False Error (Arc 3 Science Side)

(...Wonderful, a drug addict?)

Though she noted that, now was hardly the time for judgement so Natsumi's eyes followed the vial to send a fireball straight towards it with her right hand, not even bothering to control towards its target; she didn't know what would be in that vial or what its effect would be, but it was fine as long as it hit since a vial couldn't suddenly change trajectories in mid-air.

While she did that, Natsumi also drew a line out of a second fireball with the index and middle fingers of her left hand. It hadn't been done simultaneously as she had waited until losing control over the first fireball to start expanding another one into a wave that covered a bit over her body width and burst towards Kisue, but the timing between the two had been extremely close.

However, the broken vial had revealed something other than what Kisue had previously shown and Natsumi could see some fumes emanating from the vial that had been intercepted.

(...Tch.)

She didn't know what kind of fumes they were, but it didn't take a genius to understand it meant nothing good, so with her now freed hand Natsumi quickly back-stepped and covered her mouth and nose with the slightly large shirt that only covered one of her shoulders.

(I need to end this quick.)

These fire waves were followed one after the other following her hand's directions.

There was still no mercy granted for Kisue, especially with the vials that were approaching her.

"Geh!"

Kisue only narrowly managed to dodge the first wave of flame, the second pushed her back, and by the third, her advance had been completely halted. She'd hoped the fumes would create an opening, but it seemed that no such thing had occurred yet. If she was fortunate, whatever amount Natsumi had breathed in would cause an effect soon, but it wouldn't help her right now. She'd been pushed out of range to throw her makeshift weapons, and having been caught off guard by the wider surface area of Natsumi's new attacks she'd lost her focus.

Forward motion was impossible, but simply standing still would mean being the perfect target. And moving further back was obviously unacceptable. Fortunately, there was still one more direction to flee to. The side. By going in that direction, she could in between the walls of flame from the side, as if they were the walls of a maze, and slowly but surely make her way to the center. And if she could get in close range... The weight of the scalpel in what still remained of her jacket assured her of her victory.

Diving between the walls of flame from the side turned out to actually be easier than dodging the fireballs. The walls had been formidable from the front because of their surface area, but from her current point of view they were thinner than the fireballs. And because they were so large, there fewer of them as well. Thanks to those fortunate advantages, she soon found herself in range to throw a vial. But, there was no reason to stop there. Quickly, swiftly, easily, she closed the distance still further, and found herself an arm's length away from the source of all this flame.

"You seem much frailer than the other one."

And with that pointed observation, she tossed aside the vials from one her hands and struck with the scalpel.

Underneath the slightly large shirt Natsumi allowed herself a brief sigh as she glanced sideways at the scientist who was attempting another approach at attacking her, if a bit of a stupid one; it was nice that she seemed to have the upper hand compared to Renavin's own attempt at fighting so much that Kisue would be this desperate, but she would have fancied not wasting so much of her time and energy with a suicidal maniac.

It would likely not be a very long time before dawn arrived, after all, and not returning to the dorm soon would be an a life-threatening issue of much more importance than Kisue...

Her right hand was still holding her shirt above her only means of breathing.

And the desperate, suicidal scientist who was quickly approaching her with inhumane reflexes for a girl with such a petite stature discarded her remaining vials and pulled a scalpel from the pocket she had stored it in, extending her arm towards Natsumi in a way as foolish as she had done so towards Renavin.

"You seem much frailer than the other one."

...

“Don't even think about touching me, you filthy shut-in.”

Natsumi's left hand smoothly flicked upwards.

The moment she did so a bright orange wall rose at her command. That blinding wall emanated such an intense heat from its compacted flames, as their colours widely dancing within it, that it served as proof that the fiery mass would have no consideration for anything passing through it; it would mercilessly and relentlessly burn with flames of the highest temperature she could muster, a heat that would likely damage skin to incredible extents if exposed for too long.

“Ahhh, right, that kid's poisoned, isn't she?” Natsumi spared a glance towards Gina, who was restricting the kid from being taken away by wolves as the flames of her defensive wall roared on against their foe.

And as soon as she was satisfied with that, Natsumi simply discarded it and let go of her shirt as she stepped backwards to get a proper look at Kisue and snapped her fingers.

This time, however, was not to conjure anything. It was very simply to light Kisue herself on fire.

Clothes, hair, even eyelashes; she could set anything on fire as long as it was easily flammable and stable enough for her and even though she had the mercy of not setting off a fire near Kisue's eyes, partly due to not being able to focus and target well enough, the rest would not be spared as flames would almost devour her.

Then, Natsumi spoke as she stood tall and proud... even fairly condescending in return to how Kisue had talked to her.

“I will simply be one-sidedly taking what I want, and you will simply be giving it to me. Your desires are of no consequence... was it? I'll be succinct as well: I hope you have an antidote to hand over, Kihara. Otherwise I'll give you common traits with the scarred girl you sent after us as a payback.”

“Ahhh, right, that kid's poisoned, isn't she? I will simply be one-sidedly taking what I want, and you will simply be giving it to me. Your desires are of no consequence... was it? I'll be succinct as well: I hope you have an antidote to hand over, Kihara. Otherwise I'll give you common traits with the scarred girl you sent after us as a payback.”

Natsumi still desired something of her. But whether it was merely to mock her, or because there was some tangible something she wanted, Kisue could no longer tell. Because she had forgotten. Though she had run around so energetically, though she hadn't even blinked, though she had seemed like a juggernaut. The fact was, she had taken heavy injuries during this fight. Her shoulder had been bitten into by a wolf, whose jaws are able to apply fifteen hundred pounds of pressure per square inch. In actuality, the fact that her shoulder was still in such good condition could only be attributed to either Renavin having it hold back, or weakness from the acid that had already begun eating at its body.

And as she had dove between the fireballs, she had accumulated numerous burns on her extremities. Normally, the pain would likely have incapacitated a person. But the drugs she had injected herself with prevented her from feeling it. That let her fight on regardless of her injuries. However, that also meant that she continued fighting even with her injuries. Exacerbating them, widening them, compounding them. To engage is an activity such as combat in such a state was nothing short of reckless. And the fact that she resorted to that, in hindsight, would prove just how cornered she was.

So, with her body in that state, how would it react to taking such violent, consecutive blows? The attempted cremation of her arm, already so injured by wolves and fire, and the immolation of the entirety of her body. Faced with such extreme damage, all at once, added on top of that which had already been inflicted, there was no way she would remain conscious. Even if Kisue was not aware of the pain, even if she could ignore her body's warning signals, that didn't necessarily mean her body wasn't recognizing the would-be causes of those signals. And so she fell, betrayed by her own body.

---

"There was no need for me to step in, I suppose."

So spoke Gina, having observed the battle to the end. If it seemed like Kihara was going to beat them, she would have interfered, but Natsumi had removed any need for her to do so. And in the process, she had removed any reason for Gina to refrain from attempting to obtain answers. Were these people who had invaded the lab drawn into the darkness unwittingly, like her? Or had they entered of their own free will? If it was the latter, then no matter their good intentions, they would have be punished. If they were truly good, then they would have no reason paying penance for their crimes. There was a simple test she could use to discern which was the answer. Even if the results were inconclusive, they would still be enlightening at least.

Opening her phone once more, though with some difficulty due to the weight of the girl in her arms, she flipped back to a different number with the message still saved, and pressed send. She had sent an SOS to Anti-Skill, with details about the circumstances and location. They would arrive before long, so there was only one thing for her to see. Would Natsumi, Renavin, and their cronies stay and accept the inevitable questioning, or would they attempt to flee? She would which discover soon enough.

"Anti-Skill will be here to clean up shortly. I don't suppose you have any issues staying, as you will most assuredly be needed to answer some questions~?"

(Did I go overboard...? No, it probably wouldn't have happened any other way with how stubborn she was.) Natsumi reasoned and sighed as she scratched her neck, turning towards Renavin before shaking her head: he would have to look for the antidote himself now.

Though while doing that, she did allow herself eyes of pity upon the older man as it gradually occurred to her that she had gained almost complete dominance with no effort over a situation he was cocky about and regretted. It seemed that men these days were as unreliable as they could get.

"Anti-Skill will be here to clean up shortly. I don't suppose you have any issues staying, as you will most assuredly be needed to answer some questions~?"

…

“Pray tell, genius, how are we going to get out anyway? This isn't a game where the doors automatically unlock upon defeating the boss so there's no use in trying to escape from Anti-Skill.”

As she said so, her previously calm expression gradually turned into a cold glare that shot straight at Gina's eyes like daggers.

“But tell me, what about you? What's a student doing here at this time of the night in their off-limits school that's been conducting immoral experiments if they aren't involved?”

Gina was questioning the reason of her presence, and for once Natsumi found herself thankful that those reasons were nothing she could get herself beheaded over since it wasn't a job she was assigned to. In fact, it was even free credit to her name despite the fact that her reason for stopping this was completely selfish.  “Did you decide to improvise yourself as a hero that would save people from the intruders? Well, not that it matters.” She questioned back as slowly, while still keeping her unwavering stern gaze on Gina, approached the girl and the child she was holding.

This girl was as suspicious as anyone else in the room; she could have been assisting Kihara and ultimately have a change of heart, or she could have been a secret enemy just as much as she could have randomly waltzed in. There was no way to know.

“I don't know what the fuck's going on with this school, but if you ever bothered to go outside of your fancy and comfortable little castle called "Nagatenjouki" every once in a while you would have realised that the children that went berserk because of her did so in the middle of Academy City and that's a lot worse than your little comfort zone being breached.”

She only stopped a few centimetres away from the high-school girl.

It's not like Natsumi held any particular affection towards the sole city that would accept Espers, it was simply that she had two reasons for getting involved and the incidents that had occurred had given birth to the second one.

The first reason was that she was actually curious as a Tokiwadai student to see how this situation born from Nagatenjouki's inferiority complex would end.

And the second...

“Thanks for clearing up the ventilation, but let me make something excruciatingly clear. I don't know about Mr. Suspicious and Useless over there, but I'm here because of this school's utter incompetence ending up involving people I know and myself, so don't you dare even try to talk down to me like you've done anything to actually help the city and those kids, with the extent of your powers I wouldn't have needed to be here if you had.”

Was simply that she was indebted; though not officially because of the high likeliness that the person wasn't even aware that such an issue was even happening, yet Natsumi still wanted to make sure that nothing could be held against her and so always aimed to at least pay back for situations she'd have a hand in causing.

Renavin wasn't sure how to process everything at the moment, as he sat himself up against a lab table and watched Natsumi do work. As he watched her dance along with her ruthless flames, he couldn't help but smirk. He felt a bit foolish to challenge such a girl to a fight earlier near some dormitory. He was certain that even if he went all out, he'd be the one pulling the shortest straw in the fight.

He carefully wrapped a piece of cloth around his wrist to at least slow the bleeding, as he felt fairly tired. He tightened it quickly and looked over to see his mercenaries have fallen. Still, seems the mission was a success regardless, and now he needed to focus on the clean up. The wolves, being crushed by the gravity still, soon turned into paper, relieving them of their pain. "Good work, my pets~..." He muttered as he pulled out his phone and began texting away.

Due to the fact the team of mercenaries are either incapacitated or dead, he needed another small team to clean up any evidence of them being their. Collecting the equipment they used, the bodies or at least the uniforms and any witnesses...with a few exceptions of the two students, but he wouldn't mention it in the text. "Haaaa...The clean up crew is coming...Though I wish they just came in with us rather than hide behind a corner like a sneaky raccoon, wanting to snack on the scraps~."

Renavin sighed as he walked over to the passed out Kisue and rummaged through her pockets non-nonchalantly to find the one vial remaining, in which was the same look and shape of the antidote she had held before the fight ensued, and walked over back toward the child.

"Anti-Skill will be here to clean up shortly. I don't suppose you have any issues staying, as you will most assuredly be needed to answer some questions~?"

"As much as I would love to answers Anti-skill's questions, my dead, I have to take my leave...I suppose Anti-skill will take care of the children for us, seeing that I was planning to give them to the authorities anyway." He winked as he handed Gina the antidote. She doesn't trust him, or rather no one does, so he might as well let the 'good guys' take care of everything, while the silent and foolish hero is erased from existence

“Pray tell, genius, how are we going to get out anyway? This isn't a game where the doors automatically unlock upon defeating the boss so there's no use in trying to escape from Anti-Skill.”

"Anti-skill has no knowledge of this facility, so there are exits they aren't even aware of. We'll take one we didn't come from and the clean up crew will transport us away. With their security camera's in the proximity jammed, they have no way to trace us. You go back to boring school life, and I  get stuck with more work. Sadly I don't often work with beauties often so it's a shame~." Renavin smiled as he walked toward the elevator. "Even if I do get arrested my Anti-skill, I won't be there for long. I'll probably be killed or released during by containment~...But I rather worry about the lovely princess, then my cut, before we worry about escaping~."

In the end it was practically up to Gina whether they were able to leave, considering her power is unrivaled. Renavin certainly wouldn't be able to do anything and Natsumi is arguable, but he had no knowledge of how gravity vs fire would go, so it was really anyone elses guess. Soon after he spoke, the elevator was called up, the clean up crew seeming to have great response time waiting on stand by for them to come and collect evidence of their presence.

"However, as much as you wish not to be affiliated with the young scientist there, Anti-skill may find plenty of evidence that you aided the crazed woman and arrest you on that alone. So if you wish, you're free to come with us~."

"As much as I would love to answers Anti-skill's questions, my dear, I have to take my leave...I suppose Anti-skill will take care of the children for us, seeing that I was planning to give them to the authorities anyway."

“Pray tell, genius, how are we going to get out anyway? This isn't a game where the doors automatically unlock upon defeating the boss so there's no use in trying to escape from Anti-Skill.”

"Anti-skill has no knowledge of this facility, so there are exits they aren't even aware of. We'll take one we didn't come from and the clean up crew will transport us away. With their security camera's in the proximity jammed, they have no way to trace us. You go back to boring school life, and I  get stuck with more work. Sadly I don't often work with beauties often so it's a shame~."

Gina observed their exchange calmly, without betraying her thoughts on what they discussed. But she did indeed have her own opinions on what they were saying. It seemed that the girl had no intent of even attempting to flee, but the man was another matter. Not only had he apparently called in another group to clean up instead of Anti-Skill, but it seemed he had every intent of fleeing the scene. That would not be acceptable. However, it was his next words that truly hit deep.

"Even if I do get arrested my Anti-skill, I won't be there for long. I'll probably be killed or released during by containment~...But I rather worry about the lovely princess, then my cut, before we worry about escaping~. However, as much as you wish not to be affiliated with the young scientist there, Anti-skill may find plenty of evidence that you aided the crazed woman and arrest you on that alone. So if you wish, you're free to come with us~."

Though Gina was far from a normal individual, in terms of both strength and temperament, up until this point in her life she had still remained relatively unstained by the darkness of the city. She had absolutely no experience navigating this blood-stained playing field, and her success so far could only be attributed to her own talent for calmly lying. Though Silver Queen was merely a nickname, it could be said that she did indeed have a poker face worthy of royalty. But the most pivotal consequence of her purity was undoubtedly...

That she had no idea just how deep the darkness went.

Until now, she could have gotten off with merely assuming that Nagatenjouki was corrupt. That that was why they had taken someone such as Kisue in. And even Renavin, Natsumi, and the mercenaries could be explained away as low level peons. Essentially more sophisticated street thugs. But if their employers had power enough to free them from the confines of Academy City's penitentiary, then the corruption would have to extend up to the highest levels of the city.

...Exactly how thoroughly was I fooled?!

Her thoughts didn't even go far enough to blame another. The idea of directing her anger towards the city would come later. In this moment, her hate was directed entirely towards herself. For being so perfectly deceived. For failing to see roaches that must be crawling just beneath the firmament. She had lauded her strength, been so perfectly confident in her control over her world, but she had missed an entire infestation that had likely been right before her eyes the entire time. But while she was stewing, the others around her were not content to stand so still.

“But tell me, what about you? What's a student doing here at this time of the night in their off-limits school that's been conducting immoral experiments if they aren't involved? Did you decide to improvise yourself as a hero that would save people from the intruders? Well, not that it matters.”

“I don't know what the fuck's going on with this school, but if you ever bothered to go outside of your fancy and comfortable little castle called "Nagatenjouki" every once in a while you would have realised that the children that went berserk because of her did so in the middle of Academy City and that's a lot worse than your little comfort zone being breached. Thanks for clearing up the ventilation, but let me make something excruciatingly clear. I don't know about Mr. Suspicious and Useless over there, but I'm here because of this school's utter incompetence ending up involving people I know and myself, so don't you dare even try to talk down to me like you've done anything to actually help the city and those kids, with the extent of your powers I wouldn't have needed to be here if you had.”

Nearly every word struck deep. Her power, that went unused. How she had turned her eyes inward to view only the school, and failed to see what lie beyond. Atrocities had gone by unchecked, and she had failed to do even a single thing. But. That didn't mean she would allow this girl to tell her off. Even if she had acted, the fact was that she was more than likely far more involved with those atrocities than she herself was. It was possible that Natsumi was simply twisted in a manner similar to her, and it was thanks to that that she could mesh so easily with this scene, but Gina was confident enough in her ability to see through such deceptions to be convinced otherwise. That girl was most assuredly used to these activities, far more so than she had any right to be. There was little evidence to draw upon, but she was certain.

Skipping backwards, as if in natural response to her personal space being invaded, Gina created some distance between herself and Natsumi before she spoke.

"I don't suppose you're in any position to judge. The way you fought... You seem quite experienced at using your abilities. Against human targets, especially. For one such as myself, whether I fight a beast or a human, a man or a machine, my tactics don't particularly change much, but an ability such as your own is a different story, is it not? If you wish to talk to me about justice..."

"I suggest you wash your hands first."

She spoke with a soft smile, but there was a hard tone to her voice. It was clear that her cool had broken, if only marginally. She was angry, she was frustrated, she was upset. She wasn't going to accept having her surroundings stained further. So, as if giving her emotions physical pressure, the weight of gravity bore down upon Natsumi and Renavin. It was hardly on the level she had crushed the wolves with; it was merely as if a large weight was pressing upon their shoulders. But the implicit threat it represented was clear.

Obey, or kneel.

"Now, I don't know what you're going on about over there, but I believe I heard talk of escape? Oh, and something about a clean up crew as well."

"...I suggest you discard such notions. Anti-Skill will arrive soon, as I said, and you will be the very image of cooperation. I'm sure you don't mind. Not if you're really so confident that you'll be able to leave the cell you seem to be equally confident you'll end up in~"

The face Natsumi made bore the same facial expression than the one people would have when reading about the dumbest things in the world on the internet; it was a mix of confusion, pity and exasperation.

“If I intended to escape then I would have done so a while ago instead of approaching you.”

The pressure of Gina's gravity was bothersome, but she was way too tired to even care since it was likely that whatever she did she would end up in Anti-Skill's custody for at least the remainder of the night. She merely dead-panned as she turned around towards Renavin with a glare to tell him not to even try ditching them, because there was no way in hell she was going to deal with Anti-Skill alone.

Slowly moving her hands to her pockets with no other signs of moving or picking up anything, Natsumi called out to Gina without turning her head towards the girl just yet.

“That said... You'd be wise not to act like you have the knowledge required to be able to judge people on first sight...” Natsumi muttered before  finally remembered another thing she wanted to add, this time turning fully towards Gina with her hardened stare that would not waver no matter what Gina did.

“And you may also want to avoid dealing with things based on your notion of what's good or bad. It won't always help you deal with difficult situations.”

She made no attempt to retreat to an exit, and though she appeared to be as calm as one could possibly be, the reason why she wasn't even budging was very simple. Natsumi was sincerely worried about one thing.

It wasn't the current situation with the suspicious Renavin or the apparently easily irritable Gina

It was the fact that...

(...Oh God.)

There were no obvious exits to flee from and if there were any this stupid silver haired girl automatically made them impossible to reach, so...

(How the hell am I going to justify this bizarre situation resulting in being in Anti-Skill's custody to my teachers without being expelled?!)