
Ruiko
I finally find Rinko's big sister Satoko, a high school senior who apparently forgot her instructions to the little 7-year-old and tried to search the crowd, only to remember them—and assume the worst—when that last bomb went off. She's bawling her eyes out when we find her, and just cries all the harder when Rinko runs up to her. The tearful reunion also happens right as cops and paramedics start filtering into the mall; there's a slow, surprisingly calm evacuation, and now we're sitting outside on the sidewalk, trying to collect our thoughts. Somewhere along the way, Rinko also decides to steal Kazari's headband off my head and try it on herself, then crown her sister with it after finding it to be way too big on her own head.
I'm hammering out an e-mail to Kazari when I catch sight of a news chopper a few streets away; when I look around, a whole bunch of people look like they're watching something on their phones. I pull up the ACTV news feed on my phone and show Rinko and Satoko. Huh. Apparently some of the bombers escaped into a car and—
Hey, wait a minute. The camera's moving from the car chase to a tiny figure moving along the power lines at an completely ridiculous speed, leaving tiny arcs of electricity in her wake. No prizes for guessing who
that is. I mean, who else could it be? You know anyone else who can grind down a high-voltage line at 60 kilometers an hour?
"Whoa..." Satoko is as fixated on the screen as Rinko and I. Misaka's amazing, that's for sure. I mean, I've heard all the stories, seen some videos, but to actually see her in action? In real time? As it's happening?
Totally different. I kinda wish I could be there in person!
The camera feed zooms out as she catches up with the escape van, and almost immediately starts getting snowy as a
lot of electricity starts arcing around her. Is she going to...?
Holy shit, she is. A line of bright white light crosses the screen, and for a moment it's the only thing visible as the static gets bad enough to obscure everything else. When it finally clears up, the car is now on its side, missing its rear left tire and then some, next to a pretty decent-size crater in the road. The camera zooms in on the Railgun, still balanced on the lines, and she just smiles and gives a thumbs up. The camera zooms out slightly, and I catch a glimpse of Shirai staring up at Misaka as it pans over to the damaged car as ACPD officers rush over to pull the bombers out of the car.
"Wooooow..." is all I hear from Rinko.
I can only stare. So that's the power of a Level 5 in action.
Damn.
