A Certain Scientific Experiment (Arc 3 Main Story)

Mari jumped after hearing another explosion go off in the building.

"Dammit!" She shouted as she finishing her final call. She had spent a few minutes organizing her fighters in order to make sure no one approached the building, and after lending a few of them a hand with some Skill-Out thugs who had overwhelmed some of them. After the first explosion sounded off, Mari wanted to dash off, but she had to make sure the new guys weren't too beaten up.

Now, she had no need to not head inside of the building.

"Okay guys, take care, I'm heading in! Try not to get beaten up again!" Mari rushed into the nearest entrance of the building, using her ability to speed herself up, as she moved through the building. She listened to the noise that was going off, and assumed that the Emo-Fairy was holing the Railgun off for now.

Alright Mari, focus on the mission. I can't cut loose here or I could  give away my position and have a Level 5 barreling towards me. No wall smashing, I just need to secure the machinery and hope the Emo-Fairy wears out this Misaka girl enough that i can take her... and avoid any collateral damage. Mari quickly dashed through the facility, careful not to break down any of the walls as she made her way to the center of the facility.

But when she got there-

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Mari's face, hidden by her mask, was in shock and awe. She removed her mask, cleaned off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and was she was seeing was real-

The facilities had already been trashed.

"...Ugh." Mari dropped her head in depression, at the realization that she had been too late. Far, far too late,

Ehehehe... my boss is going to kill me... Mari reluctantly placed her mask back over her head. She attempted to try calming herself down for once, reveling in the quiet, when she realized something.

It was quiet. No more explosions, no more noise, no more anything.

"That can't be good..." Mari mumbled to herself. If her boss would be angry at her fo failing one part of her job, he'd be even more upset at her for letting her partner die on her.

Mari took a moment to try and consider what to do, Well, my job is pretty much finished here, and my partner's out of commission... but I still need to check on him and the Railgun too, and make sure they didn't kill each other. Mari crouched down, preparing to launch herself forward, Let's let's hope that i manage to get to the right place and don't just smash through it,  Mari launched herself forward , down the hallway, smashing through the first set of walls, searching around, and hen deciding to keep moving, turning the next wall she hit into a pile of rubble, stopping to examine the area, and look around. She repeated the process, destroying more and more of the facility until...
she crashed through one last wall, and found the Railgun herself-walking away from the body of the Emo-Fairy no less.

Mari quickly drew her pistol and shouted- "HOLD IT!" getting her attention,

For a moment, the room was silent, and Mari was the one who broke the silence with, "So, you're seriously going through with this for your, quote unquote "Sisters", aren't you?" Mari stated, wondering if The Railgun remembered her from yesterday.

"HOLD IT!"

The familiar voice made Mikoto stop in her tracks and she only turned her head around to see yesterday's masked figure. Unable to figure out whether she should be surprised or not, she merely glared at Mari in dead silence, uncaring about the pistol pointed at her.

"So, you're seriously going through with this for your, quote unquote "Sisters", aren't you?"

Hadn't she been asked the same thing earlier that morning? It seemed to be a general surprise that she would try to save her Sisters on her own.

Sparks started to appear as she remembered what Mari had claimed the day before, though she didn't show any intention of actually fighting Mari, at least yet. If feasible, she would've liked to get out of here quickly without another fight.

"...What are you doing here?" She completely ignored Mari's question and returned a half-caring, monotonous question of her own.

"...What are you doing here?"

Mari just glared at Misaka under her mask, assuming that she remembered her, but wasn't in the mood to talk,

At least act a little intimidated, don't you see the gun in my hand? I'm not even getting any smack talk from this girl... Mari thought, confused by the lack of a reaction,

Mari tapped her helmet and decided to give The Railgun a straight answer,

"Oh you know, getting my pay docked for screwing up..." she stated dejectedly "I spend all day getting ready for this job, and because of some stupid delays I'm late!" Mari kicked a rock next to her foot, sending it into one of the walls, shattering it. "Now, I... uh..."

Oh, crap, forgot! I've gotta find that jerk partner of mine! Now where is he... oh, perfect. Mari saw Haragi unconscious on the ground, Way to go, moron!

Mari directed her attention back to Misaka, "Um... listen..." Mari adjusted her helmet with her unarmed hand, "I just want to get my partner over there and get out of here, and since you don't have anymore machinery to trash, I'm going to assume you're done here too... so... care to avoid a fight?"

Wow, that almost hurt to say...

"Whatever's going on with your clones-I mean "sisters" is obviously important, and being shot could be detrimental, so... how about we just both get out of here, no questions asked, and no one gets hurt. Sound good?" Mari said with a straight face, and an even straighter voice, "But this baby," Mari pointed at her gun with her free hand, "Stays aimed. Just so you don't try to fry me."

I wonder if I'm winning her over? This whole cloning thing seems to have her... off.

Heavy silence ensued as Mikoto reflected on the job Mari was referring to and what her partner, Haragi, was doing here. Now, it was obvious that Haragi had been hired, but with his lack of knowledge regarding the experiments, one could only logically assume he had been hired to protect the facility, not the experiments. Though Haragi just brought it to a personal level.

But what did it mean, he accused her of dragging Kaede into the darkness, but was he actually part of it himself? Was Kaede aware of it, or had he been hiding it from her?

A few minutes passed until she concluded that thinking about it too much right now would only hinder her. She would have all the time to think about it and apologise to Kaede after destroying the remaining facility and stalling the experiments.

"You're the one who asked questions first." Mikoto calmly retorted while walking away, surprised of the absurd luck she had, to be able to avoid a fight with Mari.

Mari resisted the urge to tap her foot in boredom, as she waited for a response. For her, waiting was the absolute worst thing she could do, and it was all she could do not to just smash something at that moment to alleviate her boredom.

For goodness sake, hurry up! I don't have all night!

Mari had done her best to be diplomatic, and as much as she enjoyed fighting, she knew that doing something like that now would endanger her partner.

She just hoped that The Railgun was i the mood for a little compromise.

After what felt like an eternity passed, Mari had finally received her answer.

"You're the one who asked questions first."

...

...

...

"Yeah... thanks for ignoring them,that was nice." Mari said, trying to not sound surprised.

She had been expecting a response with a little more substance. She had heard that this girl was normally very enthusiastic, so her lacking responses were disappointing,

Guess I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth,Mari thought as she cautiously moved forward, maintaining a comfortable distance from The Railgun as she maintained her aim, and moved towards Haragi, picking him up, and putting him over her shoulder.

"Well..." Mari turned towards another exit she could take to leave the room she was in, "See you soon." Mari said casually, as she ran out of the building, holstering her gun, and pulling out her cell phone to text her comrades outside about the situation in the building,

Man, all of that work, and I cost us a good chunk of cash... oh well, the Railgun's safe, no thanks to me, meaning that we'll still get paid for making sure she survived

Kuroko lay awake atop the sheets of her bed. It was already past nidnight and her Onee-sama hadn't returned home. Any attempt to sleep had proven fruitless and so she stared at the ceiling with her hands folded neatly across her stomach to keep them from fidgeting with worry.

It was odd enough that Mikoto had failed to show for their planned activities that day. Kuroko had spent most of the day trying to reach her, but all her calls had been rejected.

But when she'd called around Mikoto's friends to see if anyone knew where she was, Kuroko had been met with nothing but frustration.

What if she's in trouble somewhere dangerous? Kuroko fretted as once again her imagination conjured troubled thoughts to mind.

What if she's alone and hurt? She pictured the Mikoto lying in the hospital or worse, an alleyway.

What if she's not alone? She felt her teeth grit as she pictured her precious Onee-sama with that villain of a teacher...

"No way!" She shook her head violently to dispel the idea and turned on her side, dragging the pillow from beneath her head and smothering it down over her head.

That wasn't like her.

Kuroko snatched the pillow away and sat bolt upright in her bed when she heard the door creak open.

"Onee-sama!"

Slowly, steadily, no need for useless movements... These were the thoughts that occupied Mikoto's mind for a brief instant as she attempted to return to her room in utmost silence after changing back to her Tokiwadai uniform, in complete fear of the consequences of meeting the dorm mistress after breaking curfew...

But so far, it was working out great. Perhaps, with the insane things that had been going on, luck had decided to do her a little favour? But it hardly mattered right now, she quickly but quietly opened the door to the room and sneaked in.

"Onee-sama!" Mikoto quickly put her finger in front of her lips and whispered "Shhhhhh..." while closing the door behind her. She sighed out of relief and sat on her bed, mentally exhausted from the recent events.

"Why didn't you call me? Where-" Kuroko ignored Mikoto's hushing with the look of a mother scalding their child for bad behaviour. But when she looked at her roommate the younger girl could see that all was not right.

She looked exhausted. And she was covered in scrapes and bruises.

"You're all beat up!" She exclaimed in horror. "What happened?" She started for Mikoto, ready to pounce on her and smother the other girl with attention but the ringing of her phone distracted her.

"Huh? Uiharu?" She glanced back to Mikoto. "Ah, yes. She just got b-" Kuroko stopped herself before she revealed anything too incriminating. After all. There was no point in worrying the others now. "Yeah, late last night. Don't worry." Though her words were care free, Kuroko's expression told another story. Her eyes followed the older girl to the bathroom door as she spoke with Kazari. "Tell Haruue-san and the others too. Good bye."

Kuroko waited anxiously for Mikoto to emerge from the bathroom.

Saved by the bell, Mikoto quickly took this occasion to grab her sleepwear and escape Kuroko's interrogations, or rather delay them as she knew that distraction wouldn't be enough to make Kuroko forget about this ordeal.

After a silent sigh she deeply looked at herself in the mirror and confirmed that, indeed, she was quite beaten up. It was quite unusual for her as the only fights she'd get in were with random thugs, and usually they'd always go down without much effort... Save for one man who didn't really qualify as a thug.

This annoying memory aside, Mikoto considered multiple excuses to avoid spending the entire night bombarded with questions as she washed her face multiple times and applied band-aids to various areas. Telling her she clashed with an Esper would only make the interrogations worse.

A few minutes later Mikoto finally headed out of the bathroom with her sleepwear on, wearing a very apologetic look on her face as she bowed her head and clasped her hands together.

"Sorry about today! A student from our school seemed to have lost something precious so I was helping her." Mikoto ran her hand through her hair and made a small, fake chuckle as she headed towards her bed. "I guess I must've scratched myself while looking. We ended up going to various places to find it, it took quite a while to find it and my phone was out of battery. B-But I'll definitely make up for it!"

"Anyway, it's late so you should go to bed now!"

Kuroko's troubled expression didn't fade as she listened to Mikoto's alibi. No excuse, no matter how plausible it may seem could keep her from seeing the difference in her friend. The girl standing before her was being burdened by something.

Kuroko kept quiet. She knew why Mikoto wasn't telling her. She wasn't the kind of person to burden anyone else with her problems. That fierce pride that Kuroko admired was the same thing keeping her beloved friend from relying on her.

"Okay." She nodded with a forced smile. She did her best to seem genuine, but it was impossible to wash away the worry she felt and it tainted her smile, bleeding through.

Mikoto knew that Kuroko was most likely not buying her excuse. Kuroko was the worrying type after all, if such an excuse could easily pass then she'd never have issues dealing with her.

But her exhaustion quickly caught up to her and her thoughts grew hazy as she fell asleep before she could even think about the successful raiding of the final facility.

Sunday, July 25th, 10 A.M.

"Kuroko, hurry up! We're heading for Joseph's, the others are waiting for us there!" Mikoto hurriedly said while heading out by herself, leaving Kuroko to catch up on her own.

Though it wasn't due to them being late to the meet-up, rather, Mikoto was in an unusual hurry that was mostly due to how yesterday's plans turned out.

Frankly, she had wanted to check up on the results of her terrorist actions against the facilities and whether they were successful in stopping the experiments. But she knew that Kuroko and the others would become suspicious if she didn't attend this meet-up either and the last thing she needed was them becoming aware of this mess.

As a result of the lingering doubts, Mikoto wasn't as responsive as her usual self until they reached the usual restaurant.

"Okay!" Kuroko chirped as she appeared beside Mikoto in a blink. The girl finished adjusting the lengths of ribbon that held her hair in its twin tails and smiled proudly before snatching Mikoto's arm and pulling her along in the direction of the restaurant.

***

Sitting at their booth inside Joseph's, the girls talked about this and that. The carefree atmosphere was a welcome relief to Kuroko following the days of fretting over Mikoto's recent behaviour. It was the matter which occupied all their minds, though none of them mentioned it for fear of turning the mood sour.

Ruiko however seemed a little cold towards Mikoto. She had barely spoken to the older girl since they had arrived and occasionally Mikoto spied Ruiko out the corner of her eye, looking at her with a frown. Though Kuroko trusted her Onee-sama enough not to take her recent absences to heart.

But for Ruiko, who didn't know Mikoto as well, it seemed like the haughty attitude expected of a Tokiwadai 'elite'.

I'll socialise with your kind when it's convenient to me. That was what Mikoto's behaviour said to the younger girl. Still she held her tongue. There was no need to cause a scene on such a pleasant day.

The conversation turned to Judgement work, as it often did when Kazari and Kuroko were together. They discussed the odd occurrences of the past few days. The attack on the cafe, the bank cards and, to Mikoto's concern, the recent fires happening at research facilities around the city.

"It's strange right? Konori-san said they've not received any reports or requests for help despite the seriousness of the incidents." Kazari spoke between bites of her lunch.

Slightly tensed up due to the nature of the discussion, she was relieved to hear that they didn't involve the authorities in this, but she could only guess that it was because those facilities were trying to keep the details of what they were experimenting on top-secret.

"Maybe it was just some internal fighting." Mikoto gave out a false reason, hoping that it would pass by the two Judgement members. "It'd make sense if they wanted to deal with their employees themselves. This city is under constant surveillance anyway, so if it were criminal attacks of this scale it probably wouldn't go unreported for so long."

Unless they were hiding something very important, but she refrained from adding that part. Cloning was prohibited by international law, after all. Who knew what could happen if this experiment was leaked out to the public and outside Academy City?

"Anyway, thinking too much about it will only give us a headache! What should we do after this?"

"I don't know. I'm sure you've got somewhere more important to be though..." Saten rested her chin in her hand. She stared off through the restaurant window and stirred her drink.

"Saten-san!" Kazari gasped in protest. Kuroko looked thoroughly annoyed.

"What? She's been avoiding us for days and won't even tell us why! It's pretty obvious that she thinks she's better than us." Ruiko vented the pent up feelings of the past week. "I told you she was a typical Tokiwadai snob." She crossed her arms defensively, avoiding looking Mikoto in the eye.

A frown gradually appeared on her face as she took her time registering the accusations Saten was throwing at her. Was this the extent of their friendship, for her to believe Mikoto had such condescending thoughts about her own friends?

"...Kuroko. Uiharu-san. Do you also think that I believe I'm superior to you guys?"

From the accumulated worry and stress of the previous day, she was unable to hide her disappointment in the lack of faith they seemed to have in her. But most likely, even if she wasn't weighted down by the recent problems she would've felt sad from hearing how they felt.

"Do you?"

"What? No!" Kazari denied the accusation fiercely, as though the idea insulted her just as much as Mikoto. She was wringing her hands in front of her meekly through the tense exchange.

Knowing she had gone too far, Ruiko could not meet Mikoto's gaze. She turned away, the sour expression on her face softening with regret.

Kuroko was indignant, balling her fists and she glared at Ruiko.

"Don't be ridiculous." She paused, wanting to say more but the twin tailed girl restrained herself. There was no need to make a bad situation worse. She turned her attention to Mikoto fully. "It's just... you've been so busy recently. And then you came back the other night with all those bruises." She bit her lip. "It's not like you..."

It didn't seem like convincing Kuroko and the others of what she was saying would be an easy task at all, was she really that much of an open book to them?

Mikoto sighed wearily as she took awareness in the fact that, due to the heavy atmosphere unfit for a familial restaurant, some of the customers and staff tried to regularly sneak worried glances at the group, afraid that the situation would blow in a full-out argument.

"Let's calm down, we're attracting attention right now." Mikoto regularly turned towards both Kuroko and Saten as she spoke in a much lighter tone. Although her excuses for being distant were false, she hadn't meant to hurt them and wasn't willing to leave them with that impression. "But believe me, I haven't been avoiding you guys or anything, so please don't fight over it."

(In the interests of speeding things up both Misaka and I finished the scene over PM EDIT: Though since then it seems the forum decided to eat the original post so I've had to rewrite it...)

Kazari lowered her head bashfully and slurped on the straw of her drink. Ruiko too looked slightly sheepish at the scene they had caused and grinned awkwardly as she turned away.

Kuroko hadn't expected an explanation from Mikoto, nor had she required one. She was simply glad to be by her side. But before she could say anything Mikoto caught her reflection moving in the window of the restaurant. The blank eyed girl stared straight ahead as she walked past.

The simple sight of the Sister, with what seemed like a guitar case peacefully leaning on her back thanks to the shoulder strap, brought Mikoto doubt about the success of her raiding.

Mikoto worriedly stared out the window for a few seconds. Thinking about it, she hadn't met a Sister since the 9982nd experiment and thus had never actually confirmed the halting of the experiments with the subject themselves.

What if it hadn't stopped?

"Sorry, I'll be right back." Releasing the breath she hadn't realised she was holding, Mikoto ran out of the store hoping to catch up with the Sister.

Though she was quick to follow her 'sister', she only caught a glimpse of her twin in the distance. And as she hurried after that glimpse was quickly lost in the crowd. Losing sight of the other girl she came to a halt in front of a certain vending machine.

It wasn't long before the trio of friends caught up with her. Kuroko zipped into view, landing beside Mikoto as Ruiko and Kazari ran up behind them, breathing heavily.

Frustration overwhelmed her as she realised the Sister had been successful in completely losing her, despite her ability to sense the Sister due to their identical powers.

(A guitar case...) Mikoto thought as she panted slightly after stopping in front of a certain mistreated vending machine. (Could it be that they've started doing things they like?)

A part of her thought that was pretty unlikely and that she was merely fooling herself but it wasn't as strong as the part that genuinely hoped for it to be true, for those girls to have found ways to live a normal life.

Kuroko's landing brought her back from her conflicted thoughts, settling on believing the convenient and comforting part of her that believed all was over. The other two soon arrived, and Mikoto felt a pinch of guilt as she realised they had run all the way here because they were worried about her sudden actions.

So, putting on the best goofy smile she could muster as regret filled her, she added another lie on-top of the ones she had already said.

"Sorry! I thought I had seen a close relative of mine... Maybe I was wrong, I only saw them from a distance."

"A relative?" Kuroko repeated with surprise. Her Onee-sama had a relation here that she wasn't aware of? Somehow she felt like she'd overlooked some vital piece of a mystery story.

***

Later, as the girls dispersed, Ruiko approached Mikoto with a sheepish look. Her eyes fixed on the floor off to one side of the two girls she spoke abruptly.

"Misaka-san." She started as though she had to force the words from her throat. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier." She stopped, managing a smile. "You were spending time with that relative you mentioned, weren't you?" She stated her assumption plainly. "That's why you were so busy." She didn't wait for an affirmation. "I shouldn't have doubted you."

Mikoto's smile was replaced by a smaller, more serious smile as she confirmed Saten's assumption, both for Saten and herself.

"Yeah. But now I should have all the time in the world to hang out with them."

***

In the following few days life for Misaka Mikoto had returned to the reassuring mundanity of a regular teenager. Spending free time with her friends and her days in school. She fended off Kuroko's amorous advances and argued with a certain frustrating English teacher, studying and practising with her ability.

In all, this was as good a life as she could have wished for.

Mikoto left the convenience store empty handed, having perused its selection of manga for a while she had returned the books to the shelf and left. It wasn't hurting anyone, and buying so many manga was too much even for her allowance. It was growing late and the street lights lit the way back to the dormitory for her.

A few hundred meters away from the scene, a brown haired girl wearing a violet short dress was standing atop a roof. Her long elegant hair was swaying in the wind, while her white high heeled boots were positioned as close to the edge of the building as one could get before falling down. She was Mugino Shizuri, the #4 Level 5 Esper of Academy City and leader of ITEM, a group working in the city’s darkness.
Tonight that group was sent out to eliminate a target.
Unlike most targets they had taken care of in the past, their next target was someone fairly special. Even now they couldn’t forget the moment when they received their task and information. That target was very unlike their previous ones. All in all, it could be said that a great challenge was awaiting them. Their hearts were yearning for a challenge that great.

A few meters behind Mugino there was another girl. Her hair was black about shoulder length and she was wearing pink track pants paired up with a simple white T-shirt that would only underline her big bust. Unlike Shizuri, who seemed overly self confident, the other girl wore a rather lethargic expression on her face.
Both were looking into the distance. Both were waiting. They were waiting for their plan to finally spark.


As the Tokiwadai middle school girl was about to take a few steps on the streets, all of sudden someone bumped into her.
She wouldn’t be able to see much of the stranger, as the person didn’t even bother to stop and continued to run off again. All her eyes would be able to glimpse at were the orange hood covering the person’s head, hiding all the important details and the strange looking yet cute doll the person was carrying. Judging from her build it was clear that it was a girl of about early middle school maybe even late elementary school age.
Just as the orange hooded girl had disappeared into a dark backstreet, another girl would appear right besides Mikoto. This time however the stranger decided to stop.
Her long blonde hair, the seemingly expensive and girlish clothes, as well as the beret she wore on her head gave off a rather cute and very – well – girlish impression. Breathing heavily she was trying to recover the strength lost by running…

”That…that girl…she…! She stole my…favourite doll…!” The blonde brought up all her left strength just to force out a few words. It seemed as if she had been running after that orange hooded girl, but was unable to keep up with her running speed. She was breathing more and more heavily, while turning towards the person right next to her, the Tokiwadai middle school girl. Both seemed to be about the same age, so maybe she saw her as some kind of soul mate…
”Please…you must…help me…! That doll…my little sister gave it to me. It…it was the first birthday present…she ever…she ever gave me…! I-I need to get it back!” With tears flowing from her big blue eyes and a expression so cute and touching at the same time, it would make your heart melt, she tried to convince the other middle school girl. ”She worked so hard…she gave her all to save up enough money…! Her poor hands…! They were forced to go through such deep hells! Scars! Scrapes! Blisters! Oh so hard…so hard! I can’t let that be in vain!!”
For some reason it felt as if she was an actor too caught up in a tragic role. She was begging, she was crying, even close to kneeling on the dirty sidewalk, just to dig as deep into the other girl’s heart as possible.


And so it began. Even though she should have been happy about the development of her plan, Shizuri somehow began to feel very angry once again. ”That damn Frenda. Overdoing it again…” Following her colleagues overly dramatic acting, Mugino felt like kicking someone’s shin.
Hopefully everything would work out as planned anyway.

Today’s target was set: Misaka Mikoto, Tokiwadai’s Railgun, the number 3.

Misaka was walking back to the Tokiwadai dormitory. Guided by the light given off by the street-lights, She did not pay mind to much else. Misaka walked up to an intersection and was preparing to cross. Taking a step into the street, she bumped into a stranger running past her.

"H-hey!" Misaka managed to yelp out. The person kept on running, not stopping for a second to even offer an apology. The Tokiwadai ace was not able to make out any features of the quickly fleeting offender. She was only able to make out an orange hood, and a cute doll the person was carrying.

A few seconds later, as the figure that bumped into her disappeared into a dark back alley. A girl wearing expensive looking girlish clothing, and a beret on top of her long blonde hair, appeared at her side. The girl was rather cute and girly. The blonde was breathing heavily, recovering her strength from running. ”That…that girl…she…! She stole my…favourite doll…!” The blonde managed to rasp out between breaths.

Misaka figured the blonde was referring to the doll the person who had bumped into her had been carrying. So the blonde was chasing after the other figure.

The blonde spoke again, ”Please…you must…help me…! That doll…my little sister gave it to me. It…it was the first birthday present…she ever…she ever gave me…! I-I need to get it back!” The blonde this time spoke with tears pouring from her blue eyes. ”She worked so hard…she gave her all to save up enough money…! Her poor hands…! They were forced to go through such deep hells! Scars! Scrapes! Blisters! Oh so hard…so hard! I can’t let that be in vain!!”

The blond was begging Misaka to help her. It looked almost like a character from a tragedy, pleading with fate in their most desperate moment for help.

Misaka was moved by the blonde a bit. Though it did seem a bit... elaborate, Misaka didn't linger on that thought because of the apparent distress the blonde was in.

"It's ok, It's ok." Misaka repeated to the blonde, trying to calm her down. Misaka picked the girl up, rubbing the blond's back with one hand, "What's going on? Do you know why that person stole your doll?"

For a second the blonde, Frenda, felt victorious! Feeling the other girl’s hand on her back, it seemed like everything had worked out just as planned. But it was too early to rejoice as of yet. After all the Railgun still had to start moving.

"What's going on? Do you know why that person stole your doll?"

Oops. Judging from the short break Frenda took from breathing and speaking, it was obvious that she hadn’t expected the other girl to ask any questions about anything. Speaking of a master plan, huh?
”Oh…well…” As she began to ponder about what lie she would tell next, she suddenly began to feel as if a glare from far away was piercing right through her chest, leading her to remember about the things that would happen, if she failed. Afraid, no frightened of the punishment she finally began her to work on her comeback!
”That girl! She is my little sister’s evil Senpai!” Back on track, Frenda immediately started to add in some more tears just to fortify her tragedy filled act. Once again crying, she turned towards the Tokiwadai girl in order to take another deep look into her noble eyes.
”Her plan is to crush my little sister’s heart and destroy our relationship! I promised! Oh, I promised to keep that doll as my greatest treasure!
But now…now that evil girl stole it! She stole it to tear it apart and feed it to her dogs! Just like she always does it with my sister’s bento boxes! And it will all be my fault, for not keeping my promise!” With more tears flowing from her eyes, the blonde girl finally had begun kneeling on the dirty pavement, folding her hands in front of her chest just as if she was praying for a hero to appear and save her from misery. Even an idiot could tell who that hero was supposed to be.

”Please! Oh, please help me! I need to get that doll back! But I can’t run anymore! Oh, I can’t run! And even if! That terrible Senpai is her school’s ace at sprinting! I could never catch her! Never! I don’t want that doll to become dog food! I don’t want that!”
More emotions! More tragedy! It was overflowing! It was probably even growing to become annoying! Hopefully that would be the final push to send the girl running. Hopefully…otherwise someone’s shin would be crushed in a thousand hellish ways. …Mugino is going to crush me…! With that thought in mind, the blonde girl began to even cry real tears!

”Oh…well…” The blonde paused for a second, then replied. ”That girl! She is my little sister’s evil Senpai!” The blonde started to cry more, taking a deep look into Tokiwadai's eye's.

”Her plan is to crush my little sister’s heart and destroy our relationship! I promised! Oh, I promised to keep that doll as my greatest treasure!

But now…now that evil girl stole it! She stole it to tear it apart and feed it to her dogs! Just like she always does it with my sister’s bento boxes! And it will all be my fault, for not keeping my promise!” The blonde was on her knees at this point, literally begging.
Misaka thought for a moment, 'She is pretty desperate to get her doll back...'

”Please! Oh, please help me! I need to get that doll back! But I can’t run anymore! Oh, I can’t run! And even if! That terrible Senpai is her school’s ace at sprinting! I could never catch her! Never! I don’t want that doll to become dog food! I don’t want that!”  The bolnde pleaded, pushing Misaka's empathy over the edge, she obviously couldn't ignore the girl in her heart breaking state. It was a sight that would make any teenage girl melt.

Misaka spoke up, looking into the crying girls blue eyes, "I don't think i could catch the girl right now..." Misaka thought for a moment, pondering her next course of action. The girl seemed a little suspicious, but that might be because of the emotional distress she was in. After a few moments, the Tokiwadai ace put her arm around the other girl continuing to try and comfort her, "Would you like to get something to eat?" Concern evident for the blonde in her voice.

Misakas stomach let loose a guttural roar, announcing to both that she was hungry. With an embarrassed look, she waited for a response from the blonde.

The higher her building of lies would grow, the deeper she would sink into the swamp of failure. Frenda could cry and beg, but the only thing it caused was the loss of more and more time. Upon realising this problem it already seemed too late. Which meant…
…Damn it…if I can’t get her to move…Mugino will…! Mugino will! Imagining that future route alone made her start sweating even worse than before. The blonde beret girl, however, was trapped. The other girl’s attempt to calm her down was just too nice. Such good people were found rarely in this world. But in the end everything that led to this friendliness was nothing more than a lie. So what about feeling bad when declining?

”Alright…” She took the offer. Looking up at the other girl, still with tears filling her eyes, she was trying once again to appear at least a little cute – and of course she trusted that she would look as cute as a sad dog! ”But…could you at least…take a look for me?” The final attack! Everything she needed the other girl to do after all, was making her walk into that back alley. So maybe even a simple approach like that one right now would be sufficient.
”…I would really feel better if you went ahead and took at least a look. Meanwhile I could clean myself a little…”, she spoke brushing away her tears with the back of her hand and then stood up from the pavement. ”…you see…I’m also a little bit afraid…of running in there…it’s so dark and gloomy…”, she then added in another girlish manner, as if she was admitting a truth she was terribly ashamed of. Who wouldn’t help a scared girl out that had so many problems to deal with anyway?


Waiting in the darkness of the back alleys the orange hooded girl stood at a corner. ”Frenda sure is super taking long…”, the girl voiced her concern to no one in particular. The only thing around was the doll sitting on the ground right around said corner.

”…I would really feel better if you went ahead and took at least a look. Meanwhile I could clean myself a little…”, the blonde said, brushing away her tears. ”…you see…I’m also a little bit afraid…of running in there…it’s so dark and gloomy…”

Misaka decided to oblige the blonde. It was the least she could do to give her some dignity after crying and an opportunity to clean herself up. To be honest, she didn't blame the blonde for not wanting to walk into the alley. It sent a shiver down her spine, putting the Tokiwadai's neck hair on end.

"Alright, I'll take a quick look..." Misaka said reluctantly. She took a look at the entrance to the back alley, "I'll be right back, stay here for a second okay?" With that, the Tokiwadai Ace walked over to the entrance.

Hoping to end this ordeal as quickly as possible, Misaka peered into the entrace to the alley and looked for any movement or indications of where the 'evil senpai' may be.

Finally the Tokiwadai girl began to move.

The moment the distance between those two was large enough and the heroine’s back was turned towards the “innocent princess in need”, a devilish grin appeared on the blonde’s lips. ”…Nishishishishi…it’s finally getting started…!”, she muttered happily, knowing the other girl wouldn’t be able to notice.


Kinuhata Saiai had been watching the entrance to the back alley the whole time. Hiding in the darkness she had been waiting for her turn to take action. With the doll right next to her, everything was in position. Even though the darkness made it difficult to realise, there was something else hidden, various strange lines were drawn everywhere. Walls, the ground, everything was covered by those lines of unknown nature.

”She super is coming.” Once she realised that, the orange hooded girl’s part of the act had to begin. Before, she had been hiding like a true pro, making it close impossible for any other party to detect her presence. Now, however, she simply turned her head around the corner clumsily, using the orange hood as an obvious sign for her presence.
The moment, eye contact between her and her target was confirmed, she hastily turned back around the corner and disappeared into the darkness once again. This time she was running like a pro, taking turns as often as she was able to, deeper and deeper into the back alley network. Yet it seemed as if one would still be able to trail her.

Leaving behind the doll standing at the corner, the culprit had disappeared. It wasn’t that doll, though. It just was another strange looking doll with a wholly different design, yet they both had a similar feature.


Meanwhile the blonde beret girl had disappeared to somewhere else, too. There wasn’t even a single trace left behind.