A Certain Experiment's End (Arc 3 Epilogue)

Mikoto returned a smile of her own upon seeing Kuroko's, but her inquiry prompted it to turn into more of an awkward grimace than anything else as she scratched the back of her head. “I'm fine, even if I probably shouldn't be out here for much longer...” She slightly turned her head towards the hospital room she had fallen asleep in front of as she trailed off.

She had completely forgotten to put her blazer back on and was now left with only her shirt barely covering the amount of bandages rolled around her body.

Forget about the weeks worth of accumulating fatigue, she had also taken quite a beating from Accelerator himself just technically two days ago. The only reason she had been allowed to sit and wait out here as opposed to resting in a proper hospital room for the night was solely because of her own insistence on the matter, yet in the end she had completely fallen asleep without wanting to and unease now filled her chest as she wondered if she should try approaching a nurse to ask again if visitors were allowed or just give up for the night.

A sigh escaped her lips as she turned back towards Kuroko, putting a hand on her head with another smile as she slowly rubbed her hair around. “It's weird. I thought you'd be bombarding me with all your grievances for what I've done to everyone for so long.” She admitted with a small, awkward laugh.

Mikoto’s smile morphed into what Kuroko could only call a grimace as Kuroko asked about Mikoto’s own status. She was even scratching at the back of her head as she spoke up. “I'm fine, even if I probably shouldn't be out here for much longer...”

Kuroko shifted her eyes to Mikoto’s clothing as Mikoto shifted her eyes to the room that was now behind her. All she had on top was her shirt which was barely hiding the amount of bandages that were covering her body.

It was fairly obvious that someone like her who was not in the best of conditions even after treatment was better off taking it easy. As usual, she was putting off a strong front.

You never change, do you, onee-sama…?

At that thought, Mikoto sighed out, turned her head back to Kuroko, and even put a hand on her head. “It's weird. I thought you'd be bombarding me with all your grievances for what I've done to everyone for so long.” Mikoto admitted with a small, awkward laugh.

As Mikoto’s hand started rubbing across her head, Kuroko let her mouth relax into the smile of a genuinely happy girl as she blushed. No matter how she may try to deny it (not that she would want to), it was blatantly obvious that she enjoyed having her head petted by Mikoto.

“I have plenty of things I want to chew you out for. But, honestly, none of that matters anymore. Knowing you, you’ll probably apologize on your own now that this is all over…but…” Kuroko took her hands and placed them on Mikoto’s. “You really need to trust your friends more. You need to be more willing to share your burdens with us, not just your smiles. We’ll all be much happier that way.” She slightly tightened her grip on Mikoto’s hand before continuing. “I’ll say it as many times as it takes because I know how stubborn you tend to be, onee-sama. After all, that’s one of the many things I like about you.” Matching the blush and the relaxation of her muscles, Kuroko gave a big grin as she finished off.

“I have plenty of things I want to chew you out for. But, honestly, none of that matters anymore. Knowing you, you’ll probably apologize on your own now that this is all over…but… You really need to trust your friends more. You need to be more willing to share your burdens with us, not just your smiles. We’ll all be much happier that way. I’ll say it as many times as it takes because I know how stubborn you tend to be, onee-sama. After all, that’s one of the many things I like about you.”

Mikoto simply continued rubbing Kuroko's auburn hair around as she simply listened to the girl's words and reflected on them. They were probably things everyone she knew would tell her if she stopped to truly listen, yet... (Haah... It's because you say things like that that I can't risk it so easily.) It was quite difficult for this girl to actually accept the idea of others' help when she had been accustomed to doing things alone.

Removing her hand from Kuroko's much shorter head, it quickly flew to her mouth to conceal a rather wide yawn that surprised even herself, her eyes drifting towards the hospital room's door very quickly as she lightly bit her lip after the yawn that was proof she was still quite tired.

"Maybe I'll just pass by later... Yeah." She quickly muttered to herself before her eyebrows shot up and her gaze quickly returned to Kuroko as another question came up to her. Her head slightly drop in shame as she recalled how pissed one of the people she had recalled had been at her lack of communication with them, clearly wondering if they were still angry at her.

She didn't recall leaving them on any particular bad terms last time they had met up, and that was still while she held a decent belief of her Sisters' safety so the outing had been quite casual, but it could just be that they had been pretending to avoid further conflict. What if she had screwed up beyond belief? It's not like this was a situation that could be explained with words alone and not only could she not come out and explain such a gritty thing, but most people would take her for a madwoman if she started going on about a cloning project derailing into a mass murdering project for the sake of science.

“How are Uiharu-san and Saten-san doing?”

“How are Uiharu-san and Saten-san doing?” The discussion had shifted away from Kuroko’s own grievances to the grievances of the friends whom they had left in the dark for the past few days. Just like Mikoto, she had left her friends in the dark for those two days. After all, the situation had gotten too dangerous for her to contact Uiharu or Saten after she had confirmed the significance of the Sisters’ passcode.

Kuroko gave a short stifled laugh. “Well, they’re probably worried about the both of us. Saten-san had enough faith in you to say that you could take care of yourself when I talked to her last. Though, I did abruptly end my last call with Uiharu…”

Kuroko turned her eyes down to the floor. “I’m sure not being in contact like we have been for the past two days has left them worried sick about the both of us.” Kuroko decided to neglect mentioning the fact that she may have made it seem to Uiharu that she was looking into something she should not have. Granted, that would be a very accurate assessment, but that was definitely not the best impression one would want to have left before disappearing off the face of the earth for a couple of days.

“So, I’ll even bow my head down in apology to them with you. After all, I committed an identical sin to you.” Kuroko said, turning her eyes back up to Mikoto's.

“But, for now that can wait.” Kuroko was well aware. Someone who stayed around Mikoto as much as she did was far too aware of Mikoto's more subtle movements and twitches. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice, Onee-sama? Really…you’re quite the open book to me, you know. It’s obvious why you’re so antsy.

“You have something else you want to take care of, don’t you?” She said with a short, self-derisive chuckle and a relaxed smile. She would concede to allow her onee-sama to see that barbarian just this once. After all, she was not the type of person who would want to deny Mikoto that closure.

Though she had been moderately worried about the less attractive sides of Academy City having it off with Uiharu and Saten's heads simply to drag out the group that opposed Accelerator, Kuroko's words reassured Mikoto's mind into less extreme degrees for its ideas as to how they were doing and now she could only feel very simple guilt as to how worried they would be for her and Kuroko's complete disappearances as opposed to dread of their potential fate...

“But, for now that can wait.”

“Eh?”

“You have something else you want to take care of, don’t you?”

Mysterious choking noises started emanating out of Mikoto's throat as her cheeks visibly flushed.

Somehow, despite how much she had turned around and rather visibly fidgeted about the idea of finally allowing herself in, Mikoto had still expected, or perhaps hoped, that Kuroko wouldn't have noticed a thing. Perhaps because she had believed that if Kuroko noticed anything she would launch into uncontrollable rage and barge into the room to finally achieve its occupant, and the fact that she didn't simply had Mikoto so confused she automatically assumed she would never figure it out.

In other words, she was very bad at hiding what she was thinking. It was seriously something she should work on. “I-It's fine!” She slightly stuttered as she turn her head to the side to avoid any form of eye contact with Kuroko. “It's late so we should go and rest since we're injured as well! It's not like the hospital staff didn't do their best and visitors probably still aren't allowed anyway and it's not like I'm that concerned in the first place I just thought it'd be the polite thing to do since I'm the reason he got hospitalised and-” Her rant was interrupted by a brief coughing session as a result of her trying to talk with no air in her lungs, a ridiculous sight in and of itself that she simply wanted to run away from.

Not to mention, just how impolite would it be of her to simply barge in his hospital room with no get-well gift whatsoever to present? She wasn't so cheap as to turn towards suddenly running down the hospital's gift store, if she was going to gift anything then it'd certainly be from a much more expensive store than this! It was much better to put off to tomorrow what she could do right now in that case!

Mikoto’s cheeks became luminescent with a brilliant shade that crossed off the border of pink into red. She was even starting to choke up as she spoke.  “I-It's fine!” She said, turning her eyes away to avoid any gaze from her companion. “It's late so we should go and rest since we're injured as well! It's not like the hospital staff didn't do their best and visitors probably still aren't allowed anyway and it's not like I'm that concerned in the first place I just thought it'd be the polite thing to do since I'm the reason he got hospitalised and-”

Mikoto’s embarrassed rant was cut short by a fit of coughing likely caused by her trying to continuously talk without inhaling.

“Onee-sama!” In a rush, Kuroko ran up right behind her and started patting her back. I’m trying to let things go without incident here! Don’t just go full tsundere in front of me! That kind of thing is only going to make me more jealous!!

As she had confirmed that Mikoto was no longer coughing, she turned her back to Mikoto and started to walk away. “I think I’ll just leave you to yourself for now, Onee-sama. Watching you struggle to justify yourself is painful for Kuroko, you know. So, just do what you need to, okay?”

When her feet just reached the to the nearest exit door for that waiting room, she turned her head back to take one last look at Mikoto. “Well, since this is all over, I can finally say this without having to worry about being wrong about it. See you soon, onee-sama.” With one last genuine smile, she turned away and walked out of the door.

A deep sigh finally escaped her as she walked down that corridor. I showed way too much self-restraint there! That was too much to bear! Even with that demeanor she let out before Mikoto, she still harbored that ever-present green-eyed monster pointed towards that teacher in the hospital. Agh…that was way too much! As soon as he’s well enough, I’ll make sure to let that barbarian have it!

As her brain was letting out its delusional rant, an announcement rang throughout the hospital. “Code Yellow. I repeat, Code Yellow.”

A certain hospital room, 1:40 A.M.

It had taken approximately ten minutes after Kuroko's reluctant encouragement and reassurance from a passing nurse for her to properly psyche herself up enough, but at last she had finally entered the hospital room she had been eyeing since long before she even she woke up. That said, she was still standing around like an idiot in the entryway of the room now that she had very silently closed the door behind her as if she was a small child waiting for the adults inside to either yell at them to get out or actually welcome them in, even though she knew the concerned patient wouldn't be offering either when asleep... whatever he was between actually asleep and resting or simply still unconscious, that is.

Having gone through some considerable care herself as someone who suffered from Accelerator's direct blows, it took a while before she was (very reluctantly) allowed to stand-by in front of Guy's assigned room until he'd gotten enough rest to allow visitors, so there was a certain sense of worry that stuck with her up until now even though it was attenuated by the reassurance she got from not seeing any alarmed nurses rushing in and out of his room any more than they'd need to for his severe wounds. “Idiot...” She simply muttered with a hand mercilessly combing her hair just for the sole feeling of doing something other than be frozen in place.

Taking a deep breath, Mikoto slowly and silently approached Guy's hospital bed and unfolded a chair near it, straightening out her messed up skirt before actually on it and intensely observing the seemingly slumbering black-haired man clad in a hospital gown that he was likely as familiar with as his normal black and red clothes. The idea that he was as used to wearing this gown as he was to wearing his everyday clothes bothered her immensely, but at this point she simply resigned herself to accept the fact that even restraining reckless people by tying them to their bed would never actually stop them from getting in trouble and he was a perfect example of such a person.

“There's no stopping you from acting so stupid, is there? Look at how you've ended up now...” Mikoto slightly muttered her thoughts, somehow finding a sense in serenity in how things hadn't derailed to situations where she had again killed someone... perhaps she was slowly but surely allowing herself to slip back into the everyday life she had been so used to now that he and Kuroko had forced their invaluable help on her?

Some time passed as she turned around all kind of thoughts in her mind, signalling that it was perhaps time to leave even though Mikoto couldn't tell for how long she had been there. “Haaah... Thank God he's sleeping, he'd definitely make fun of me if he saw me sitting there...” As she slowly lifted herself from the chair she proceeded to fold and put away, she allowed herself a slightly loud sigh and a following mutter that could be heard rather well in this dead silent room..

"Yin!" He called out a name to the emptiness. All around him was blackened and blasted. The world had been blasted clean. The girl in front turned and offered him a bitter smile before the light took her. She whispered something that he couldn't hear and then vanished, falling apart like dust in a hurricane.

***

Fading back into consciousness just for a moment he saw the night sky above him. Glittering with stars that hadn't yet fallen. Someone was cradling his head. For a moment her face seemed the same as... His eyes stared, seeing but not awake.

All around him was blackened and blasted.

Unconsciousness came swiftly once more.

***

He awoke to lights, bright on the ceiling above him. He was moving.

"Pulse is dropping." They sounded worried. They looked more worried. He didn't have time to dwell on that fact before the pain set in. He tried to move but the exertion only set off a new chain reaction of pain.   Accelerator. He wasn't done yet! He still had to finish him... The nurses held him and he felt the sting of a needle in his arm. An old man's voice tried to reassure him that he would be alright as he fell into darkness.

***

The child without a name sat in the corner of the small and bare room in perfect silence. He had learnt long ago that crying did nothing but ensure that he fell asleep exhausted and with stinging cheeks. He found that he was slowly forgetting the faces of his parents. It was a fact that troubled him less with each passing day. Every time he left his cell he felt less. Less fear. Less sadness. Less anger.

Through the walls he heard crying. And screaming.

The bandages on his arm were falling loose and the stitches below had torn.

The small boy wouldn't be alone for much longer as the sound of an opening door announced another's entrance. The boy didn't raise his head or even flinch.

"He's reopened the incision." The researcher reported. The mouthpiece rendering their voice mechanical enough to disguise any gender. "Hold still." The instruction was clearly aimed at the boy who lifted his head to watch the researcher restitch his wound. It was a quick and precise task with no care given towards the boy or any pain he might have felt. For his part the boy simply stared with cold, dark blue eyes at the adult before him. It was an empty gaze that would give one shivers just from seeing it.

"Where is my sister?" The boy finally spoke coldly and quietly. It was difficult to tell from the lack of tone in his voice whether it was meant as a demand. He always asked when they came for him. Even as he forgot the faces of his parents, he still remembered his sister. Somehow.

There was no reply. The researcher tugged roughly at his arm, urging the boy to his feet. The child did not resist. In the back of his mind he noticed that the crying had stopped.

***

When I was a child, I leanrt thatGod doesn't save those who hope for it. That the world doesn't punish those who deserve it. I learnt that if I wanted to be saved, then I would have to save myself.

The troubling dreams bled into reality as Guy stirred from his sleep. He was aware of the pain first, dulled by painkillers thankfully. But something else. He wasn't alone. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the darkness of the room and he felt a familiar sense of unease at the sound of heart monitors and the smell of a sterile environment. Only a familiar voice had dispelled that unease.

“Haaah... Thank God he's sleeping, he'd definitely make fun of me if he saw me sitting there...”

It took him a moment to put a face to that voice. But as though acting on instinct he had already started to speak.

"Well, when you put it like that how am I supposed to resist teasing you about this now?" He was smiling weakly but still enough to convey a warm and carefree cockiness that was at odds with his current state. Even after being beaten half to death, the young teacher seemed to shoulder it all with the same cocksure grin.

He lifted his right arm, finding it surprisingly heavy and stiff. The cast didn't look like traditional plaster. More like a kind of plastic shell that held his arm bent at a right angle. He raised an eyebrow. Apparently even the city of the future had limits.

The sound of his voice was immediately replied by a resounding bang against a nearby metal locker as small incoherent mutters and laughs could be heard. “Hahaha... The way I said that, I was just asking for it, wasn't I? Ha... Hahahahaha...” After a bit of chewing on her lip, though, she frantically ran a hand through her hair to calm herself down and turned around with a frighteningly assertive step that could be comparable to smashing your foot on the ground, making the girl slightly recoil in pain.

“Ow...” She uttered before coughing to clear her throat. “Um... I don't expect to hear any kind of positive answer, but I'll ask anyway, how are you doing?”

Then, perhaps it was simply due to the weight of realisation that she didn't, she noticed her hands felt oddly heavy despite not carrying anything, for which she shook her hands together in a frantic mannerand clapped them in an apology. “Sorry! I didn't have time to pass by a gift shop.” She quickly admitted though without mentioning the fact that she had also completely forgotten until she found herself confronted with the moment where she'd be very not subtly told by Kuroko to finally visit him.

“Um... I don't expect to hear any kind of positive answer, but I'll ask anyway, how are you doing?”

He laughed, and a stabbing pain shot through his chest from the broken ribs.

"I've had worse." He shrugged. A little unconvincing given his current state. Having it much worse than he had now usually meant you were dead. "Don't worry, I didn't get you anything either." He joked. "And besides, you've just recovered too, haven't you?" He looked her up and down. "You seem in pretty good shape. I'm glad you're okay." He sounded relieved. "What about the others? Did everyone make it out? What happened to your 'sisters'?" He was haunted by visions of that desolate, ruined landscape and couldn't shake the cold feeling it left inside him. So many gone...  His eyes glazed over in a thousand yard stare for a moment before he regained his sense of presence.

"How did it end?" He asked after a moment. "I can only remember fragments. I hit him and..." He looked down at the cast on his arm. Not only his hand, but his entire arm had broken at the moment of impact when the force of the blow had travelled up his already fractured bones.

Raising a curious eyebrow as to just how worse he could have possibly been in his life, which was nothing reassuring to imagine to say the least, Mikoto found herself unable to hold back a blush for how openly concerned he had been about her despite his own injuries and simply ran a hand through her hair as she slowly thought about it.

Ultimately, no proper explanation came to her at first so she nodded as reassurance that everyone was okay; the outcome of this whole situation had been just as recent for her as it had been for him, and though she wouldn't ever admit it she hadn't had much time to properly reflect on things with how worried she had been about him anyway, so any news to him would be news to both.

“Calm down, you don't need to worry. Everything's fine. Thanks to you.” A small smile accompanied that very reassuring elaboration, only to be soon replaced by a deep frown.

“You really had the worst of it: Kuroko and I got away with simple injuries that'll heal soon, Hujisaka-san is... well, I actually forgot to check, but I think she'll be okay even if she was quite battered.” The realisation had her sweatdrop, but she reassured herself with the vague feeling that she would've known if something bad had happened.

“As for the Sisters...”

Her voice trailed off in an awkward manner, uncertain of whether she should say anything. The mere words clutched at her heart in a painful manner; in the end, even though she had gathered the courage to visit him, she never managed to do quite the same for a completely different type of courage needed to confront those girls. They had had some alone time while the whole operation went down, but now that things had calmed down and the possibility that everyone could return to their normal and peaceful lives wasn't just a dream anymore, she wasn't too sure about how she should approach them.

“Those girls haven't suffered any life-endangering injuries so I figured it was best to let them rest from all that happened. Knowing them, though, they may come to visit you soon, so...” 

She trailed off once again, almost proof of her hesitation, and simply pondered whether there was anything left for her to do after making sure both Guy and Kuroko were okay. But only mere seconds later, Mikoto came to the easy and convenient answer that there was nothing else she could do for the night since she was in dire need of proper recovery time herself anyway, and swiftly moved towards the door with a waving motion after energetically clapping her hands; as if giving in to her cowardice and trying to escape before being crushed by the pressure of eventually being judged for her sins whether it'd be by this boy's words or the Sisters'... 

“Okay. You must be tired so it's probably best if I leave now, I'll call for a nurse on my way out since you finally woke up. Either force yourself back asleep soon or make sure you aren't too much of a pain to her!”

“Calm down, you don't need to worry. Everything's fine. Thanks to you.”

He laughed under his breath. That was a rare thing to hear these days. Genuine thanks. As though for once he hadn't made things worse. Ever since he'd arrived in this city his streak of failures had only grown. He failed to save the brother and sister from Skill Out. He'd failed to save Index from Necessarius and Laura Stuart. He'd failed to save even Iresia from her pursuers. Each time someone else had taken over where he'd only managed futile attempts at changing the course of fate.

Each time Heroes had emerged to save the day. This time had been no different.

"It's not me you should be thanking. Your friends came to your help and believed in you." He sighed, shaking his head and let out an exasperated sounding sigh again. "Look, in case you couldn't tell from back there I'm not good at speeches or reasoning with people." He preferred action hero-esque one liners when possible, in fact. "But your friends were willing to risk their lives for you.You should probably give them more credit, you know?" He decided not to chide her further for shouldering the burden alone. Instead he settled for simply repeating earlier sentiments. "If I can leave you with a single lesson as your teacher, then it should be that 'You're not alone', remember?"

That should have been that. But as she excused herself he couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't telling him something. A clawing doubt at the back of his mind. He was about to let her leave when he spoke up.

"That guy..." He sounded reluctant to continue. He didn't want to finish the thought. A dreadful pause hung in the air as he considered it. "What happened to him?"

Having been caught in her attempt to flee, though thankfully not with the topic she feared to be cornered with, Mikoto raised a curious eyebrow as she turned her only shirt-over-bandage-wrapped upper body back to where the heavily injured young man was.

“'That guy'? You mean Accelerator?” She asked as she pondered what kind of odd interrogation had emerged from the person who had beaten said Accelerator into unconsciousness; did Guy actually have some kind of really kind (but actually idiotic) personality trait of caring even for his deadly enemies? “I'm sure he's still alive, at least. But you know, I wasn't exactly going to check on him of all people when so many of us were injured and needed to be hospitalised.” She originally deadpanned, but the memory of actually easing Guy down onto the ground the way she did made Mikoto's cheeks flush as she forcibly turned her head around before it could be noticed.

It had seemed like the most natural thing to do at that moment and considering the gravity of the situation it likely was, but seeing how most physical contact with him she could recall almost always ended up with her at least attempting to electrocute him if not doing it successfully, the actually very shy Mikoto had trouble coming to terms with how casually blunt and daring her actions had been. Once again, she was thankful he had been completely out of it.

“S-So that's how it is. But yeah, the others really deserve it for putting up with all this crap so I... don't know how but I do plan on making it up to them no matter what they say.” Mikoto said as she scratched the back of her head for the umpteenth time that night, and only very slightly turned her head back towards Guy. “...and to you, too.”

A shudder went down her spine as she imagined what kind of very precise perverted treatment Kuroko would inflict upon her when Mikoto would force-suggest the idea of doing anything to make up for the whole mess that lasted well over two weeks, and she also had the vague impression that all of the others would have their set ideas as well, some more forgiving and others more malicious than others. 

Which only really left the most important; the Sisters.

She had thought of many ways of apologising from everything from their birth to their death but it was admittedly a very hard thing to make up for experiencing death over ten thousand times. If she wanted to ever apologise for dragging them into this mess, then Mikoto concluded she could only... “...stay out of their lives from now on.” She absent-mindedly muttered the rest of the thought out to herself.

She had told him to get some rest. Of course that would be the obvious thing to do. Already though, he was considering his plan of escape. It was about time he got out of this place. The nurse would be gone for a while longer. His clothes were right there. He'd have an easy window of opportunity if she left now.

And he'd have let her go without another word had it not been for one thing.

"You know you should smile more often. It looks better on you." He said. Words that seemed familiar. Words he'd spoken to her in the past. The troubled look hadn't escaped his attention. Even now he was trying to help. In his own, inimitably frustrating way, that's what he was doing.

He hoped he wouldn't have to spell it out to her that avoiding her 'sisters' wouldn't bring any of them any happiness. If he had to start delivering those kind of speeches with a straight face, he'd probably have to punch himself just on principal.

Biting her lip as though the very idea was repugnant, Mikoto dared not moved, trying to think about the best way to answer that request-like statement. “Those girls...” She hesitantly started, uncertain of what to do or even think, before facing Guy by finally turning her head towards him completely with a smile decorating her face, indeed, but one filled with bitterness and regret and most certainly not what he was just asking for.

“They're genetically the same as me, so the same goes for them, right?” Her smile faltered; it was a stupid question and she herself knew it, they'd look great smiling even if they weren't her clones or clones at all. Anyone who went through the mess they had, not to mention well over ten thousand times, deserved to bear genuine smiles for the rest of their lives. “I made them go through well over ten thousand death by giving out my DNA map so easily, and that's nothing to smile about. I can try as much as I want but I'll never be able to relate with that I've put them through, so...”

As embarrassing to hear as they would normally be, the feeling and words were much appreciated, something she found herself being disgusted by in a belief of selfishness, yet they were openly rejected for her next words showed her determination to make sure the Sisters would have normal and enjoyable lives from now on.

“I'm sure they'll enjoy them a lot more than me who's too long gone to deserve them. They'll need that kind of support while they get adjusted to their new lives and if I'm around then it'll only be counter-productive, so... Keep those kind of really clichéd sentences for them, will you?” As she talked, her smiled warped into one a lot more sincere but still just as burdened as her previous one.

"Well, I'll be sure to tell them too, if that's what you mean." He gave a flippant shrug. "But if you owe them anything, you owe them the choice of seeing the only family they have in the world."

"You may feel responsible for their deaths, but you're definitely responsible for their lives. Without you they'd have never known what it's like to be alive. Maybe I'm wrong but I think they're grateful for that. And if you don't believe me, why not ask them yourself? You might be surprised by what they say." Laying back into his hospital bed he looked up at the ceiling.

"Take it from me though. Having family around is important to making people smile." Though it was too slight to see from the distance between them, his mouth twisted into a bitter smile of his own. He tried to remember a face, but it crumbled like dust in his mind's eye.

A few more moments of silence went by as Mikoto thought of the implications of what he said.

It was mysterious, she had expected to be blamed for their deaths and now she found herself being reassured for their births. Perhaps it was stupid to expect any condemning from someone like him, or perhaps he was simply being far too indulgent with her. Mikoto couldn't tell, and she couldn't even figure out if she wanted to.

(But well, this stopped being about me a long time ago.) She thought, what he said was sign that to make up for all she had put the Sisters through, she should follow their wishes instead of forcing hers based on her moods and she uncharacteristically felt like she should perhaps be obedient for once.

(I guess I don't have a choice.)

Mikoto widely stretched as if having not paid any attention to what he had said though the previous silence proved the opposite. “Okay, I think I've taken enough of your time here. I should get going.” A few more seconds of silence reigned in the room before she slowly whispered under her breath, cheeks visibly flushing as she tried to up the volume of her sentence but only barely managing a mutter.

“...nk... ou...” 

Goddammit. It was a lot harder than she'd expected it and she almost wished she was on some kind of pain-killer that would numb her enough to just blurt it out. She brought a hand to her hair once more and with slight chewing on her lip, she finally coughed to call his attention because she certainly wasn't going to repeat it.

“By the way... I-I, uh... Didn't really say it p-properly but... Uh...” As if trying to wash away her embarrassment, Mikoto simply gave him a very bashful yet cocky grin very much alike her, finally saying what she had to say before immediately booking it out of there though not without a polite bow.

“Thank you.”

And so, having finally cleared her heart of a lot of things that have been weighted on it, the young girl who had spent the last two weeks tormented by a wicked reality found herself running through the hospital's corridors in a carefree way against her better judgement.

August 4th, 1:45 A.M.

Knee-length brown hair, amber-coloured eyes, a slightly taller stature than other girls her age, the slight difference of a summer dress against what people would normally expect from the person they assigned her appearance with... a certain girl couldn't help but run her hand through her hair, desperately trying to arrange flaws that did not exist in her perfectly straight and combed hair under a rather large summer hat that was an odd choice for the current time of the night.

The courage needed for her to take a step into a public facility like a hospital where she could be easily recognised was one thing, but the one needed to actually step up and visit the person she wanted to was a complete other and despite all her good will in the world to be at least a decent acquaintance and visit the concerned person, she had a terrible feeling something would go wrong the moment her feet would come in contact with the hospital's grounds.

It wasn't founded, nor did it make any kind of logical sense: her attire in this light-less night-time Academy City should be enough for people to not notice her yet Hujisaka Natsume found some issues stepping inside a public facility that associated itself with so many people.

“Okay, let's go.”


**

The hospital was thankfully almost deserted save for the woman at the front desk to whom she necessarily had to approach to find the correct room number. Trying to manoeuvre her way out of meeting anyone else, especially any nurses, she had incidentally caught wind of a very worrying piece of news that a patient had escaped their room, giving the poor girl a deep pit in her stomach as something within her just screamed she was not as unrelated to the matter as she would have hoped to be.

With a lot of courage and a lot of planning, Natsume had finally extracted the hospital room number of the girl named Kamijou Touko whom she had met only slight hours before what would turn out to be a very messy zombie chase she ultimately had no proper grasp on earlier that day. At the end of it all, she had met a blonde boy who took care of the aftermath yet there were still many questions lingering in her mind that she had figured were best to leave alone at that moment.

Sitting well on her head was her hat that served to mostly hide her face in such a dark environment, something she openly exploited in her attempts to do so from anyone in sight which funnily enough ended up including one peculiar middle school girl who ran at full speed past her with a face akin to a tomato's for a reason Natsume couldn't figure out very well.

However, there was one thing she just couldn't shake off and that was her curiosity regarding this bizarre girl and her bizarre right hand. Natsume figured that asking her about what had happened technically yesterday would be her best bet at getting some closure, and had made her way to this hospital at a time where no one would needlessly linger around to recognise her for the sole purpose of answering those questions before she lost the opportunity to do so. All was for the best right now, and she hoped it would continue.

Lost in her thoughts, Natsume arrived in front of a room with a number plate that she struggled to recognise matching digits on in her nervousness, slowly taking a deep breathe in as if to calm herself before entering a grand stage for which she politely readjusted her hat away from her face.

“Right... Everything's going to be fine.”

And with much courage, she opened the door to commit what she would find to be a grand, grand mistake...

“By the way... I-I, uh... Didn't really say it p-properly but... Uh... Thank you.”

She made her hurried escape and Guy chuckled quietly.

He wasted no time swinging his legs out of the bed and taking a few slow steps towards the folded clothing beside his bed. His legs were shaking, the bruises and injured bones reminded him of his condition with powerful, stabbing sensations that buckled his knees and he had to steady himself.

He took a breath and steadied himself, his expression turning blank for a moment, relaxing before he took another step. And another. It took him a few steps before he stumbled again. But it wasn't pain that took his balance. The waves of numbness and dizziness took his legs out from under him and he caught himself on the edge of his bed. Disoriented, he tried to find his feet. But this was no longer a question of will power. His body could simply not handle what he was attempting.

With reluctant resignation he managed to fall back into the hospital bed. He felt the world warping around him. Like drunkenness but without any of the pleasant parts. It seemed that despite his wishes he would have to spend the night in a hospital ward.

Opening the hospital room's door and confidently walked inside as a whole speech about rationality and recklesness formed in her mind, Natsume began rehearsing what needed to be said to the girl once was awake in a mutter not necessarily meant to be heard by anyone but herself. It was her way of psyching herself up. “I warned her to be careful because that kind of attitude was just dangerous and reckless and what did she do? Jump in the complete danger of a world she doesn't even–“ 

However, the words died on her lips as she had approached the patient's bed; she hadn't been able to make out the details of the lying figure that well in the dark when she entered the room because honestly she couldn't see anything without proper lighting in the first place and trusted the room number, but now that she was close enough to the bed to see who occupied it; she could tell this was not the person she was looking for.

For one, there was no way this person was Japanese

For two, this was certainly not a teenage girl; this was actually a man older than her.

For three, though it looked unkempt, his hair was actually decently styled compared to that girl's porcupine head... well, anything was decently styled compared to that, but that distinction didn't matter in Natsume's mind for now.

He didn't have a porcupine head, therefore it was the wrong individual: that kind of simplistic reasoning was what led her on the truth of the situation.

(No way... Did I...)

And this man seemed to be doing a lot worse than Touko last she remembered. It was then the idea ticked in her mind: she had barged...

(Misread the room number?!?!?!?!?!?!?)

In the wrong room...

Her voice completely derailed into a high-pitched squeak as red spread from her cheeks to the roots of her hair, waving her hands frantically as she apologised like a madwoman. “I-I-I-I'm sorry! Sorry! I got the wrong room! Um, are you okay?! I'm really, really sorry! You really don't look okay, should I call a nurse?!” Though she had concern for the older man, she certainly hadn't dared to do anything other than her frantic movements solely because if she were to move her legs they would automatically default to running away at high speed.

That voice sounded familiar and in he could only see her at the edge of his vision. With the low lighting and his general deliriousness he recognised her as someone else.

"Natsumi?" Strangely, that might have been the first time he used her full and proper name. "It's not like you to apologise. Tonight must have really shaken you up." He let out a half hearted laugh and turned his head to look at her, squinting through the churning, swimming darkness to get a better look at her. "I'm doing just fine. Come to set me on fire for something?" He asked, sounding a little defensive, as though he was expecting an argument to erupt or for her to chastise him in her usual manner.

It took a few moments for him to realise the girl speaking to him was not who he thought she was.

"Ah. Sorry." He said weakly. "I thought you were someone else. It's not often I get so many pretty girls paying me a visit." He had returned to his usual self.

Still stuck in place like she had been glued there using the strongest glue in the universe, dread slowly overcame this young girl as she realised she had just committed the one mistake she couldn't afford to since entering Academy City: she had gone ahead and encountered someone who knew her sister, and from the sound of it, quite personally.

“No, it's fi–... Wait, pretty girls?” Amidst her embarrassment at the technical compliment, she firstly spared a thought at wondering whoever he meant by that seeing how she had no clue of what kind of relationships that girl had forged in this city as she frowned slightly, and then it was the specific plural use of the word that bothered her...

Though a thread of salvation had been thrown at her in how he quickly realised his mistake and so far didn't inquire further, this man sure had a knack for saying peculiar and shameless things in such short sentences.

(………………………………………………………………)

...Wait.

(“Tonight must have really shaken you up”? What happened? He's really badly injured, so...) She suddenly recalled how erratic the nurses' behaviour had been when she tried to sneak her way into this room. (Oh, dear God, don't tell me she got involved in something bad again?! Heck, what does “come to set me on fire” mean? Did she make a habit out of burning people?! Don't tell me she's part of the reason this man has been hospitalised and the nurses were in such a hurry?! What went wrong with her while she lived here if that's the case?!?!?!)

She cried out internally while trying her best to keep a smile, however nervous, on her face so as to not let her inner stress be obvious as she messed around with her hat, this time regretting not keeping tabs on the girl herself with what she was hearing. “Umm... Did... Did someone do this to you?” She couldn't tell if she was being subtle or not by attempting small talk for now, but if there was one thing she had to confirm, it was that. Not to mention suddenly running away would be terribly suspicious.

The young man rocked his head back and forth in a non-committal manner.

"Well, I guess that depends on who you ask. You could say I did this to myself." He admitted with a wry expression. "Trust me, the less you know about it the better." He said languidly, like recalling the entire thing was a bother that he'd rather avoid.

"Besides, you're not here for me." Guy fixed the girl with a strangely piercing look. "And from the looks of you, this was a sudden visit." The way he scrutinised her; it was as if he was searching for something in her expression, or some hint by her reaction. "Something serious happened tonight, didn't it?" He ventured a guess before his face immediately lost its guarded edge. "I hope whoever you're visiting isn't in too bad shape. The guy who did this to me is still out there, after all."

The guy who did this.

Those words washed Natsume over with such reassurance that her often overly emotional self could almost collapse and start crying. Almost. The hard work she had spent over the past few years trying to control that peculiar aspect of her bore fruit as she managed to simply muster a small, awkward laugh to replace any overreaction.

(Okay, she didn't do anything. Thank God... And from the sound of it, she shouldn't be too injured or he'd have talked at me like I was a ghost.)

That said, now it wasn't his words that felt weird, it was his rather intense gaze that had her hands fly to the top of her head to anxiously fiddle with her hat some more as she slowly asked. “Um... Is something the matter?” As she spoke, she realised she was muttering awkwardly in her sentences far too much and she wanted to slap a palm on her face for that, opting instead to cough as lightly as possible before continuing.

“But yes, I'm really sorry. I came for a courtesy visit since the person I was looking for isn't doing too badly, but I misread the room number.” She slightly hung her head ashamed at that before rising it once again; finding it surprisingly odd to simply walk away now despite the inherent awkwardness of the situation; her curiosity peaked over anything else. “It may be rude of me to ask, but what do you mean by “still out there”? Is there something dangerous happening?” Feeling absolutely certain that the magician from earlier that day had been dealt with, Natsume couldn't help but frown as she asked. Did the conflict between magicians run deeper than what first appeared?

As though he'd found his answer Guy released her from his gaze.

"No, there's no danger. It's all been dealt with." He said though he felt uncertain. If Accelerator was still alive, then there was no telling what he might do. If they were lucky he'd learn a lesson from his defeat.

If.

"But there are plenty more like him in this city. Trust me. I seem to run into most of them on a daily basis." His subdued laughter had a bitter sort of humour to it. "So be careful. You don't want to end up in here like me or your friend." Guy raised an eyebrow towards the girl. "Or perhaps you're one of the ones who puts people in hospital? I can never tell with you Espers." He sounded amused, if a little dismayed. He closed his eyes and another tremor of laughter shook his shoulders.

"Espers. Who could believe giving superpowers to kids could cause so much trouble? You'd think being unhinged was a prerequisite for the Curriculum or something."