[Rail IC] Academy City II: Electrokinesis Is Love~

[Terry576]

Music.

Academy City. Thirty years ahead of the rest of the world, and free of most of the 'normal' problems, high above the rest of society.

Look inside. There are 2.3 million people living here, and 80% of them are students. Students with abilities, students called ESPers.

Look down a bit more. A clone project has started. An infiltration has begun. Paths of Skill-Out and ESPers begin to cross. GATE is awakening, because of one thick-headed silverette.

This is the time. The wheels of fate are turning, and no-one knows where they will land...

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Streets - Alley]

Ivaz limps back to her hideout. As she goes, she runs through the recent events in her mind. Especially the ESPer's last comment.

Stupid arrogant ESPer. Thinks he's the bigger man. Next time...I'll get him...

[Anyr]

Once the two fighters had left, Moroe rose from her hiding place with an audible sigh of relief. She walked back out into the (now empty) alley, while stretching fitfully in an attempt to relieve the cramps she'd gained while crouching. With these having been reduced to a manageable dull ache, she stepped casually back onto the street and set off in the direction of home.

"Skill Out, huh? I wonder if that's where I'd have ended up..."

[Terry576]

Souji continues to walk the streets alone, whistling a quiet tune. Humans. Marvelous, brilliant creatures. They'd even made clones, just so they could try to live longer. That was beautiful. Stupid, but beautiful. Souji loved humans. He loved them as people. But, Souji had every right to be paranoid.

Which is why he went on a computer instead of going to his house.

Which is why he forced the computer to pull up the file on Ishimaru Moroe.

Which is why he was tracking her right now.

Which is why he prayed to god she hadn't done anything incredibly stupid, like pull up his file. That thing was monitored more heavily then Tree Program for Kami's sake.

[Anyr]

Half an hour after her most recent ordeal, Ishimaru Moroe sank gratefully into a very comfortable chair. In one hand she held a mug of hot cocoa, and in the other a cigarette. Her trip home had been thankfully bereft of any further excitement; It had also been uncomfortably long, but that just made this moment all the sweeter. At long last she was home, alone and surrounded by silence. Here in her well furnished apartment above an eternally closed mechanic's shop (which she 'rented' from an owner who didn't actually work there), she could escape from the outside world while pitying the poor fools who were forced to live in dorms.

It wouldn't last, of course. Tomorrow she'd be forced back into circulation again; Beset from all sides by school, work and grandiose schemes. But right now all that seemed a long way away. With a contented sigh, Moroe put all of her worries on hold and let herself drift away.

[Terry576]

And right then, Moroe gets the wonderful sense of hearing somebody trip up her staircase, run into every wall in her hallway, and then curse loudly (and creatively) in japanese. The stream goes on for around thirty seconds, and most of them are curses towards the occupant of the "Hallway of evil, where no man could possibly return from intact!"

...The manner of speech seems rather familiar, unfortunately for the poor, tired girl.

[Anyr]

Moroe was (to put it mildly) somewhat surprised by this turn of events. She was also equal parts angry at being disturbed in mid sip, confused about how Souji had found her and regretful at having already changed into her pyjamas. However, it was a poor operative indeed who'd let a few minor emotions like those stop them from doing their job.

From the moment that the first footfall was heard on the stairs, Moroe's automatic pilot took over her body. During the thirty seconds she had at her disposal she: Put down her cocoa and snubbed out her cigarette; Rose to her feet and walked over to her bed; Withdrew a silenced pistol from beneath one pillow of said bed and started pointing it at the door; Reached into the jacket which hung nearby and took out her gaming device, into which she input a few quick activation commands; Walked back the way she'd come (with pistol still trained on the door) and over to the window; Opened the window and placed herself halfway out of it; Sent some follow-up commands to the two combat drones she'd activated earlier, telling them to make their way up from the shop downstairs; And finally took a self-indulgent second to silently curse Souji and all he stood for.

Her plan was simple enough. As soon as Souji turned the door's handle, started to blow it open or gave any other sign that he was behind it, Moroe would open fire through the wood and hopefully kill him. Should that fail, she'd go straight out the window and leave Souji to the two armed drones which were silently coming up from behind him. And even if he survived them as well, she'd still be far away, safe and free to send in all the drones that GATE had at its disposal. And then, when he was finally dead or captured at the hands of her reinforcements, she'd come back, get dressed and finish her cocoa.

[Terry576]

Moroe's plan was silly for several reasons:

1. Souji was an Electromaster, and she sent combat drones after him.

As he glared at the demonic hallway, he heard a creaking on the stairs. Turning around, he glanced at the combat drone, and groaned.

"Pretty active for a broken down engineer's shop Ishimaru-san..."

Being robots, they fired at him. Being annoyed, Souji retaliated.

Sending an arc of lightning at one of the robots, Souji ducked another the set of bullets and, went to grab the second one, planning on blasting it with electricity to deactivate it.

Not the best plan, but it would probably work.

2: Souji has met Moroe before. He's assumed she would 'overreact' to someone being inside her house.

Using one of the presumably deceased robots as a shield, Souji kicks open the door and rolls it in, crouching in the hallway. He whistles as the robot rolls inside, a little tune he picked up on the streets.

"Ishimaru-san, that's a terrible way to treat a guest! Honestly, I doubt anyone else would ever fire weaponry at guests in their homes!"

He'd be dead wrong, and also stupid. Unfortunately for Moroe, Souji is neither of those things, and the tone he's using when he says her name is a kind of mocking affection. It's almost like he doesn't even care how good she is at her job.

He's still playing with her.

[Anyr]

{OOC: As mentioned, the drones move silently. The idea was to have them shoot Souji in the back before he saw them coming (and hopefully after he'd already started to open the door). Naturally this would still fail miserably, but in a slightly different way.}

Moroe didn't waste time shouting a retort or waiting for a clearer shot. As soon as her first bullets proved ineffective she climbed straight out the window and down towards the street; Not that it didn't hurt her pride to do so, but pride wasn't worth dying for. So no matter how much Souji's voice (which reminded her of an amused parent mock-scolding a child for trying to reach the cookies on a high shelf) grated on her nerves, she didn't entertain any notions about turning around and trying to silence it. Instead she hit the ground running and didn't look back.

[Terry576]

{{OOC: Assumed they looked like the security droids that always went after Mikoto, my bad.}}

Souji doesn't bother with Moroe. After all, he was in her apartment, a gold mine of information for the ingenious operative. Phone records, bills, but most importantly...

Paychecks. Pickup locations. Drop points. Information that whoever she worked for, Judgement (Highly unlikely, as she shrieked at him about her power,) or Anti-Skill, wouldn't want him getting his hands on.

He sighs and begins looking through Moroe's things for anything important.

[Anyr]

{OOC: Actually, they often do look like that (or something equally mundane), but the resemblance is only skin deep. Underneath the disguise their specs are completely different.}

At first glance the apartment looked disappointingly normal. Oh, there were certainly things that might normally be considered strange, like the extremely strong lock on the bathroom door or the wardrobe filled entirely with copies of the same outfit; But as far as incriminating paperwork went, the best on offer was some overdue (and still unfinished) homework. So unfortunately, it seemed as if Souji would be leaving empty handed...

Meanwhile, Moroe was catching her breath in a dingy alley and trying to shake off a strong sense of deja vu. She'd already sent a recall command to all the drones she could muster, but it would take them a while to get there. She quickly decided to spend this time picking gravel out of her bare feet (which had both objected strenuously to her recent escape), and alerting the rest of GATE to the situation. She absently reached for her phone with one hand, while using the other to extract a particularly jagged stone, but found only the pocketless fabric of her pyjamas.

"Oh, that's right. The phone's in my...coat; Which is back in my room; The room which Souji is currently..."

After a brief moment to process this new revelation, Moroe lost all interest in massaging her aching feet. Instead, she devoted all her attention to pressing buttons on her game device in an effort to get the drones to arrive even slightly quicker. Stealing the GPS codes of her comrades' phones so that she could always track them with her own had seemed like such a good idea at the time...

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Krystal's House]

As Krystal gets ready for bed, she runs through the day's events in her head. She decides to get a map for this city. She got lost way too often.

Then again, getting lost did allow her to meet Souji, who seemed nice.

She then slaps her forehead. She didn't ask for his phone number or anything. Now she can't call him to hang out again.

As she lays down in her bed, she remembers Souji's friend. The girl who seemed to immediately assume that Krystal was stuck-up. Hopefully, she'd be able to meet that girl again and show that she wasn't.

[Currently Unknown Alley]

Ivaz swears loudly as a man works on her knee, sewing the wound back up. Half a bottle of sake sits next to her. Good way to numb the pain, but not as good as actual anesthetics.

The man is one of Ivaz's assistants. Well, she'd call him a minion. She had her own little gang set up. Total of five people, herself included. All of them wanting the same thing as her. To get rid of any ESPers.

Ivaz takes a swig of sake just as the man finishes the job. He grabs some gauze and starts wrapping the area. You know, Ivaz, you're gonna have to go easy for a little while now. This ain't exactly a small cut.

Ivaz waves a hand. Yeah, yeah...don't get into fist fights for a while...use guns...got it... Her speech is slurred a little.

Once the leg is wrapped, Ivaz gets up and limps over to her bed, taking the sake with her.

[Terry576]

{OOC: Actually, they often do look like that (or something equally mundane), but the resemblance is only skin deep. Underneath the disguise their specs are completely different.}

At first glance the apartment looked disappointingly normal. Oh, there were certainly things that might normally be considered strange, like the extremely strong lock on the bathroom door or the wardrobe filled entirely with copies of the same outfit; But as far as incriminating paperwork went, the best on offer was some overdue (and still unfinished) homework. So unfortunately, it seemed as if Souji would be leaving empty handed...

Meanwhile, Moroe was catching her breath in a dingy alley and trying to shake off a strong sense of deja vu. She'd already sent a recall command to all the drones she could muster, but it would take them a while to get there. She quickly decided to spend this time picking gravel out of her bare feet (which had both objected strenuously to her recent escape), and alerting the rest of GATE to the situation. She absently reached for her phone with one hand, while using the other to extract a particularly jagged stone, but found only the pocketless fabric of her pyjamas.

"Oh, that's right. The phone's in my...coat; Which is back in my room; The room which Souji is currently..."

After a brief moment to process this new revelation, Moroe lost all interest in massaging her aching feet. Instead, she devoted all her attention to pressing buttons on her game device in an effort to get the drones to arrive even slightly quicker. Stealing the GPS codes of her comrades' phones so that she could always track them with her own had seemed like such a good idea at the time...

Souji sighs as he finds the apartment relatively empty. "Probably should have expected it... She is part of Anti-Skill, or Judgement, or whatever..."

Looking around the room, he notices her coat. "Oh! Ishimaru-san forgot her coat! I'll go deliver it to her."

Grabbing the coat, he follows Moroe's suit of jumping out the window, albeit with a better end, as he was more prepared for such an act. He also has completely forgotten that he broke into her apartment, and is now returning her coat.

[Anyr]

At the behest of Moroe's frantic button-pushing, two drones eventually came to rest outside her home. A thermal scan from one and a camera view of the upstairs window from the other was all it took to ascertain the situation: Souji was gone, and so was Moroe's coat. In a distant alley, the pyjama-clad operative did her best to stay calm. Having Souji as an enemy had been bad enough, but that was nothing compared to the people who might come after her if news of this blunder reached the wrong ears.

"Okay, breathe. Keep breathing. In and out. In and out. That's it, that's it. You're calm, you're collected, you're in control. Now, calmly and collectedly figure out a way to turn this situation around. You've got drones out searching for Souji, but that's not enough. You need to find something to improve the odds. Think. Think. Think..."

[Terry576]

Moroe might be calmed by a loud call nearby.

"ISHIMAAAARUUU-SAAAAN! I HAVE YOUR COAT!"

There are loud yells outside, all of them demanding the silverette to shut the hell up.

[Anyr]

At the sound of that call, Moroe froze; Then she boiled.

"Unbelievable. The arrogance and sadism of this man are just unbelievable. As if casually waltzing into and destroying my life wasn't enough, Now he feels the need to rub it in my face?! Well, looks like we'll both get our wishes; He gets a rise out of me, and I get a bullet into him. Everyone's happy."

With Souji deliberately giving away his location (which turned out to be uncomfortably close to her hiding place), it took almost no time to get him within an airborne drone's field of vision. Moroe's anger only increased upon seeing him walking around in the open as if there was nothing to fear. Did he seriously believe that there was no way she could ever be a threat to him? Well, he'd pay for that overconfidence. With no hesitation whatsoever she zoomed in on the back of his head, lined it up carefully in her sights, and fired.

[Terry576]

However, Souji was not unlearned to this sort of thing. After all, there was a reason his file was listed as "Flee on Sight". As the bullet fired, he whirled around, something in his hand.

Flick.

An explosion erupted from his hand, rocketing towards the bullet at a rapid speed, breaking through the bullet then vanishing into thin air. Souji winced at the effort, and glared at his now smoking hand.

"Ara... I need to control that better." He flinches as the smoke clears, revealing the rather burned tissue of his right arm, his jacket sleeve cut in half. He looks straight ahead, and says, rather loudly,

"Tell me Ishimaru-san, do you know what a railgun is? It's a super electromagnetic cannon. It can shoot a seven pound projectile two point four kilometers a second. It's a dangerous military weapon. But, thanks to my power..."

The electricity arcs over his burned arm, and he grins. "It's my electromagnetic cannon. Of course, it hurts like hell to fire it, and it means I have to use certain... items of mine as a source of power, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to murder me, because I'd like to trade with you."

He holds up her coat. "This coat for information. I want the name of your organization. I want the names of its members. I want the abilities and levels that you hold in your organization. Then you get your coat. Deal?"

He seems incredibly lucid at the moment, and a self-satisfied smirk lies on his face.

[Anyr]

Moroe's anger was abruptly washed away by a tidal wave of shock. Try as she might to deny it, she had just watched Souji destroy a bullet aimed at the back of his head by shooting it out of the air. For the first time Moroe was forced to realise that the danger posed by this living anomaly couldn't just be summed up with the words 'Level 4 Electromaster'. Seeing such incredible skill first-hand filled her with genuine awe, and another feeling which she couldn't at first identify. When she did, her eyes widened; It was fear.

She tried to tell herself that Souji's trick didn't mean anything; That she could still easily beat him if she just fired from two directions at once. But the fear told her to stop kidding herself. Did she really think (it asked) that Souji had just happened to stumble so close to her hiding place by sheer coincidence? Get real; He'd already found her. This was just another one of his games.

Moroe's feet were moving before she even realised it. Part of her mind still screamed at her not to give up, but it was fading fast. The fear had won. With leaden steps, she walked out into the evening light and came to rest in front of Souji.

"Deal."

[Terry576]

Souji grins widely, and claps his hands, throwing the jacket over his shoulder. "Great! Now we can begin, Ishimaru-san!"

He frowns as some blood seeps down from his wrist, a distinct clock pattern on the back of his hand now. "I liked that watch too..."

Moroe's reasonable deduction, composed with her current fear, would understand what Souji had done.

He had heard the bullet, and reacted. He didn't have time to draw a card, or roll a dice, or anything of that. So he raced the electricity through his entire arm to break apart his watch and slam it into the bullet. All that's left is the clock face on a thin chain, hanging loosely around his wrist.

"Let's get to it then. What's your organization called? You sure as hell aren't Judgement, unless your ability is like, cognitive association with machinery. That'd be pretty cool actually, but I don't think that's your talent. You ranted about useless abilities when we met earlier, right? You must have something you consider really awful."

[Anyr]

Moroe tried to reply in her usual deadpan tone, but ended up just sounding resigned. There was also a distinct shake to her voice which was more due to temperature than nerves; She wasn't exactly dressed for prolonged exposure to the cold.

"R-right on both counts. I work for a group called GATE, and my a-ability just makes food t-taste better or worse."

[Terry576]

He arches an eyebrow. "Be a cook. Simple enough job, fixes every problem you would've had with food. Or a poisoner, make food taste the same with the poison in it as it does without."

He sighs as he sees her shivering, and tosses her the jacket. "Here. It's not fair if you're freezing while I interrogate you."

He sits down, idilly tapping his fingers on his knee. "So, GATE? What's that stand for?"

[Anyr]

Moroe bit back a snide remark as she wrapped the coat around herself. At the moment she was genuinely scared of questioning Souji's desire to conduct this interview on the street, even with curfew fast approaching. The man was clearly insane, and she had no idea what might provoke him.

"It's not even useful e-enough to do that; the effect works by c-changing people's taste rather than the food, and it only stays active while I'm nearby.

And as for the acronym, I have n-n-no idea what it stands for. It might not mean anything at all."

[Terry576]

Oh Souji was crazy all right.

Crazy like a fox. People never bothered him after curfew. And people never really walked outside after curfew, making in the best interrogation time ever.

"Whose in GATE then? And what can they do?" He seems genuinely curious, actually.

[Anyr]

For the first time, Moroe hesitated before answering. This was it; The point of no return. From now on she would be directly betraying both her own group and their masters on the Board of Directors; And though she certainly had no love for either of them (and in fact would have been happy to see them go down in flames), she very much cared about what they would do to her if this ever reached their ears.

"Okay, f-firstly we need to make something clear: If the people who run GATE ever find out that I've told you all this, they will kill me. And if they do, bang goes your inside source. Are we c-clear on that point?"

[Terry576]

Souji thinks for a moment. "Hmmm... Alright, you don't need to tell me anything more then! I know the name of your group, and I know you're not working to kill me 'cause of a job."

He stands up, grinning at her. "Go home, Ishimaru-san. I'm done here."

Souji begins walking away, whistling once more.

[Anyr]

Moroe blinked. Once again a very strong sense of deja vu was in the air. This time, however, her reaction was rather different.

"Y-You're...done? What do you mean you're done? Hey, wait!"

With that she ran after Souji and quickly overtook him, wincing slightly as jagged stones dug further into her bare feet. Despite still being more than a little frightened, she mustered the willpower to turn around and look him straight in the eye.

"Look, you can't keep doing this to me. You can't keep letting me go and bringing me back like some sort of human yo-yo. When you say that you're done with me, I need you to mean it. I need to believe that I'll never see you again. So, please: Look me straight in the eye and say that you really, honestly have no further interest in seeing me again. Please, or I won't be able to sleep well for months."

[Terry576]

Souji smiles at Moroe. It's a reassuring smile, but it's also a strong smile. It's the sort of smile that makes people want to follow the smiling man, follow them to gates of hell itself.

And then he dashes all her hopes away with his next words.

"I can't promise that Moroe. You asked me if I'd be prepared to shoot, remember? This isn't a shot. This is me loading. If GATE tries to hurt you for telling me such casual information, then this is a promise."

A fire erupts in his eyes, that damn smile remaining on his face. "Ishimaru Moroe, if GATE dares to touch you because you spoke to me, I will crush them into oblivion. You're my friend, and I won't let them hurt you ever again."

The fire disappears, and he looks at her with a bit of pity in his eyes. "Later, Ishimaru-san... Give me a call sometime."

He starts to leave again, leaving Moroe with his stupid speech. His stupid idyllistic future. How could someone so strong, constantly hounded by his past and the organizations from it be so damn naive? Didn't matter now. He was leaving again. If Moroe checks her phone, she'll notice Souji put his number in there, under the tag "That Guy With Silver Hair".

[Anyr]

Moroe didn't try to stop Souji from leaving; In fact, she didn't really do much of anything for the next minute or so. She simply stood on the street corner staring off into space, replaying recent events in her mind's eye. If there had been anyone watching they might have found it quite a comical sight. Eventually the encroaching cold snapped Moroe out of her stupor and provoked her into motion. She made her way home, climbed the creaky stairs, entered her room and got into bed without even bothering to remove her coat.

She slept surprisingly soundly.

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

Monday

Dawn spread its fingers across Academy City with an enthusiasm that wasn't matched by some of that technological wonderland's inhabitants. It signalled that their brief respite from the shackles of school had ended, and that their time was no longer their own.

At least, that was how it appeared to Ishimaru Moroe as she stood in front of the bathroom mirror brushing her teeth. No doubt there were plenty of students who genuinely enjoyed school, but she'd never been one of them. Still, after the events of yesterday she was almost looking forward to a little soul-crushing normality. Maybe the familiar routine would help clear her head of all the confusing thoughts which were currently swimming through it.

A few minutes later Moroe was clean, dressed and on her way to school, pausing only to lock the door to her shop (which thankfully had survived Souji's break-in). Yes, maybe this would be just what she needed.

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

Oh, and in another part of the city a boy named Kiyoshi Jirou also got up and went to school. Unfortunately his significance to the plot had now fallen to such a low that this event warranted barely a paragraph. Such is life.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Monday - Jones Residence

Krystal sits up, stretching and yawning. Another Monday morning. She sits with her eyes closed for a few minutes, using her abilities to pick up on the local radio stations and check the weather report. She liked to know such things.

Then she's off to her usual morning routine; shower, brush teeth, get dressed, breakfast. Then she's out the door and headed to Tokiwadai.

Monday - Ivaz's Hideout

Ivaz groans a little as the light filters through the window. The half-empty bottle of sake on the table explains her headache.

She gets up, then lets out another groan as she puts weight on her injured leg. She limps to the bathroom, leans on the sink, and stares in the mirror for a moment. She could see some bruises forming already. Those'd be sore for a while.

Stupid fricking ESPer... She sighs, then sits on the toilet and slowly begins changing the bandage on her leg.

[Rhydeble]

Sunday: Judgement office

Cale smashed open the doors to the judgement office and ran to the desk, shoving away several people waiting in line.

"please you gotta help me they're going crazy out there people are getting hurt please help, There's some kind of weird ESPer going around breaking up the city you gotta stop him NOW" Cale shouted. Hoping to create a panic, he built up some invisible blocks outside in the street that people would trip over.