Tokiwadai Middle School had a dormitory both inside and outside the School Garden.
Shirai Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto's room was in the dormitory 'outside'.
"Gack…ah…"
Dragging herself to the back of the dormitory, Shirai nearly vomited blood. She was trying to force herself to swallow the remaining blood in her mouth and move forward. She had to bandage herself up first, but her body didn't obey her commands. Her Teleport ability couldn't be controlled well due to the pain, making it almost impossible to use.
Her right shoulder, left flank, right thigh, right shin.
The many sharp metal needles stabbed into several parts of her body continued to tear the cloth on the clothes into the wounds. For every step she took, the magical feeling of the skin and clothes rubbing against each other would be ingrained into her mind with the pain.
The shriveled schoolbag now felt like it weighed as much as a dumbbell.
Shirai understood that she had lost much strength and felt rather uncomfortable about it; a chill flowed down her abdomen.
Arriving at the back of the dormitory, Shirai noticed a set of windows, confirming that the lights in her room weren't on.
(That's good…Onee-sama…isn't back…yet…)
Shirai weakly smiled and again regained her concentration.
In such a pathetic state, she definitely couldn't go through the front door. Shirai Kuroko endured the pain strongly, trembling and anxious, trying to make her mental calculations and teleport directly into her room.
In an instant, she couldn't feel any gravity.
The feeling of using teleportation, to put it nicely, was to float lightly in the air; to put it bluntly, it was a feeling of no reliance, being on one's own. It was like taking a roller coaster ride, the intense sense of nervousness was moving up her stomach.
"…Ugh!"
Shirai safely landed inside a pitch black room. She didn't turn on the lights, just wandered around the room, looking for a first-aid box and a spare set of clothes. As for undergarments, she would just wear the one that she was wore; it would save some time. She opened her bag and pulled out the paper bag that she had gotten from the lingerie shop.
Shirai held onto this pile of things as she moved into the bathroom. The bathroom had no windows, and there was not even a single sight of light; the place was in complete darkness. Shirai closed the door, feeling for the buttons. Pow, the white light of the sunlight illuminated the narrow bathroom.
"Ah…ugh…!"
Her two hands being weak, all the stuff in her hands tumbled out. Shirai inadvertently leaned her back against the wall, the needle pierced against the side of her abdomen, slammed into the wall, sending Shirai in shock as if she was electrocuted, losing her balance and falling onto the ground. She felt all sorts of pain all over.
(August…21st…)
Though her mind was still in chaos due to confusion, Shirai still continued to sit on the floor, rummaging through her brain. Why must that woman ask me if there was anything unusual that happened on the 21st of August?
(It's true…that Onee-sama…came back very late…and…it was the day when 'that mister' suddenly came to our dorm…)
Thinking about it, other memories continued to swell up in her brain.
(That mister…he left after some time…that's right, Onee-sama's stuffed bear toy was taken away from under her bed. Also, there was a strong gust of wind that blew on the streets for no apparent reason, and there were even witnesses outside the train carriage park who said that there was a huge explosion and blinding flash…)
Finally, Shirai remembered the rumor that had circulated around after that day.
Shirai lifted her head.
(According to an unconfirmed report, the strongest Level 5 esper in Academy City was beaten by someone…)
In order to prevent any unnecessary commotion from taking place, the General Director of Academy City had immediately ordered that information regarding this incident be controlled. Thus, Shirai didn't know who had defeated the strongest Level 5 esper.
The huge explosion, flash, the wind level that exceeded an M7, the carriage park that people assumed was a stage, it was like a baptism of explosion. Anti-Skill had been in charge of the repairs, but Shirai once assisted as a member of Judgment. At that moment, everyone had said the same thing.
The destruction had been truly unbelievable.
The one said to be the strongest Level 5 esper in Academy City was definitely not a bluff.
However,
For the opponent to still stand upright even after facing the attack of a Level 5, it was really unbelievable.
(Also…)
Shirai herself had privately gotten another set of information.
(…Maybe, when those two espers fought, Onee-sama was around.)
Because Shirai Kuroko had seen something.
At the carriage park, where a large number of crates had been destroyed, with all sorts of stuff scattered all over the place, in such a messy place, no one would especially notice a coin. Well, besides Shirai.
Picking it up, Shirai had believed it even more.
It had been a rough metal game coin.
It had also been the same game coin used by a certain girl when she used her railgun. At that moment, Shirai's thought process was interrupted due to tremendous pain. The 21st of August was definitely not an ordinary day, but Shirai didn't understand what that had to do with this incident?
Anyway, let's settle the wounds first, Shirai concluded.
She used her fingertips to gently touch the corkscrew that was stabbed into her right shoulder. A large spiral metal thing would definitely rip her muscles apart if she pulled it.
"Such irony…my ability would be useful in this situation."
Using her Teleport ability, the corkscrew drilled into her right shoulder vanished into thin air and appeared before Shirai. The weapon that lost its support landed on the floor, creating a crisp sound.
Blood gushed out from the wound.
The object blocking the wound had been removed, thus there was even more blood loss.
The reason why Shirai hadn't dared to pull out the metal needles and corkscrew was because she couldn't stop the blood loss.
"…!"
In an instant, her vision became blurry, and everything became giddy. Shirai immediately shook her head, regaining her concentration. She stared at the corkscrew on the floor that was stained with blood, and her jaw dropped.
(A corkscrew from Sheffield (Note: Sheffield is a famous metalwork city in England), and a Majolica handle (Note: Majolica, a famous Italian ceramic)…ignoring where this was created, the history, the traditions, the thoughts and the beliefs completely, this is really messy. Seems like I've really met a dangerous client.)
Shirai again used the same teleport method to teleport away the metal needles that were stuck in the side of her abdomen and heel, and at the same time, used the phone to call Uiharu Kazari.
"Hello, hello, this is Uiharu. Shirai-san, I've already done what you instructed…WAH! You're in pain! I can hear from your breathing!"
In actual fact, Shirai had called Uiharu before she headed back to the dormitory. Besides notifying her that she had lost and the luggage bag had been stolen, she requested Uiharu to check up on information regarding the Tree Diagram, the identity of the teleporter, and to predict the escape route. However, it was really difficult to trace where a teleporter moves, so the last part was just up to whether they could do it.
At the same time, Shirai had requested that Uiharu not mention the fact that she was injured. If she didn't do this, she would likely be obstructed.
Judgment members were all students, and Anti-Skill were all teaching staff members. So the important jobs were handled by Anti-Skill. There were two reasons for this. The first was that they couldn't allow children to be endangered. The second was that they didn't want the children to have the immense power that could solve these dangerous situations.
Once the higher ups knew that Shirai was injured to such an extent, they would likely prevent her from taking further action. But the teleporter had mentioned the words 'Ace of Tokiwadai', 'Misaka Mikoto', which bothered Shirai.
Thus, Shirai definitely could not back off and just ignore this.
"Are you really alright? Having hot-blooded women fighting is not a trendy thing now, you know."
"Forget…about that…what have you discovered?"
Shirai tossed the blood-stained metal needles onto the floor, twisting her thoroughly injured body, removing every single piece of clothing. The thin wool jacket used in the summer, her short-sleeved shirt. She then unhooked her skirt, removing it. At this moment, Shirai saw that her underwear was also covered in blood, her jaw dropping in shock. She then removed the underwear and tossed it onto the floor. When she had first gotten into her room, she hadn't removed her shoes, and at this moment, she removed both her socks and shoes at the same time. She even removed the leather straps wrapped around her thighs that contained the metal needles, revealing a naked body. Shirai investigated her wounds one by one.
"First, regarding the teleporter. Searching through the records, including you, there are 58 such espers in Academy City. As expected of an ability which requires the calculation and manipulation of the 11th dimension, there aren't a lot of people who know how to use it."
"Is there anyone similar to what I described?"
Shirai used her blood-stained hand to reach for the rectangular first-aid box.
"There are 19 people who can move multiple things in one go, including you."
Uiharu paused before continuing.
"According to what you described, there are three people who fit the criteria, but only one of them doesn't have an alibi. I can trace the other two people through the surveillance cameras here."
Without hesitation, Uiharu concluded,
"Second year at Kirigaoka Girls' Academy, Musujime Awaki. Like you, she's a teleporter, but the conditions are a bit different."
"It's definitely somewhat different…she can teleport 10 men and use them as her shield. So the total mass should be about 700kg. it's really different from my own ability."
Shirai didn't deny that she was at a disadvantage. It was because she believed that she could find an escape route through it.
Opening the first-aid box, Shirai took out a soft tube that looked like toothpaste. She unscrewed the cap, squeezed out the paste-like substance inside and applied it over her wound. It was first-aid medication used for treating external wounds, and at the same time, it had the abilities to disinfect, clot blood, and heal the wound. The inventor was an amazing medical researcher called 'Heaven Canceller', but it was hard for ordinary folks to get it. Most external wounds could be treated by it, but in some rare and special circumstances, it wouldn't work. If it didn't work, then it was time for the doctor.
"Besides this point, there are also other notable differences. Your ability is to 'send those things that you touch to another place, which is, using your own body as point 0, and teleporting the item to location A', but Musujime's ability is to 'shift an item far away from one point to another, which is to move the item from point A to point B'. In other words, the start point of her ability isn't fixed, different from you."
"No wonder…that woman called her ability 'Move Point'…"
Shirai gently bit onto her lips, thinking through in her head.
At first, Musujime had really moved many things that she had not touched with her own two hands. However, she had not teleported Shirai Kuroko herself. If she could have done this, there would have been no need to fire anything. She would have just needed to stuff Shirai Kuroko's body into the earth in order to beat her once and for all.
"I have an interesting report over here as well. On this report, Musujime seems to be unable to teleport anyone with a similar power. This may be because a similar type of AIM diffusion field will affect Musujime's ability, but regarding this AIM diffusion ability, there is only a limited amount of research done on it, so the information has to be validated…according to this report, this phenomenon isn't limited to just Musujime. No teleporter can teleport one with a similar ability. Shirai-san, is this true?"
"No idea. This is the first time I've met an esper with the same type of power."
Then, Shirai gave a humph.
Though it was not practically tested, it was not hard to imagine it. The teleporter had to calculate his or her own absolute coordinates on the 11th dimension, and not the 'surface location' on the third dimension. So once other teleporters wanted to change their own coordinates, the 'coordinate information' in his brain would be interfered with.
"And on a non-urgent note, according to an experiment report, Musujime Awaki was injured severely in a lesson two years ago because she lost control of her power."
"…It really isn't an important report. Also, it doesn't even help us find her weakness. Really, how can a monster like her be only a Level 4?"
Shirai thought as she pulled out a tissue paper from her torn skirt, trying to wipe away the blood around her wounds. The skin that had a delicate elasticity became somewhat cooler all of a sudden.
"By just using the right techniques, her technique might not even lose to a Level 5 esper. Maybe she might even know of some weaknesses that we don't know about."
On the other side of the phone, Uiharu casually said.
"Next, regarding the Tree Diagram…"
"I really wished that this is just a big fat lie that Musujime made up, but it seems like it's just a fantasy."
After applying the rubber-like paste to her wounds, Shirai bandaged the wounds. Once the bandages touched her skin, Shirai again felt herself sweating a bit.
"No, I can't find any important information regarding the Tree Diagram being destroyed. In name, the Tree Diagram is still floating in satellite orbit. Academy City did actually fire a space shuttle last month, but the space shuttle's mission had nothing to do with the Tree Diagram."
"What's going on?"
Shirai frowned and stopped bandaging.
She remembered the photo that Musujime had shown her when she fell in the alley.
The satellite that had broken into several fragments.
Uiharu's voice sounded a bit distressed as well.
"I don't know whether this seems like good news…another group of our colleagues found the victim who stole that luggage bag. He is a smuggler, and only knows that the client is from District 23, but he didn't know about the satellite thing. We have already used a telepath to confirm his memories; he wasn't lying."
A smuggler.
Maybe he's an expert in the trade, Shirai considered. After the luggage bag had been stolen, he had tried to chase down the group of robbers, so it could be seen that he had some determination in his job…
"In other words, District 23 wants to send the item inside this luggage bag to some research institute in Academy City, so they hired a smuggler for the job. However, the luggage bag was stolen by Musujime and her gang. Though the group that was robbed wants to get the item back, this is classified information, so they can't disclose it so easily, and can only get it back through the best of their ability…is that what happened?"
Shirai slowly swung her bandaged limbs, checking if there was any blood that was flowing out of them. The quick-dry rubber-like medicinal paste seemed to have completely healed the wounds.
"Though it's rather interesting to see where District 23 is sending this thing to, the main problem is the identities of those robbers. I guess that the culprit behind this is an external organization that's antagonistic to Academy City. Of course, excluding what you described, I guess that the internal strife within different groups of Academy City would require such a crude method as 'stealing'."
"…An antagonistic external organization. How did Musujime get involved with those kind of people? Who the heck is she?"
"Musujime normally applies for leave in Kirigaoka High School, but all her leaves are 'special leaves'. Weird, isn't it? She's not even a member of Judgment."
"In other words, her work may be antagonistic to our Judgment duties?"
Uiharu lowered her volume and said,
"According to an unidentified report, she's the 'guide' to that windowless building."
"…The main base of the General Director of Academy City?"
It was a movie-like rumor, but the highest leader of Academy City was living in a special building that could even absorb and withstand a nuclear bomb attack. There were no windows or even entrances to the building, and they could only teleport in through the help of a 'guide'.
If the rumor was true (or even more exaggerating than what the rumors suggested), that meant that Musujime may know about things that ordinary people didn't know about, and had the opportunity to meet people of all sorts of unique backgrounds. Maybe this was why she had been chosen by the outside world.
"Though we don't know why Musujime wants to do this, let's assume that she linked up secretly with the external organization and planned this robbery. The thing inside the luggage bag…she called it the 'remnant'. And now she has it…"
"After this, she'll hand this thing over to the people from this external organization."
"Can you check out where she's moving?"
Shirai reached out her hand and wanted to grab hold of the underwear that she wanted to change into, only to realize that her hands were stained in blood. Thus, she first headed towards the sink, washed her hands and thought calmly. A girl with twin pigtails putting a phone between her face and her shoulder, fully naked, and washing her hands in the bathroom. Such a sight was truly laughable.
"That's hard. There's no need for a person to move down the roads when he or she teleports. You also know that the security camera system in Academy City has blind spots."
Uiharu paused for a while, then continued,
"Ah, though she wasn't caught on camera at all, this might be a clue as well."
"What do you mean?"
Shirai wiped her hands dry with a towel, put on her underwear and asked. With both hands, she pulled her panties up to her waist…only to feel that she had pulled it a bit too much, and pulled the underwear down a bit.
"Since she's travelling around in blind spots, we just need to investigate all the blind corners. Compared to the whole of Academy City, the total area of all the blind spots is rather small."
"…You're saying this rather calmly, you know. I'm now a critically injured person here…IT HURTS!"
Shirai now used both hands to hook the back of her bra, but this action seemed to stretch her muscles, as she could feel a sharp pain on the side of her abdomen immediately. Shirai thought, I should have worn a front-hook type bra or just an undershirt instead. She frowned as she felt her face. Luckily, the wound hadn't reopened.
Shirai Kuroko checked how she looked now that she was wearing her undergarments.
The design was thought to be 'sleazy' by Misaka Mikoto, and in fact, Shirai was really distraught. However, Shirai herself didn't care about the design of the undergarments because to her, these undergarments weren't meant to be shown off, but were things meant to be worn on her own body. To her, the first condition of choosing undergarments was how comfortable it was. The cute and childish designs were normally thicker and had inferior quality, and the rubbing of a sports bra against her skin while she was exercising would distract her. She even felt that instead of wearing such lingerie, she might as well not wear anything at all (Maybe this was why Shirai herself needed to concentrate fully when she used her ability.) Having a different opinion from Mikoto on this matter, this caused Shirai Kuroko to feel rather sad.
After putting on her undergarments, Shirai strapped the leather straps full of needles back onto her thighs. As there was no set of pre-prepared needles, she could only use the disinfecting alcohol to wipe the needles that had pierced her, and place them back into the leather strap.
"Shirai-san. If she wants to use the blind spots to get outside Academy City, including the surface and the underground streets, there are only several streets for her to choose. So once we check through all these routes…"
"…Shhh!"
Shirai felt that someone else seemed to be close by and immediately cut the phone. At that moment, outside the thin bathroom door, someone walked into the room.
She stared at the entrance of the bathroom and realized that she had forgot to lock the door, and immediately moved to lock it. With a click sound, the sound of metal pieces hammering each other could be heard rather audibly.
"…Kuroko?"
The moment Shirai heard this, she knew who the voice belonged to. Though it was just a rough and short voice that came from behind the door, Shirai was certain that the person speaking was Misaka Mikoto. Even if Misaka Mikoto was just breathing, Shirai believed that she could tell it was Mikoto just by hearing it.
"Are you bathing? Since you came back, why didn't you turn on the lights? Why are you hiding inside a dark room?"
The voice came from beside the door, scaring Shirai. She definitely could not let Mikoto see her like this, not even a trace of suspicion. Misaka Mikoto's overprotective nature may be even more severe than what she herself expected.
"Sav…saving electricity, Onee-sama. O' gentle Kuroko wants to reduce the effect of global warming."
"Oh…but Academy City's main source of electricity are wind generators, aren't they unrelated to carbon dioxide? Our secondary source of power is solar power, so for electricity, we don't have such a problem, do we? Unless we're talking about turning on the air-con, right?"
"Ah, I forgot about it. I thought that I could use it as an excuse to lure Onee-sama into the atmosphere of this dark room…oh my, Onee-sama. As a posh lady, how can you let out a 'ugh!' sound?"
Shirai laughed weakly as she leaned her back against the door of the bathroom.
Through the thin door, a vibration could be felt. The person outside seemed to have done the same thing.
Shirai felt the vibration and started to recall.
"Don't you think that this is too coincidental? After stealing the luggage bag, these men were caught in a traffic jam, it's like it was pre-planned. The electricity flow to the traffic lights was lost…haven't you thought of the reason? Don't you know what kind of power the Ace of Tokiwadai has?"
―Shirai Kuroko knew very well that something was happening.
"Misaka Mikoto is so pitiful. Her nightmare was finally ended with much difficulty because someone destroyed the Tree Diagram."
―Shirai Kuroko also knew that Misaka Mikoto was heavily involved in this.
"And now everyone else wants to repair it. Once this gimmick is repaired, the 'experiment' will likely continue. Hm, I can't really say that I don't understand her feelings."
―Shirai also understood that though Mikoto was involved in this troublesome situation, she would never ever want to show herself being troubled or frustrated in front of Shirai.
By linking all the events together, Shirai could see it. Mikoto was clearly troubled by some issues, but she was unwilling to admit them to Shirai, and yet accepted someone else's help. For whatever reason, Mikoto just wanted Shirai to not get involved in this. It was like a circular perimeter being set up to keep Shirai out.
No matter how much Shirai worked, how much she struggled, Misaka Mikoto wouldn't be happy about it.
If Misaka Mikoto was to see that Shirai was to be involved in her own personal matter, she would definitely be displeased.
Even so…
Shirai still hoped that she could help Mikoto, to ease Mikoto's burdens. Even if Mikoto was to be completely ignorant of this, it was alright. Even if all the credit went to someone else, it was alright. Shirai prayed. With her thoroughly injured body, looking at the blood-stained clothes, she prayed.
Shirai was completely unaware of what was going on inside.
Mikoto was hiding everything from Shirai like a sealed bottle, thus Shirai was unable to guess what was going on.
However, Shirai wanted to solve the problem.
Shirai wanted to pull Mikoto out from the bloody all-for-grabs world.
Once all the problems were settled, Shirai wanted to smile together and have fun together with Mikoto like today after school.
Shirai Kuroko silently made this resolution.
In order to accomplish this wish…
(I won't care even if I have to lie to you seriously, Onee-sama. No matter whether you wish for me to do this or not.)
"Onee-sama, where did you go just now?"
"Hn? I went to look for this little decoration that I didn't buy before. I've looked for it quite a bit recently, but I haven't seen one that suits me. Right now, I just came back to get something, so I'm going out again. Oh yeah, don't expect me to bring whatever gifts back to you, Kuroko."
Shirai thought, this is a stupid excuse. If she made a ruckus and said that she wanted to go, how would Mikoto react?
(Onee-sama just said 'recently'…this means that she had been planning this for quite some time. 'Look for this little decoration…a precision instrument aid can be considered a 'decoration'…too easy for me to see through it.)
Shirai weakly laughed, but that didn't stop her. She just said a sentence. The words that Mikoto had said at evening, Shirai digested it and returned it back to Mikoto.
"But let's hope that it doesn't rain. The weather report nowadays is rather inaccurate."
"…"
In an instant, Mikoto seemed to have taken a deep sigh. After maintaining this silence for a while, she seemed to have lowered down her guard, her tone sounding somewhat softer.
"Yeah. Thanks for your concern. I'll try and get back as soon as possible."
After these words, the presence outside the door vanished. The girl outside the door had already left the door and the room.
PAM! The shutting of the door could be heard.
"Now then…"
Shirai rested for a while, not waiting to even put on her own clothes. She just hastily grabbed her change of summer uniform and redialed the number. There was still something that she needed to ask Uiharu about.
"Hello? That's right. Can you tell me where that woman ran off to?"