[SS] Project Radio Noise

“W-wait! Y-you can keep it, it’s fine! You did win the first game and that was the one that counted… Just keep it okay?! Consider it a present from your Oneesama!”

"Misaka's first present from Onee-sama..." She repeated quietly, mulling over the meaning of the gesture in her mind. "Don't you have anything better? Misaka complains, showing her true feelings." The clone said abruptly without a hint of self-consciousness or sympathy.

"Still... Misaka is grateful, even if the item in question is a tacky souvenir from a capsule machine. Says Misaka, affecting her Onee-sama's behaviour patterns." She said, mimicking Mikoto's passive aggressive stance with arms folded in the fashion of an embarassed tsundere. But with her face permanently affixed into a passive stare the gesture came off as a parody.

"Misaka's first present from Onee-sama...”

Mikoto’s eyes widened as a warm feeling fluttered deep in her heart--

“Don't you have anything better? Misaka complains, showing her true feelings."

Mikoto’s mouth drooped in disbelief.

“What?!” Mikoto yelped, “Give it back if you don’t like it then!”

"Still..." the girl completely ignored her outburst. "Misaka is grateful, even if the item in question is a tacky souvenir from a capsule machine. Says Misaka, affecting her Onee-sama's behaviour patterns."

The electromaster’s mouth snapped closed, eyes twitching with frustration borne from the girl in front of her.

“What kind of a thank-you is that?!” she exploded only moments later.

‘What the hell is up with all this confronting honesty..?’ Mikoto lamented inside. ‘She might be my clone but she’s not like me at all! No way I'm that brutal..!’

She suddenly realised the clone was mimicking her gestures, parodying her movements with the ever-stoic expression, like some bizarre mirror.

“Eh?! Don’t copy me like that! That’s just creepy!” Mikoto cried, waving her hands wildly.

She gave a loud sigh, realising how tired she was. Well, it wasn’t surprising, considering she had just been dragged around all over the place for the entire afternoon… By her own clone…

Her eyes caught sight of the clock on the wall and they became round with surprise. 5:30pm?!

“Huh? Where did my day go?!”

It was almost time for curfew and the Dorm Mistress was going to have her head if she arrived late. There were still unknown questions involving her clones Mikoto wanted to investigate, but she decided it could wait for now. After all, there was no real hurry, since their appearance didn’t seem to herald anything sinister. The Sisters were apparently happy and well-cared for, and Mikoto couldn't see any reasons for lies. Besides, she was dead on her feet right now and a warm bath sounded like a fabulous idea.

‘I’ll investigate further tomorrow after my morning class.’ she decided.

“Hey, I think I’ll head home,” Mikoto looked at the girl who was her perfect mirror image. Even after spending the whole afternoon with her own clone, she didn’t think she would ever get over the surreal experience of talking to someone who looked exactly like herself.

“I guess…” She began tentatively, “I’ll see you around?”

Definitely, Mikoto told herself as her resolve deepened. She was after all, the main reason why they existed. She intended to make sure these girls would be well cared for and happy, even in the future.

(... I should call Hisakawa soon, otherwise she'll probably troll me by not picking up.)

Natsumi decided to put away her music player, and closed her eyes for a few minutes...

...Until she heard a ruckus in the restaurant.

She snapped her eyes open, and saw a young girl flying out of the restaurant and onto the street.

(... What the ...?)

She took a look closer, and saw that the young blonde-haired girl from earlier had hidden under a table, as she shifted her gaze, she spotted the man.

(... That's definitely not good, where did the girl that looked like Misaka go?)

She looked around, and stood up.

"Damn ... Giving me extra work..." She muttered

(I should wait for the good occasion to attack him.)

She got closer to the restaurant, and pushed the girl who had been lying on the street out of the way, as she could get caught in the cross-fire

Looking by the window, she saw the blonde-haired girl took out a mirror, and saw the shock wave bouncing back to the man.

"... What? How'd she do that ...?"

She considered that it might have been her esper ability, before deciding to drop the matter.

As the man stood back up, she threw a fire beam at him.

"... This should do the job, I held back enough to not transform him into ash, but I can't guarantee he'll come out unscathed..."

After seeing the blonde-haired girl run away by the backdoor, she assumed she didn't need to attack the man anymore.

(Well ... I'll just make sure he can't stand up anymore...)

She entered the restaurant by the broken window, while the man was still on the floor because of her previous attack, and threw him a fireball.

The man fainted, but he was not dead.

"Sorry, didn't hold back on that one, you'll probably need a truck of ice on your back for that one to cool down." She said that way too nonchalantly

"Though seriously, this could be dangerous, I don't want the restaurant to fall apart on me, I'll just go after that girl and get some answers from her."

She took off running, after a while, she finally spotted the girl.

(... I'm not having that much of a hard time catching up with her, I guess I don't need to call out to her.)

She picked up some speed, and after catching up with the running girl, caught her by the arm and turned her around.

"Gotcha." She blurted it out suddenly.

The girl was fighting back, she probably believed the man was the one who caught her.

"Hey now, do you mind opening your eyes? You do realize I didn't char to black that guy's back just for you to snub me by believing I'm here to attack you, RIGHT?"

The girl stopped in her tracks, and looked at Natsumi.

"I've said that but..." Natsumi hardened her grip on the girl's arm "Since I saved your butt back there, I'd assume you'll kindly explain some things to me, right?"

Sayuri peeked her eyes open and was shaking from fear after the current events. Her eyes kept focusing back at the cafe.

The sound of rumble was being shifted at the back of the cafe and Sayuri felt sure that the man had simply stood back up and was going to come after her again. If she could cover more ground before the man came back then she'd feel safer.

Sayuri knowing she couldn't speak gestured with her hands to follow her away from the cafe.

Meirin grinned. She spotted someone sitting high up on top of one of the buildings. That solved one problem. Now to watch him and see if anything happened. Before doing anything else, she bought a hat from a nearby store, then stuffed her hair into it after placing it on her head. Hair like hers made her stick out, so she decided to hide it.

Meirin then sat down on a bench and watched Accelerator, making sure to not look directly at him so he wouldn't know that he was being watched. She plugged some headphones into an MP3 player and began to slowly eat candy, relaxing. She also removed her Judgment band and stuffed it into her pocket. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she didn't want Accelerator to see the band; for all she knew, he'd be able to spot it from way up there.

Down the street from a certain restaurant, the Sister stood in front of an ATM, staring at the machine impassively. From her skirt pocket she took out a bank card, slipping it into the required slot.

“Misaka is thankful she had the foresight to save the budget she had been given,” the girl muttered to herself.

A finger gracefully tapped the PIN code, allowing her access to the savings.

“5000 yen should be enough, Misaka is certain.”

The brown-haired girl took the cash that had been ejected, and began to walk back up the street.

BOOM!

A loud explosion suddenly occurred from further up ahead, and some passerbys screamed. A crowd of people ran past her, fleeing from whatever was happening up the street. The girl's head tilted to the side, blank eyes darting about.

“Trouble appears to be up ahead, Misaka assesses the situation.”

Breaking into a run, her usually emotionless eyes widened slightly as she pulled to a stop in front of the restaurant she had been in earlier. It was complete chaos. Broken glass lay scattered about, and the ceiling was half-caved in, as if the space had imploded upon itself. People lay on the ground, some possessing injuries and others cowering in fear.

“A sudden attack. Misaka deduces.” The clone said softly to no one in particular.

Her eyes scanned the area carefully for the small girl in the green dress, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Misaka hopes Sayuri-chan managed to get away unharmed. Misaka expresses her anxiety.”

As high-pitched sirens signaled the arrival of Anti-skills, the Sister turned silently away, unnoticed in the chaos.

“She is small and her strides are short. She should not have gotten too far. Misaka decides to commence her search in the near vicinity.”

Throughout the MISAKA network, there was complete consensus.

OOC: Just a way to start Mari off,

In the middle off a seemingly normal day, a young woman with brown, twin-tailed hair and glasses can be seen walking though the streets of Academy City. This girl known as Mari Illustrious Makinami, an esper known for her trouble making attitude, who at the moment was,

"Ugggghhhhh..." bored as all Hell. She had just gotten out of detention in class and was walking around the city, still dressed in her school uniform, with everything she needed in her bag. Well, more like escaped. She was groaning because of the lecture her teacher had tried giving her earlier for the last time she had gotten out of detention.

And the last time, and the last time, and the last time...

Come to think of it, I don't actually remember how I first got detention. She thought. All I know is that I didn't stick around for it, and kept getting more detention... I should probably stay one of these days, she thought,

Mari looked at her disposable cell phone to see if there were any missed calls or messages,

Damn, nothing. Oh well, A smile spread across Mari's formerly bored expression, All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, She thought,

She decided to take a seat on some steps to put her skates on, and noticed two students from the same school as her were staring,

When she tried to wave, the two of them got scared and ran off, leaving Mari alone with an annoyed expression,

"Freakin' typical," she muttered, but quickly wiped the annoyed look from her face, and started skating through town, taking quick glances around, looking at street light and buildings and such,

Kinda tempted to use the buildings to get around, but if I constantly use my powers like that, I'll get lazy. Mari thought to herself, and continued to skate towards a local arcade.

As she took off her skates, she made sure to take her time doing so, trying to spot any signs of danger. She had been hoping that there would be some sort of trouble so she could get into a fight, and not get grilled.

I can't go looking for fights anymore since I started working, plus my boss said there might be a job for me since they're short on hands now, she thought to herself,

"Oh well," she said to herself, pulling out a few arcade coins from her pocket, "I guess 'll just have to play around until I get called! So tragic!" She said as she ran into the arcade, to play on the nearest dancing game. She would stay there until she got a phone call from someone at work.

When that happened, she'd be out of that arcade in a flash,

The clone watched as her 'older sister' hurried off and her expression seemed somehow mournful.

"Goodbye, Onee-sama." She said quietly as she turned to leave.

The girl walked home slowly, the kitten on her shoulders stirring at the passing cars. It was dark by the time they arrived at the drab looking apartment block. The small door creaked open slowly.

"Did you make contact?" The researcher asked, looking down at Mikoto's 'sister'.

"Yes, Misaka answers in the affirmative." The girl said.

"Very good. You may leave the animal." The balding man in glasses said coldly. The clone's grip around the kitten loosened as she set it down on the desk. "What is that?" The researcher gestured to the badge on the girl's skirt.

"A gift from Onee-sama, answers Misaka truthfully." The researcher reached to confiscate it, but the clone shied away. "Misaka asks that she may be allowed to keep it, says Misaka, desperately."

Desperately. What an odd choice of words. The researcher thought. He shrugged, what harm would it do.

"If you must. Return to your dormitory."

The clone smiled subtly as she ran up the stairs.

***

Accelerator hung up the phone.

"The 23rd? That's too long..." Accelerator grumbled, scuffing his shoes along the rooftop gravel absentmindedly. He meandered to the edge of the rooftop and teetered there, upright for a moment before stepping off into thin air. He fell and the dumpster that broke his fall crumpled inwards with impressions of his feet before he hopped off onto the ground without a care.

July 23rd


“Some parts of the genetic information do not code for protein, but rather, tells how much of the protein to produce. These are the regulartory regions of the genome and are typically found in front of the region that encodes for…”

Misaka Mikoto sat at her allocated desk, looking out the window with a cheek cupped in one hand. The words that the teacher was speaking hardly registered in her mind. Yesterday’s events completely occupied her thoughts, and she mildly wondered what her clone would be doing now.

It was one of those typical, fine mornings. The blue sky drifting with fluffy white clouds, and the Sun’s bright rays streaming through those soft airy marshmellows.

‘Maybe she’s looking up at the sky now too… The same sky…’

A blimp slowly trailed across the blue background, announcing the weather for the days ahead. Mikoto’s eyes followed its path.

‘Tree Diagram…’ Her eyes narrowed slightly as she mused. ‘That’s right… That super computer was mentioned briefly in the report I read involving my clones… I wonder…’

“Misaka-san.”

Mikoto almost leaped out of her chair in surprise. Her hand fell away from her cheek and she quickly looked up to the teacher, a blush of embarrassment already beginning to form.

“Y-yes, sensei?”

“You did an extra project on this topic didn’t you, last term? Why don’t you tell us about it? I heard you received excellent results- the others may benefit from your research, and I’m personally interested to hear it myself.”

‘Uwaaa~ Why can’t I just get a break?’

“O-of course, sensei.”

‘Why me…?’

***

Few hours later found Mikoto trudging down the stairs towards her locker. The teacher had become so overenthusiastic that she had made Mikoto cover her research to the most minute detail. It was needless to say that, for the rest of the class, she had been the center of attention. Yet again.

Heaving a sigh, Mikoto looked towards the clock on the far wall.

11:30 am, it read. The teacher had bombarded Mikoto with questions for 30 minutes straight after class had finished as well. Rubbing her head, she opened her locker.

'Well at least I don’t have any afternoon classes… I guess I’ll…'

A certain girl who looked just like her came into mind. Mikoto’s lips tightened.

‘There are still unanswered questions… There are things I still need to find out! So I’ll-'

“Onee-sama~!”

Something suddenly appeared out of nowhere and latched onto her back. Startled, thin blue tendrils of electricity immediately flared. It was too late by the time she realised who it was.

“Kuroko!” Mikoto yelped, rounding on her smoking junior. “How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?!”

Folding her arms, the electromaster stared down at the teleporter with a disapproving look.

Kerri observes Meirin subtly watching Accelerator from the seat she's in, watching her hide her hair within her hat, and removing her Judgement band.

Hiding her identity. And the band that would give her away. Helps her blend in. Look more normal. Kerri looks at his own Judgement band, I'd take mine off, but if I'm caught, I'll be able to say I'm sneaking around on Judgement duty. Stalking people in the daytime is a lot harder with all of the people around. It gives me a good excuse, He backs his head back into the alley to take another look at the person standing on top of the building, standing up,

He then views the person there step off the edge of the building and coe speeding down towards the Earth,

Is this suicide, or does this person have- Kerri's train of thought was interrupted by a loud crashing noise, and Kerri got his answer as he noticed the boy, pale skinned, with red eyes and a black shirt, stepping off of a dumpster without a scratch,

Yep, that's Accelerator, the number one Level 5. No doubt from the ability keeping him alive, He quickly peered out at the red haired girl, Now what are you going to do? he thinks,

Meirin would have had to be blind to fail to see Accelerator step off the rooftop and fall. She was vaguely impressed that he was capable of surviving the fall; then again, considering his ability, that shouldn't have been a surprise at all.

Groaning and stretching, Meirin got up to follow Accelerator. The way she walked and looked around implied she was merely wandering around, bored.

Kaede sped through the roads, nearly breaking the speed limit. She had realized something this morning that she was stupid not to even consider earlier. Her target destination was one of the Sister's Dormitories within the same building as Yoshikawa's lab.

It was the evening of July 23rd. She wasted too much time. If she only realized earlier. Her thoughts drew her back to the events of yesterday. When she last spoke with Haragi, she left the house in search for Accelerator. This individual undoubtfully knew what was the truth behind Project Radio Noise. The reason why clones of the #3 were being created. Kaede was told the Project was merely for the reason of military power and to perfect the process of cloning. But why would they have needed over 19,000 clones to do so? Where are they keeping all the clones in the first place?

All those answers must lie within Accelerator's grasp. Since he claimed to overlook the sisters, he had to know something about this project.

After she had left the house on July 22nd, she spend most of her day researching about Accelerator's background, esper ability, the reason he was chosen #1. However, not much information in Academy City contained anything about Accelerator despite the fact that he was the strongest Esper in Academy City. After hours and hours of researching either in the library, or trying to question witnesses who seen him before, she seemed to gather knowledge about his recent findings and vague information about his abilities. He seemed to been spotted lurking around sketchy and shady areas no one has even ever thought about entering. It's as though he didn't want to be seen. As for his esper powers, people say that he hasn't been even touched in battle nor has anyone come unharmed from fighting him.

But however, just 10 minutes ago, Kaede had realized one thing. If Accelerator seemed to recognize the clones, in which no other individual outside of the project hasn't even have a clue about, then wouldn't one of the Sister's have some kind of information about Accelerator. Her heart raced as she rushed towards the Research Division buildings to visit one of the clones.

Upon arriving outside of the building, she had to do what it took to avoid running into Yoshikawa. She would get suspicious if she ever found Kaede oddly lurking in places Yoshikawa wouldn't find ever find her in. This would potentially risk some of her freedom from even learning tidbits of the Project itself. As she got out of her car, she straightened up and cautiously walked through the hallways inside until she reached one of the 'dormitories' in the building. She was knocked on the door, checking to see there really was a sister inside.

The door in front of Kaede opened slowlly to the sound of bolts being unlatched and locks turned in their place. In front of Kaede the dull eyed girl stood quietly in the dim light.

"ZX4K74NSI8T, Misaka asks for the confirmation password." The girl said quietly, fixing Kaede with an unflinching glare.

***

Accelerator pushed open the door to his apartment. It struck the wall with a crash that reverberated in the empty, still room. Blood red eyes peered about in the darkness and he ruffled his hair with a deep frown as he stepped inside, letting the door swing shut behind him.

The rail thin teenager lowered himself onto the battered looking sofa and closed his eyes.

***

Kuroko only giggled to herself in a half dazed stupor. She shook her head as she sat up and batted her eyelids at the older girl.

"Is something the matter, Onee-sama?" She asked. Mikoto seemed more prickly than usual, especially given the mood she had been in the previous day. Kuroko though better of asking her directly and changed the topic quickly. "Whatever it is, it's nothing that a good meal in the company of friends can't help." She mentally congratulated herself on yet another close save. "Uiharu-san and I were about to get lunch together in any case." She neglected to mention that she was meeting the other girl to discuss the recent bank card incidents

Meirin casually walked past Accelerator's apartment, making sure to note which door he opened. She walked into a nearby alleyway, looking for a ladder or fire escape to climb so she could wait for Accelerator to leave his room. Luckily, across the street was a tall building with a fire escape.

Unluckily, the fire escape's ladder was raised. Meirin quietly cursed. She looked around for something she could use to get high enough to reach the bottom rung of the ladder. The only thing around was a closed, full-looking dumpster pushed against the wall near the ladder. The red-haired Esper sighed. It would have to do, though the distance between the end of the alley where the dumpster against the wall was and the fire escape was about seven feet away. It would be tricky.

Meirin took a running start at the dumpster, leapt onto it, then kept going. She rose up the wall; one, two, three rapid steps, then vaulted off of it towards the ladder, twisting in the air. She barely managed to grab the bottom rung with her right hand. Meirin silently thanked herself for all the athletic training she had decided to undergo. She pulled herself up and sighed with relief when she could put her foot on the bottom rung. From there, the climb was easy. Though the rusty fire escape creaked, she made her way quickly and safely to the top of the building, where she sat down, determined to wait for Accelerator to leave. She made sure to position herself so that she couldn't be seen from the street. She was prone on top of the roof, against the low wall, which meant she would be difficult to see from high-up rooms in the apartment complex Accelerator resided in.

From her hidden spot, Meirin watched the door Accelerator had gone through not long ago through a gap in the crumbling bricks that was normally used for rainwater. While she was uncomfortable, she was determined to see things through.

"Is something the matter, Onee-sama? Whatever it is, it's nothing that a good meal in the company of friends can't help. Uiharu-san and I were about to get lunch together in any case."

“Oh…”

Mikoto hesitated for a moment. She really wanted investigate more about her clones and find out exactly who were involved and what their motivations were behind the cloning project. On the other hand, was there any real reason to rush into it? It wasn’t as if Mikoto had any proper lead, and the clone she had met yesterday seemed perfectly happy and lively enough.

'Maybe even a bit too lively,' Mikoto thought half-amusedly, remembering the afternoon in the Arcade Center.

Besides, it felt like it had been ages since she had properly hung out with her friends. Why not take this opportunity to cool her head and have some fun? The unresolved questions about her clones could wait a few more hours, right?

“Alright,” Mikoto nodded, smiling. “Count me in!”

***

Few minutes later...

The door slid open smoothly, allowing two Tokiwadai girls entrance into a small café.

“Shirai-san! Misaka-san!” chirped a familiar voice.

It was Kazari, waving them over to a table with a bright smile. The colourful flowers on her hair looked as a fresh as ever. Ruiko sat next to her, sipping on a drink. Her expression also brightened at seeing the pair.

“Uiharu-san, Saten-san! How are you guys?”

With a cheerful greeting, Mikoto sat across them, the natural smile alighting sparkles in her eyes.

“I actually have the afternoon off, so I decided to join you.”

Kerri needed to lag behind the red haired girl to make sure he kept out of her sites, so he couldn't tell exactly what, or where Accelerator was going. However, he was able to guess that he stepped into an apartment complex, given the red haired girl's behavior after walking past a set of them.

Kerri watched as she ran to an adjacent building, hopping off of a dumpster, and grabbing onto a ladder, pulling herself up.

She's physically strong, natural as a member of Judgement. She's thin, but isn't exactly a lightweight. She's capable of running and jumping off of a wall, and her grip is good enough to let her grab the edge of the ladder she was aiming for. Kerri thought.

He decided, that while her back was to him,, he would move into an alleyway, between two other buildings. This one would give him a view pf the path between the building the red haired girl was in, and at the angle of the sunlight, and the small size, not much light would get in, allowing him to remain hidden.

Kerri quietly dashed to the alley, watching the red haired girl to make sure she didn't look back. As soon as he slid in, he took a quick glimpse at his phone, the LCD lighting up the dark alley,

No messages, so there's nothing else for me to do. Kerri thought, looking out from the alley and closing his phone, hidden in darkness,

He watched as the red haired girl climbed up the building and out of his site, and moved into the shadows, keeping a view of the path leading to the apartment complex next to him, Safe to assume she isn't going up there for kicks. No real point. She's most likely waiting for Accelerator. There's no other place he could have gone if he kept his normal pace. I'll just have to wait until she makes her move. I need to know which apartment is Accelerator's anyway.

Kerri thought, as he waited. And waited. And waited.

Natsumi agreed, and followed the girl.

She didn't let go of the girl's arm, and at some point, it became dragging, rather than following, due to her fast walking pace.

After making sure they were far enough from the restaurant, Natsumi suddenly came to a halt.
Still maintaining a firm grip on the girl's arm, she turned around.

"So, I have some questions for you, I won't take 'No' as an answer, so don't even try to run away, otherwise I'm dragging you back to the restaurant."

She said in a dangerous tone of voice, she didn't actually mean to, it was her common way of speaking when she got into a fight.

She didn't wait for an answer and carried on.

"...Hm, I guess that sounded quite harsh, well anyways, to start up calmly, what's your name?"

She had figured out she had used a quite scary tone, so she took a much more softer one.

Abruptly, her phone rang.

"...Damn, what is it?"

She checked the name display, and confirmed the name displayed.

(She has a good timing, for once.)

She turned to the girl and nodded at her for no particular reason.

"Gotta take this, don't go anywhere, got it?"

She didn't wait for an answer and walked away, far enough for the girl to not hear what she was saying, but not too far, to keep an eye on the girl.

"What's up, Hisakawa?"

She started the conversation after taking the call.

"No, just wanted to congratulate you for your extra work~! As expected, only Natsumi-chan can have that kind of stamina to be able to..."

"Shut up, anything important to say?"

She was quite impatient since she was still eyeing the girl,
She prepared herself to pursue the girl, in case she'd try to run away

"Uhm, well, not really. Though I do wonder how things have been going on, on your side."

"Nothing much," She paused for a moment, to find her words. "Hisakawa."

"Hm, what's wrong?"

"I have a question, do you know anything about a cloning project concerning Misaka Mikoto?"

Every now and then, she'd send a glare to the girl, a glare that clearly said « You're dead if you move from there. »

"Misaka ... You mean the Level 5 Railgun? Aah, I do know that her DNA map was used to create clones for military purposes ... But I think the project was frozen due to the clones not having even 1% of the Railgun's power, why?"

(Even if it was frozen, the fact that they concluded that the clones didn't reach 1% of Misaka's power means that some clones were created ... That would mean the hazel-haired girl from earlier was a clone...)

She was somewhat unsatisfied with the answer, and decided to look into it more.

"Anything further down the line?"

She pressed her on.

"No ... Not really, why?"

(It doesn't seem like she's aware of anything else ... Maybe her sources are.)

"Hisakawa, I want you to find out whenever the project's been running again, or if the clones are involved in another project."

"Oh my, ordering around now? As expected from such a dominant sa-"

"Shut up or I'm asking for double the pay, you still owe me for all that extra work."

Since Natsumi didn't work free of charge, she got paid by Hisakawa.
The amount of money she'd get depended on the amount of work she provided.
And since she was the type to overwork herself when bored, she took a lot of missions, excluding extra ones.

"...Oh my, that would be harsh, Natsumi-chan ... I still have to pay the new recruits for their missions!"

"Then get me the information I want."

She didn't leave Hisakawa much of a choice, so Hisakawa had to give in.

"Fine, I'll call you back when I have it."

"When would that be?"

She asked calmly, not wanting to wait for too long since she didn't want to miss out on anything that could interest her.

"I'll make it by tonight, talk to you later, Natsumi-chan~!" Hisakawa hung up.

Natsumi and Hisakawa weren't on bad terms, rather the opposite, which was pretty useful for Natsumi

She put her phone back in her pocket, and went back to the girl's side.

"Now, I'm done with what I had to do, now I'm completely free to do whatever I want with you."

After considering her sentence, she face-palmed at how creepy she sounded.

"Okay, seriously, in order to save some time, I'm gonna ask everything I want to ask right now, so." She paused to take a deep breath

"First up, your name, presenting yourself is common courtesy. Next, why was that guy after you? Did you do something bad, and he held a grudge towards you? I also want to know how did that shock wave bounced back. Also, you don't seem to be a student here, where do you come from? And, who was the girl who was with you at the restaurant?"

As she said, she asked in one-go, not leaving time for any answers, to get them all at the same time.

(I'll just settle with that for now, I don't have anything else to ask for the moment...)

Kazari returned Mikoto's pleasant smile.

"Great. We-" She was cut off suddenly by Kuroko.

"We'll be working on a case for most of the day. You'd find it boring, Onee-sama." She explained, eager to divert her upperclassman's attention from the matter. After the incident with Kashiwagi Mai, Kuroko was reluctant to even mention her Judgement work to Mikoto for fear that the Electromaster would run rampant again.

"Those bank cards, right?" Ruiko jumped in abruptly, failing utterly to read the mood. Kuroko shot her a deathly glare that went unnoticed by the long haired girl.

"Actually, there was an incident at a cafe near here just yesterday." Kazari corrected her friend.

Sayuri pulled away hard from the girl but found she couldn't break free. She kept her gaze away from her line of sight as if she was being scolded.
"I don't know! They won't leave me alone!" Sayuri silent shouted, she found it hard to communicate while the girl was still holding her hands as it blocked one way of her communicating.

The girl soon let go of Sayuri and she felt herself fall back against the wall behind her. She didn't trust this stranger even if she did help save her life earlier, there was something about her that Sayuri just simply didn't trust. It may of been the fact that she was pressuring her for answers and was being rough as she felt sore marked from where she was dragged along.

As Sayuri tried to move away the older girl blocked her path but after having noticed that the girl shouted silently she was more puzzled. This kind of thing would want her to question the girl further but given how shaky she was currently she decided to let it pass and let the girl go.
A young girl like her would surely have to go back home sometime soon so she can just find out all she needs to know from her guardians.

"Great. We-"
"We'll be working on a case for most of the day. You'd find it boring, Onee-sama."
"Those bank cards, right?"
"Actually, there was an incident at a cafe near here just yesterday."

Mikoto's head turned this way and that, as her friends spoke in turn.

'The bank cards...' Mikoto mused, 'that was only two days ago and yet it feels like so much has changed since then...'

A certain fish-eyed girl came into mind.

'I really doubt Judgement knows it was her doing... And since I never actually found out why she was distributing those bank cards, there's no particular reason for me to report her... She knows about the clones,' Mikoto realised suddenly, 'It'd be troublesome if I did report her and Judgement found connections to my cloning project...'

"So did you guys find anything more about the bank cards?" Mikoto asked, trying not to sound too interested. "And what's this incident at the cafe? I haven't heard about this one yet."

"ZX4K74NSI8T, Misaka asks for the confirmation password."

The sight of the clone had brought warmness to Kaede's heart. Seeing her unharmed or untouched was undoubtfully relieving. Kaede approached her, patting her on the head gently.

"Do you really need to ask that to one of the Genetic Engineers who watched you all grow?"

A feeling of undoubt struck her. She felt uneasy about saying such a thing. If they were to get harmed, was it her own fault that she was the one to lead them to their deaths? It didn't matter, because she was trying to find out if they were being used to die. And that required Accelerator's help.

That aside, she realized the reason for coming here. She removed her hand from the clone's head waiting for her response.

Natsumi stared intensely at the girl trying to break free from her grip.

(...Is she mute?)

She wondered, she had seen the girl shout something, but no sound came out of her mouth.

(...From how she's struggling, it seems like she's freaked out to hell, I doubt she provoked that guy into attacking her...)

She let go of her arm, and blocked her path so that she wouldn't run away.

Yet again she saw the girl shout something, but no sound could be heard.

(...It seems like she really is mute ... I'll just pull back for now, given how freaked out she is, I probably won't get any answers...)

"Hey, no need to freak out like that I'll leave you alone for now, don't get lost in the city, it can be dangerous. Later."

She walked away, taking a last glance at the girl.

(What's for sure is that she doesn't know why she was attacked, I doubt a girl like her could fake so well ... That still doesn't tell me why she was attacked, and her relation with Misaka's clone.)

She thought about it while walking, honestly, she herself didn't know why she was so preoccupied by the fact that girl had been attacked, but she had a really bad feeling about it...

(Maybe she has guardians, I doubt she's alone in Academy City, she doesn't seem to know this city well ... I'll follow her back next time.)

But for the moment, she didn't have the time to follow her back to her home, she had to do a little research on her side concerning Misaka Mikoto, and her clones.

She figured she'd follow her back next time, and hopefully by then, she won't be attacked and will be able to communicate calmly.

"So did you guys find anything more about the bank cards? And what's this incident at the cafe? I haven't heard about this one yet."

"Oh, nothing of note." Kuroko leapt in to answer Mikoto's first question.

"There was an esper attack at a cafe not far from here." Kazari blurted out and Kuroko stared daggers at the other girl who carried on sipping her drink oblivious to the waves of ill intent surging her way from the menacing teleporter.

***

"Do you really need to ask that to one of the Genetic Engineers who watched you all grow?"

The clone didn't flinch as Kaede gently patted her head.

"The importance of the experiment demands that we take the utmost precaution, says Misaka dutifully." She stepped aside nonetheless and allowed Kaede to enter. "How can this Misaka assist you? Asks Misaka with curiosity."

The morning of the 23rd flew in and Haragi could barely get out of his bed considering how late he stayed up trying to find leads of a certain missing nun. His eye's opened, acting surprised to see himself violated or even untouched. His older sister was nowhere within the vicinity of his room. He questioned himself about this abnormal situation. It could have possibly mean his sister left early for work, but that didn't seem much like her as she was obsessed with cooking food for him.

He then remembered that he never heard his sister come into the house last night. Did she come at all? Did something happen at her workplace? His eyes were about to be filled with suspicion as he got up to finally realize his cellphone was beeping. A new text message was received while he was asleep. It was his sister apologizing and telling him that she had to help out with consecutive surgeries.

Sighing in relief, he then took priority of what he had been doing for the past 2 days. His own methods of narrowing down a certain girl's possible location found him various individuals to track down. From what he gathered, a man named Derek Walker hadn't updated their Citizenship in the past 6 months. His photo ID was represented as a young dark green haired man in his 20's. From other sources, this individual was a Level 0 who'd been involved with Skill Out. He wasn't seen in his school right after he was spotted with the very same vile group of thugs.

The man Haragi was searching for was named Aureollus Izzard. He kidnapped a certain girl whom Haragi was desperately trying to find. That same man lived in Academy City and had faked his citizenship information. So it was possible this man could be connected to Derek Walker.

Recently, this certain individual was spotted roaming around the dark alleyways of District 15 along with a decent number of people supposedly from Skill Out. This was all the information Haragi needed. His Esper ability allowed him to sense presences within it's area of locality from the concentration of air consumption. Since sketchy areas like Dark Alleyways are avoided from the common, it wouldn't be to hard to find suspicious people entering the area.

As he approached within District 15, he had seen many people wandering about. This wasn't anything unusual since District 15 was known as the shopping district. It was suspicious not to see anyone here. However, Haragi kept his focus only on finding these group of people. OFR molecules formed around his vicinity and entered the dark alleyways to see if anything was detected. This method only covered about 25% of District 15's alleyways at a time. This meant that Haragi had to periodically move to use this method every 20 minutes or so.

For now, Haragi had leaned against the adjacent wall waiting for anything out of the odd to alert him.

---------------------------

"The importance of the experiment demands that we take the utmost precaution, says Misaka dutifully."

"An Experiment already? Nothing seemed to be out of the sort so could it be some kind of experiment testing her mental state? If that's so, then I gotta be careful about what I say if she's being monitored."

Confused, Kaede scratched her head. Entering the room, she noticed the sister was as emotionless as she could be as the others clones. It was ideal for Kaede to treat them correctly so that they would know she loved them with care.

Kaede had thought about questioning her about what Radio Noise meant, but the sister would probably be clueless as she is. But Accelerator apparently is involved with these experiments. So she might have some information about his whereabout.

"Ah yes, but hold on a second."

Kaede reached for the contents of her purse and took out a cherry flavored lollipop she managed to buy when she dropped by the shopping district earlier. She stuck her hand out and offered it to the clone.

"I know this place doesn't offer much variety to eat. Sooooo... I thought this would cheer up your taste buds."

Gleefully smiling, she once again patted the head of the sister acting if she's her own younger sibling.

"Come on, come on, come ooooooooooon!" Mari strolled out of the arcade, a slight spring in her step due to the constant dance routines she had undergone on the dance machine, and out into the streets, holding her cell phone in her hand and glaring at it.

While she told herself she would wait at the arcade until she had some proper work, she was getting anxious. She hadn't had any work since the incident at the amusement park over a week ago, and was desperate for some action.

She fast-walked down the sidewalk, cell phone in hand, glaring as if her angry look alone would make a new message appear.

I got a yelled at by the boss for being a bit reckless, but he didn't seem that mad about it since I got the job done without... but was he actually angrier then he let on? She thought with a cold sweat.

She wasn't the type to get intimidated easily. Far from it. However, her boss was far from the average person, and was always harsh on Mari,

"I promised not to go against orders next time... he knows me by now, so he should expect this out of me... he would have fired me by now if he thought I wasn't a good worker... oh crap, I shouldn't think like that!" She said,whispering to herself.

Mari walked aimlessly around the city, still maintaining the good sense to stop at stop lights when necessary, and avoid any pedestrians from walking intro her. Eventually, after walking past a park on a concrete platform leading down into a very grassy park, Mari's wishes came true. However,

*BZZZZZZZT* "Wah!" Mari panicked when her phone actually did go off, receiving a message. She was so startled, that when she jumped, her cell phone flying from her hands into the tall grass.

For a moment, Mari just stood as she was, the position in which she watched the cell phone fall down in her peripheral vision, making her unable to see exactly where it had landed.

"."

".."

"..."

"...Sweet holy mother of crap...!" she whispered loudly, before jumping over the railing, and into the tall grass, frantically searching around for her cell phone, hoping that she would find it, constantly saying things to herself like, "No, no, no, no! Where are you!" and "Why couldn't I lose it later!?" tearing up any grass that she was searching through.

She took a moment to grip her head, shouting, "Dammit! If that was my boss, and I can't respond then... then..." A figure covered in shadows appeared in the back of her mind, swiftly lifting up, and bringing down some sort of stick on her head, in her thoughts, "My boss'll kill me! Dammit!" She shouted, frantically searching, "Where could my cell phone have gone...?" she asked to no one in particular, hopelessly.

She was so busy looking around that she was completely unaware of anyone coming from behind her.