A Certain Scientific Experiment (Arc 3 Main Story)

"Sight-seeing." The girl in the lab coat repeated, slowly approaching Guy as she waved around the flashlight to get a better look with each step she took until she stopped one metre in front of him.

"However, I do not recall this place being a landmark, nor does it seem you are an employee." Remembering the keychain he had picked up before she had decided to announce her presence, she threw a questioning glance. Didn't that girl have a similar figure as a strap attached to her bag? "What brings you here? Rumours?"

"What brings you here? Rumours?"

"Something like that." He replied. "A place like this goes up in a mysterious blaze and people are going to start asking questions." He phrased his words as a hypothetical. "But I have a feeling you know the answers." He took a step towards the girl with the flashlight. A seemingly innocuous gesture, certainly not threatening.

"Some people think they were researching weapons technology or something crazy like that. You know they do that sort of thing here in Academy City?" He shrugged dismissing the notion. "Me? I think this place was a lab for making new ice cream flavours." He looked around the room as though studying it. "And that it exploded due to a new secret ingredient." He was smiling foolishly.

But before she had noticed the young man had gotten close enough to touch her.

"What do you think?" He asked casually.

"Indeed, it seems this place has attracted people who should not wander here." She muttered as she casted the questioning glance aside, now only slightly bothered by the man's, whom she was observing, close presence

A moment passed as she recalled his pocketed frog keychain. Could it be he was related to that young girl with cyber-terrorist tendencies? Trying to obtain that information was worth a shot, so the Nagatenjouki student decided to play along with him for now.

"Maybe one of the ingredients caused this mess, yes, although I do not know if it is 'new'. It could be one of the most basic ingredients, the one that started it all, that went awry." The Nagatenjouki student said, her words being the only hint she'd give, without an accompanying expression or tone.

Natsumi was sitting on a rooftop near the facility, keeping an eye on the slightly older man. She had hinted that something was wrong with Mikoto to see if he'd really discard the thought as he had said, but to her reassurance, he hadn't.

As such, after leaving him alone for a while she had been looking for him until she found him heading towards this destroyed facility and followed suit, although not closely. She was curious as to how he had found the facility's exact location, but figured that rumours had most likely something to do with it.

“Now then...” Natsumi started the next phase of her plan. She repeatedly pressed keys on her phone, showing a tab with an online board dedicated to urban legends open. A particular thread had been referring to a rumour about facilities being destroyed.

「Did you hear? Someone's been going on a rampage and destroying facilities, and they still haven't been caught! ＼ (≧▽≦)／ 」

「lol, a mysterious terrorist?」

Scrolling down only showed the posters were arguing back and forth about the authenticity of the news, with some clearly not believing that something so big wouldn't have made it outside of a petty online board, and some revelling in the thought of something amazing occuring in this student city.

「I've heard one of Tokiwadai's recently hired teachers is at one of the destroyed sites.」

「That famous male Tokiwadai teacher, really? Where did you hear that?」

「Who knows. Don't you think the best thing about rumours and legends for students is that you rarely know where they come from? (^～^) 」

「^^^^^^^^^ truth right there」

There went the bait, as Natsumi hoped her prey would bite and come out of her hiding spot.

**

The young Railgun sat in an abandoned building in the same district, resting for a bit as she had not stopped running for days now. It felt like her entire body was screaming in exhaustion, but the worst was the solitude of not having seen any of her friends or acquaintances for over a week now.

Mikoto only entertained herself with online boards for the past week, seeking whatever information information on the situation she could get. One could question why she wasn't just hacking another facility for the details, but Mikoto didn't want to take the risk of the researchers tracking her down from the hacking attempt.

(I have to say, online boards are the oddest thing.) She noted, tired of the inccessant absurdness typical of these kind of boards. However, as she was about to turn her PDA off...

「I've heard one of Tokiwadai's recently hired students was at one of the destroyed sites.」

「That famous male Tokiwadai teacher, really? Where did you hear that?」

(No way...!) Mikoto froze in shock, this couldn't be happening, right? She tried to reason that online boards always made up fake stories to entertain themselves. But what if it wasn't? Mikoto knew first-hand that Guy was a meddling man always getting himself in trouble, and this wouldn't be his first attempt at trying to help someone.

Could it be he hadn't bought whatever the higher-ups fed him as excuses for her disappearance and decided to investigate for himself? What if he ended up being dragged in the murderous circle that continued even after she stopped the experiments?

Mikoto suddenly stood up and ran as fast as she could, remembering a facility was nearby. It couldn't hurt to check, and there's no way that his presence would be confirmed, right?

«The one that started it all, huh?» Repeating those words he couldn’t prevent his glance from wandering off into the distance once again. There was nothing left that’d really hold any meaning to him or catch his eye, yet he would still appear as if there would be something to show up any moment.
Maybe it was just him imagining things.

«Guess the industry doesn’t really care, though. They’d still continue their research if it'd continue messing the formula up, wouldn’t they? New flavours are just too great a selling point.»
Upon speaking Guy wouldn’t loosen his calmness in the slightest.  
«It’d be a shame, though. They’d be thinking about removing the ingredient by the end; better sales always make the race, don’t they?»

He paused, only to then let his words take a large jump.

«Say: Are you that kind of hip kid that’d always hooray for the newest stuff or are you much rather someone who’d consider signing a petition?»

Finally he had turned towards her, answering her intimidating glance with powerful eyes of his own.

«That has become one of those questions splitting humanity lately.»

It took a while for the girl to find an answer to their crypted conversation, pondering on what answers would bring forth the best results.

But an odd strength appeared in her eyes as she spoke. “Surely, if one wanted to save the current ingredients, it would be much better to act rather than holding a signboard to the sky?” She suddenly turned around, pointing her flashlight in the direction of one of the exits, as if talking to an intruder rather than the man now. “Although, it would be rather pointless if you don't have a carefully thought-out plan on how to convince the researchers to stick with the basic recipe, especially in this city.”

Seeing no obvious signs of life, the girl sighed and turned back to Guy.

“You would also need definite proof that the researchers have stopped fiddling the recipe around, rather than convince yourself you've changed things.”

**

As she approached the facility, Mikoto heard noises and slowed down so she could to eavesdrop on the conversation without being noticed, even though she didn't really want to admit she was doing something she shouldn't.

"Me? I think this place was a lab for making new ice cream flavours. And that it exploded due to a new secret ingredient." Mikoto froze, recognising all too well that male voice and, at times, those completely random excuses. She gritted her teeth in frustration; the rumours were right, and she had failed in keeping everyone she knew out of this mess.

The conversation carried on for a while until Mikoto saw a flashlight in her direction, nearly jumping at the idea of having been noticed. However, it didn't lead her eavesdropping astray, and the words of the girl whom she recognised as Nunotaba Shinobu stabbed deep in her heart, indirectly confirming her fear that she had overlooked something.

(What if the experiments didn't stop...?! It'd explain why those girls were sent after me, not to dispose of my friends in vengeance, but make sure I wouldn't interrupt it again!) The thought made Mikoto dizzy in blatant fear at the idea that she had overlooked something so massive. How many Sisters would have died because of her optimism and inattention to the situation? Mikoto threw a hand at her mouth and one around her stomach, feeling bile coming up.

"Yeah, well hypotheticals have never really been my thing." He shrugged, turning lazily on the spot and striding away as if to silently declare their conversation over. "But indulge me." He stopped before reaching the burnt out doorway of the room. "If this was the act of an individual with an axe to grind with the city, why do you suppose they might revisit the scene of the crime?" He asked pointedly, turning his glance towards the charred debris that hid the eavesdropping girl.

"Surely that could only be some sort of cry for help. Even if they don't want to admit it." He provoked the figure he knew lurked nearby.

It would seem it hadn't taken much effort at all for Mikoto to be busted. She was either really bad at stealth, or they were just way too sharp..

"Don't make it sound like I'm a damsel in distress..." Mikoto sighed and slowly left her hiding spot and scratched her head, finally showing herself to people for the first time in a while. “What are you two doing here?” She asked Guy whilst glaring at Shinobu, suspicious that she was the reason behind his presence.

"Merely looking for you. It's a good thing I came here today, I hadn't expected you to return here." Shinobu replied in an uncaring manner, earning Mikoto's curious glance.

The girl’s appearance on the stage of this scene was nothing like a surprising plot twist, but a cheaply written twist he had seen coming since the beginning of this act. So basically Guy’s reaction was lacking any surprise, remaining fully unchanged.
At least he bothered to turn into her direction for a short greeting glance.

«Well it’s a teacher’s duty to catch runaway children. Especially if it’s Tokiwadai’s infamous bolter», he spoke shrugging all of this off as nothing more than an everyday elementary or middle school scenario.
He didn’t even bother to appear a little worried or caught up in the current situation’s tension shattering the mood even more.  

«And as a teacher, I guess I’m forced to give you one of those terribly boring lectures. Some stuff about you ruining your future and your school’s reputation, drowning all of your friends in worry and…you know the rest of the story.» Guy went on in his typical casually joking manner ignoring any of the circumstances. «You could have been robbed, raped, killed etc. etc.»

Finally bringing his humorous rant to an end, he reached the conclusive sentence, adding the final climax on top of it all. «So, Misaka Mikoto-chan, what is your excuse?»

Expressionless was the current status of Mikoto's face, clearly showing she wasn't particularly keen on Guy's jokes or actual lectures. She however didn't doubt he wouldn't be doing much here besides looking for her, which lead to internal conflict as to whether she should be happy or annoyed about it.

“The teacher role doesn't suit you.” She said while sighing. “And how did the search for one of your precious students lead you to this unfrequented place?” Looking around, it was clear as day no one would venture around a destroyed facility for fun, so it wouldn't be a place that comes to the mind of a normal person when looking for a student.

He shrugged. "Would you believe it was blind luck?" He raised an eyebrow with a sheepish looking grin. He could tell from her unamused expression that cryptic answers and jokes wouldn't fly this time.

Whatever it is you've gotten yourself into it's really got you spooked, hasn't it? He thought, watching the usually bright and outgoing girl glaring at him with such a dark and world weary expression.

"A mutual acquaintance pointed me in the right direction." He looked at her sidelong, gauging her response to the name that slipped from his tongue. "Haragi Faye." He turned to face her dead on. "You really put him through the ringer." He chuckled dryly. "I may not know you that well, but I know that you must have had a good reason for it. And for all of this..." He gestured to the ruined complex.

Guy sighed. He knew he wasn't getting through to her. Maybe the direct approach would work better.

"Look. You don't want to carry on down this route. There's only one way it can end..." He didn't want to finish that thought.

...with you dead. He gritted his teeth.

Mikoto flinched at the mention of Haragi's name. She did feel bad for having to fight with Kaede's brother, but it's not like the boy had left her with any kind of choice whatsoever.

"Look. You don't want to carry on down this route. There's only one way it can end..."

...That was all? She thought. It's not like she had chosen that route anyway, so what was he saying?

At first, she was dumbfounded but soon enough Mikoto snarled at him. “That's why you're here? There's nothing in it for you to help me, is there?” Her voice was filled with anger, but also noticeable worry, and it was clear by her expression that she was overwhelmed from all the stress she had been accumulating.

And unfortunately, it exploded.

“For God's sake, it doesn't matter if something happens to me, I have to keep going or people will be killed again even if those girls are safe!!” She suddenly screamed with small tears of frustration, accidentally letting out what she had bottled up for the past weeks.

“Ah...” Putting a hand to her mouth, she realised that in her bitterness she had said too much. “Nevermind, please just stay away...”

To calm herself down, Mikoto took a few deep breaths and wiped her eyes with her arm before anything could leak out.

Shinobu only looked on at the exchange between the two with a stern and somewhat bored expression, hardly shocked at the reveal of her misconceptions. “You're mistaken.” Mikoto felt a chill run down her back as her arm fell from its upheld position; evident fear making its way to her as she forgot about Guy's presence entirely.

“Eh?”

“They aren't safe at all.” Shinobu said, well aware that she had probably just destroyed Mikoto's naïve hopes as the girl stayed strangely silent.

Mikoto was recalling the sister with a guitar case. Could it be that there were weapons inside rather than what actually should've been in a regular guitar case? “No way... You're lying...” But she gritted her teeth well-aware that Shinobu wouldn't lie about it; would this torment her the rest of her life? After all, that was the most likely explanation for those mercenaries, and it's not like she had successfully convinced herself entirely of their safety either...

Then, she remembered Guy and with a haunted face she turned towards him. “You'd better leave now.” She muttered before grabbing Shinobu's arm to drag her elsewhere and started running. “We need to talk”

Though in order to prevent Guy from following her, metallic debris immediately rose from the mess that was the facility, lodging itself in front of the exit Mikoto had ran through as a few sparks emanated from it.

He had stayed silent as Mikoto's voice rose steadily with building emotion. He was once again struck by the realisation that the strongest girl in Academy City was still just that. A girl. A regular person in a decidedly irregular position. So he didn't respond as she vented her all of her anger and sorrow and anxiety.

“For God's sake, it doesn't matter if something happens to me, I have to keep going or people will be killed again even if those girls are safe!!”

Those words reeked of martyrdom. No doubt about it, that girl was planning something stupid. A strange sense of deja vu came over him. Nunotaba and Mikoto were speaking as though he wasn't even here and he felt powerless to intervene.

He opened his mouth to speak but the two girls had already taken off, barring his path behind them.

Guy looked out of the ruined facility over the lights of Academy City with weary resignation. Had he really expected it to be different here? The promise of a simpler life had proven hollow after all.

"Stubborn brat." He tutted.

The pale boy's leg swung against the side of the metal container with a light tap. Accelerator was staring at the sky blankly with neither worry nor excitement evident to the casual observer. He had long ago stopped feeling anything other than a kind of mild ambivalence towards these experiments. Where a normal person might feel horror or righteous anger at his actions, for the strongest Esper they were a mundane triviality, notable only for the time they took out of his day.Something to be endured.

All he wanted was to be done with this boring shit.

The skinny albino's leg swung against the side of the metal container with a dull ring. He looked over at the girl accompanying him. It occurred to him that the higher ups were getting paranoid after Tree Diagram's destruction. They were afraid that the Railgun might try to interfere again. And they didn't want the slightest chance of this most extraordinary experiment being ruined. This girl, Mari was insurance, they had said. Insurance against interlopers. They neglected to tell him her ability but if he were to hazard a guess it must be something strong. But just how strong? Maybe he'd have to find out after they were done with all this. He'd need someone to test his Level 6 abilities on anyway...

Accelerator's leg swung against the side of the metal container with a resounding crash. His patience was wearing thin and the container had suffered for it. His heel dented and twisted the steel shell like it was tissue paper.

"Where the fuck is it?" He tossed a pebble into the container opposite him. It warped and split open as though hit by an anti tank round. He glared at Mari as though expecting her to have an answer for him.

The young girl who had been hiding away carefully made her way near Guy with a flame dancing in her palm to light her way.

“Stubborn? Birds of a feather flock together, do they not? And that's a pretty mean thing to say about someone who got herself so worked up over your well-being despite being chased by the higher-ups.” Natsumi lightly chanted as she called out to him, but she quickly quit her amused demeanour; she was quite surprised at the fact that Mikoto hadn't buried Guy yet.

“She probably didn't run very far so I think she'll be easily findable, so what will it be?” She questioned him as she turned away to leave by the way she came in, though walking at a pace decent enough for him to follow. “Going after her, or not?”

***

“This will do, I've been here for a while and planned to move to a new hiding spot soon anyway.”

The two girls came to a halt in the abandoned building Mikoto had sought refuge in as Nunotaba played around with the flash light all along the way.

The overall place was so dusty that it was unhealthy, Nunotaba wondered for how long the girl who was gradually getting skinnier had lived in such poor conditions. “What do you mean, they aren't safe?” Mikoto called out as soon as she let go of Nunotaba's arm. “I destroyed the facilities and made sure none of the data would remain!”

“Haragi Faye,” Nunotaba pronounced the name that seemed to return quite often. “He was recruited by the higher-ups to dispose of the intruder that was destroying facilities.” That much, Mikoto had figured out on her own, although she had no idea of the details or whether Kaede knew of this.

“However, there was another motive.” Nunotaba then recounted of the fact that the facilities had transferred the project to over 60 facilities whilst she was fighting Haragi, that his true purpose was to hold her off long enough to be able to save the project.

“...So all this time... Because of me...”

“It isn't particularly your fault, but your Sisters are indeed still being killed by Accelerator.” Nunotaba interrupted the guilt-ridden Mikoto, and also interrupted any potential breakdown Mikoto could have by quickly continuing what she was going to say. “But how about causing more commotion, while you're at it?

“...Huh?” Confused, Mikoto glanced at her curiously through exhausted eyes as she thought about why she'd be requested to get in trouble with the higher-ups again. Though she started to see from her expression that Nunotaba seemed to have some plan she couldn't openly talk about.

A plan. That was what she also needed even if it was just to cause commotion. Lots of silence reigned as Mikoto ran multiple ideas through her mind, most coming to a dead end as she had tried everything she could... But one idea stood above any other as she recalled the specifics of the project.

“Any kind of commotion? I have an idea myself.” Nunotaba nodded, and Mikoto grew a small but very twisted smile that surprised Nunotaba. It was obvious that, whatever had appeared to be her last hope was something pretty bad.

Though in their discussion, Mikoto wasn't paying any attention as to whether she had been followed or not, certain that she had prevented people from doing so entirely...

***

“I think she might've finally lost it...” Natsumi noted as she bit her lip, though it was an outcome she had warned the younger girl about days ago so she wasn't even remotely surprised.

"Report. Has anyone spotted the target?"

"Negative."

"No, Ma'am."

"Sorry Mari, nothing..."

"No, still nothing... and I am booooooorrrrreeeed."

"Alright, let me know if you find anything. Pusher out."

Mari leaned against a metal container, one of many lining the area, as she tapped her foot and fidgeted anxiously, messing with the switch on her helmet. Normally she wouldn't try so hard to remain calm, when she had to do, but right now she couldn't afford to make mistakes.

After all, she was currently guarding the strongest esper in Academy City, Accelerator.

Normally she'd never want to be out here with him. He was way too dangerous for someone like her, and she wouldn't have done it if it weren't for her boss' insistence.

That, and Deep-Six could get liquidated, given how powerful their employer was.

So, she was here, keeping an eye on the most powerful esper for-whatever reason. She knew he was strong enough to take on Misaka Mikoto, the one screwing things up, so she just assumed it was to make sure the 'experiments' weren't disrupted.

Mari wasn't sure exactly how necessary she was, but she couldn't afford to take any chances. She had four other members patrolling the areas, and even had a last member armed with a crossbow guarding the two of them, in case she needed support.

One eye over the general area, and her own abilities, and she still thought that being here was a bad idea.

Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! Why me? Why do I have to do this? I get that most of the others are busy, but I can't deal with this deranged nut! He'll tear me apart without a second thought! And not to mention the fact that-

Mari cringed as Accelerator destroyed the container facing his direction with just a pebble as he glared at her angrily,

"Where the fuck is it?"

Mari's glare was hidden behind her helmet.

...the fact that this guy is a petulant asshole...! Mari took a short breathe and maintained her composure, responding mechanically.

"Target location, unknown. Surveillance has recovered no signs of the latest Test Subject being within the vicinity, and no information was provided to let us know when... it would arrive." Mari stated, avoiding to call the girl what she was.

After tacking on a 'Sir,' at the end of her statement, she went back into silence, looking around the area.

As much as I hate this job, I have to agree with Accelerator-that clone couldn't get here faster.

August 2nd; 11:43pm
Tokiwadai Dormitories

This was not like her.

This really was totally unlike her.

This was so utterly and totally unlike her, to not even call ONCE in a week even if she had left for family reasons!

Those repititive thoughts rushed through a certain teleporter's mind, as she was rolling around on her Onee-sama's bed, unable to find sleep or even to rest for a bit. In fact, she hadn't slept a single minute in the last twenty-four hours, due to ever increasing worry.
The source of her worry was rather special, none of the usual trivialities you'd think a teenage girl might be having... or maybe it was, in a way.... since it did involve her most beloved person and all...
Anyway, the person at the core of her thoughts was none other than Tokiwadai's Ace, The 3rd of the Level 5's, nicknamed "Railgun": Misaka Mikoto. Or, the person who had vanished one week ago, without warning or farewell and had not even once called her this entire time. Which was totally out of character for her. It wasn't only her, no one had heard anything from Mikoto for the past week, except the authorities, who had told her about her Onee-sama's leave for family reasons, though the teleporter was beginning to doubt that this was the truth. Academy City held many secrets and quite a few of them could get you into trouble, especially if you happened to be someone "important", like for example, a Level 5.

All this pondering only made the girl even more irritated, until she reached a breaking point. She jumped up from the bed, quickly got dressed and left the room via teleport, finding herself outside the dorms, taking a deep breath of the night air to clear her head. In the end, it didn't help in the slightest.
"Haaah, Onee-sama, making me worry this much. I'm going to get all wrinkly..."
Since she wouldn't be able to get any sleep tonight, why not use the time to maybe get some of night-active thugs and gangs to spill some information, maybe she'd get lucky and someone had seen her onee-sama. A desperate measure, to rely on the good-for-nothings, but what could she do? None of the others knew anything, or at least pretended like they didn't.
_______

About 2 hours later...

She was standing in front of onee-sama's usual vending machine, the dreadful thing that had robbed Mikoto of quite some money in the past. A heavy sigh left her mouth. She had been interrogating the resident thugs, but apparently none of them had seen their electrifying bane since she had vanished. It seemed like she had to investigate this more thoroughly, but what if it had really just been a family matter? She had no proof, or anything else aside from the missing contact, to speak for anything aside from that. Should she follow her instincts and risk getting involved in whatever this city was hiding, only on assumption? She was only one girl, a gifted one, but still, only a girl.

Disgruntlement befell the teleporter, and gritting her teeth she kicked the vending machine. Not with the force Mikoto was usually using, but apparently strong enough to make it spill a free drink. This isn't like me, a member of Judgement to commit the sin of vandalizing? She, however, reached out and took custody of the free beverage that the machine had offered her, then placed herself on a nearby bench, opening the can and taking a sip from the watermelon-and-lemon soda.

Mari Illustrious Makinami wrote:
"Target location, unknown. Surveillance has recovered no signs of the latest Test Subject being within the vicinity, and no information was provided to let us know when... it would arrive."

"Misaka apologises for her late arrival, says Misaka as she catches her breath." The clone set down a heavy case beside her, wiping the sweat from her brow as she stood up straight.

"What the hell is this?" Accelerator snarled in distaste as he hopped down from the container.

"Misaka is confident that she has found a way to defeat the Accelerator, declares Misaka proudly." She placed her hand on the box beside her. Removing the canvas covering tied around the particle beam cannon the Sister tugged down on her goggles and declared;

"This experiment has commenced, says Misaka in anticipation of victory."

Accelerator had to admit, this one had more personality to her than the others...

Misaka Mikoto wrote:
“Stubborn? Birds of a feather flock together, do they not? And that's a pretty mean thing to say about someone who got herself so worked up over your well-being despite being chased by the higher-ups.

She probably didn't run very far so I think she'll be easily findable, so what will it be?

Going after her, or not?”

"What do you think?" He asked begrudgingly, following after Natsumi and quickly overtaking her. "Just try to keep up." He said as they he passed. Even if he could convince Natsumi not to follow, he simply didn't have the time right now.

***

Misaka Mikoto wrote:
“I think she might've finally lost it...”

He stayed silent, hugging the shadows behind Nastumi as they listened in. Confronting her now would do no good. Trying to reason with someone in an emotionally charged state of mind will only end in failure. But leaving them to their own devices might be equally disastrous.

He needed to keep an eye on her. To wait until she'd cooled off. And luckily he knew exactly the person to do it.

When Natsumi thought to check on the young man behind her she found herself alone with no trace of the errant teacher.

***

A hole two meters in diameter was missing from the steel containers arranged behind one another in the industrial yard.

A huge gouge deep enough for an adult to stand in was carved out of the ground like the trail from a meteor impact.

And all around the scene was spattered with crimson.

"Where do they get this stuff?" Accelerator kicked the broken particle beam cannon with a crash. "Waste of money if you ask me." He looked around to Mari. Like a monster from a horror movie the albino boy was covered head to toe in viscera. In an instant the droplets flung themselves from his body in a spray, further painting the place in gory red.

"I'm done for tonight." Accelerator stated to Mari, tossing aside something in his hands. It let out a hollow knock as it hit the ground, rolling off into the shadows. He rolled his shoulders and yawned. "You can deal with the cleanup crew and those stuffy old bastards." He left her alone in that gruesome place, surrounded by pieces of what once had been a girl not too unlike herself.

“Sure is a sneaky one...” Natsumi muttered as she deflected her attention back to Mikoto.

The girl was raising one finger, a sign that whatever plan she had would be executed tomorrow.

Shinobu only nodded to the warning of when she could start her own plan, originally wondering what sort of idea could pass through a young girl's mind to warrant such a dark expression. However, she quickly figured it out yet decided against anything about it as she turned towards the exit and left.

**

An intruder had currently snuck in Shirai Kuroko's shared dorm room by the window whilst the girl was away. Though it was only Mikoto who had snuck in the dorm despite her reluctance to take the risk of showing herself to her friends.

(Though my cover was already blown by those two, wasn't it...) She bitterly thought as she opened her odd moneybox shaped like Gekota and from it retrieved her coins in order to execute her plan properly.

However, she could hear a noise quickly approaching, and as such rushed out of the window using her magnetism to both prevent a fatal fall and to actually escape before being seen.


(Sorry, Kuroko...!)

After a lot of sighs and after finishing the free drink, the teleporter decided that it would be best to continue the next day, since she was acutally getting sleepy, despite the unnerving worry nagging at her concious and unconcious thought processes, corrupting her ability to think straight. She needed to sleep and process everything before she could take any further steps.
Thus she lifted herself from the bench and stretched her aching muscles. She had been forced to use "physical interrogation methods" on some of the thugs before they had spilled that they didn't know anything and her body was slowly beginning to feel it. Her mind began calculating the entry and exit points into and from the 11th dimension, and a moment later her physical appearance left our dimension.

No time passed and Kuroko was expelled from the 11th dimension, once again taking her usual human shape, inside her shared dorm room. She was about to flop down on Mikoto's bed, when she noticed something being off. It took her a moment until she realized that she hadn't left the window open when she left. This realisation put her on edge immediately and while calling out to whoever was inside their room, she grabbed a few of her darts, ready to immobilize whoever had broken into her room.

"Who's there?! Show yourself!"

...
......
.........

Nothing happened. The girl quickly and cautiously looked around the entire room and bathroom, but... no one was here. The perpetrator must have left already. Kuroko let out a heavy sigh and relaxed a bit, while putting the darts away, then proceeded to search the room for any objects that shouldn't be there, or objects that should be there but weren't. At first glance, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but when she passed Mikoto's drawer, she noticed.
That fugly Gekota piggy bank was open.
And, it was empty. Every single coin that her Onee-sama was keeping in it was gone. Furthermore, this was the only thing amiss in their room. Nothing else had been altered. Why would someone target Onee-sama's piggy bank?... Who'd even know about... !!! Then, it hit her like one of the many thunderbolts Mikoto had unleashed on her. Onee-sama! You were here! While I was gone just now! Which means... She rushed to the Railgun's closet, nearly ripped it often and found that none of her clothes were missing, same with a bunch of other things one would usually take with them if they left, even if it was in a hurry. ... She's still in the city! She never left!... ... ... ... So why did the higher-ups say she left on family business?! Something's fishy here.... ahhh, I bet she got herself in trouble again.... let's search for some clues then.

Kuroko's mind was on fire, at least until her search for clues held no result. There was nothing in this room holding any useful information. Plus, she was starting to get a headache. Sleep deprivation was a fearsome thing, really. Thus, she decided to investigate this further on the next day, she wouldn't let anyone stop her now that she knew that something was going on.
I'm going to find you, Onee-sama! Just you wait...

And with those thoughts, the girl flopped down on her bed and soon after fell into slumber...

Mari stood in silence as she witnessed the slaughter before her. Within seconds, the young girl before her was defeated, dismantled, and scattered across the area before her. The particle cannon she carried was completely useless against Accelerator, and only served as a minor distraction before he killed her.

And all the while, Mari just observed, clenching her fists. While she felt a bit bad about the girl, her death was at least fairly quick. She was much more anxious about the monster before her, throwing blood off of his body, like something out of a horror movie.

This... this is just as bad as I heard...!

As he left the scene, Mari quietly checked in with the other members. Everyone was alive and accounted for, and she breathed a sigh of relief as Accelerator left, dropping to the ground as the tension left her body.

Pusher? Ma'am?

Mari answered the call quickly, responding to the member watching over her,

I'm fine! I'm fine... look, could you call the others over here? Mari stated, standing back up, and leaping onto one of the metal containers to get a better view of the area, It won't be long, but we need to wait until that clean up crew he mentioned got here. I want everyone watching over the immediate perimeter to make sure no one gets caught up in this. I don't want any risk of complications for this, given the parties we're liable to piss off.

Understood.

As she leapt to the next one, Mari thought back to Accelerator, and got a chill up her spine.

This is gonna be our life for the next few... whatever... great. She leapt to the next, trying to calm herself about the situation, but it didn't work, I shouldn't be this scared, right? I've done some vicious things myself...

I guess this is how everyone else feels like around me... being around someone who can rip you apart at a moments notice. Oh well, guess I'd better suck it up like everyone else too...

As she leapt around, trying to make sure no one would arrive, Mari had one question lingering on her mind, I wonder what the real Railgun herself has been up to?

Tuesday, August 3rd, 9:45 A.M.

The young Electromaster stood amidst a busy sidewalk, having returned to her Tokiwadai uniform she had left in the hotel room she'd booked, as she absorbed the view of the city she had inhabited for many years now, bearing a somewhat nostalgic expression on her face.

Things were so nice when she wasn't aware of how horrible the city's depths were, she thought. Having finally realised that the project had to be supported by the city, or otherwise it wouldn't have worked out as neatly as it had, Mikoto longed for the somewhat extravagent but nice city she'd remembered.

As such, she walked around and around for a last view of places she was familiar with, then she would make a slight detour to accomplish a goal before heading off to the final part of her plan.

(Things have been pretty horrible lately, but I think I'll still miss this city...)

Tuesday, August 3rd, 9:50 A.M.

It was rather early, yet the steets were already bursting with people, robots and what else Academy City had let run free. Though, the latter was probably passing the crowds unnoticed, using methods most people didn't know of... maybe.. probably...

Anyway, the never-ending river of young people made it hard to maneuver the streets, let alone search for a specific person, even for a Level 4 Teleporter, even if they were affiliated with Judgement. Still, someone like that had been searching the masses for a good 3 hours now, roughing up your occasional punk in the progress. Still, her search had held no results for now.

Which is why the exhausted girl took a short break, to rethink her strategy. She had been deliberately checking places where she'd be sure to find Mikoto, though maybe that hadn't been the smartest move. She was trying to hide herself after all, thus she'd avoid visiting those places. Following that revelation, Kuroko's forehead met a concrete wall, punishing herself for wasting hours of time on that aspect. She sighed and turned around, to lean her back against the wall, letting her eyes wander, while her mind was busy thinking of a new strategy. Little did she know that that had actually been pretty close and that she had actually missed the person she was searching for, once.

Searching her favorite places, in retrospect, was not the best idea, though now I'm sure that she's not there. Which means, taking the fact that she hasn't contacted anybody into consideration, she must be somewhere she shouldn't be? But where?....

Lifting her frowning gaze, her thoughts were interrupted when she spotted a familiar school uniform, accompanied by chestnut brown hair and a body stature that seemed all too familar, through the crowd and a good distance away and only for a short moment, but she was sure about it. "Could it be..?" The teleporter quickly pursued the spotted individuum, making use of her ability, though when she arrived at the position where had last seen her, she was nowhere to be found. Had she lost track of her? No, that couldn't be! Not after she had gotten this close! Frantically, she searched the perimeter, praying that there was ANY kind of hint.
"There!"
A small alley, a brief glimpse, the teleporter was pursuing. Had she really found her?