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

[AnimeKid]

Tobio sighs in depression at hearing the second part of Kouta's message. However at the first part he says, "Good. At least Mrs. Nimori will have a little bit of good news in the coming days. If you need any help at all please let me know. I would be glad to help and give Mrs. Nimori less to worry about."

With that Tobio gives Kouta his number in case he needs to contact him or just to tell him that they caught Daisuke. He then hangs up and gives the phone back to Mei saying, "They say that they should be able to bust as soon as today."

[Mina Kobold]

Ryuji chuckles a little at the high speed espers naivete as he shakes his head. He then says, "No, no. I is just that those girls are a bit shy to approach me because of my good looks. Besides I can't manipulate the iron in the blood. There is too little of his and it is all spread out within a liquid. If there was more then I could do it, but no. As for your other question, yes I can robots are made of metal are they not?"

It is at this point the curvaceous red head that leads the group of girls walks up to him along with the slender blunette and the average brunette. The red head blushes as she says, "Ryuji-sama, if it's not too much trouble could we please walk home with you?"

Ryuji looks her over with the speed of a pro as he thinks to himself, 'Hmm, measurements 93-58-89 score!' This all happens in a split second as he says, "Of course you an, all you had to do was ask Miss..."

Getting the hint the girl blushes as she giggles and says, Kikio, Kaoru Kikio. The blue haired girl is Rumia Ringo, and the brunette is Hanafuta Seko-chan." The respective girls wave shyly as their names are called.

Katsu waves cheerfully at the admirers and bows respectfully.

"Hi! I'm Yamamoto Katsu. Nice to meetcha!"

Noticing Ryuji's scan of Kikio, Katsu speedily wonders what the Metalokinetic was looking for. Perhaps signs of what their powers are? Could that be seen?

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

"I doubt that this news would do the poor woman much good-She's lost both a husband and a son to that bastard..."

Kouta coughed, his voice quavering with fatigue.

"In any case, back to preparing the court statements. I'm not sure why you're contacting me through Mei-chans' phone, nor how she knows you, nor your relation to her. However, I am a little too busy for that right now. I'll get into contact with you once this is all over."

He then ended the call.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Mei froze momentarily once she heard Tobios' statement, and then relaxed. Even now, hearing about the news still sent shivers down her spine-That her (once) friend had not only sunk so low as to commit murder, but he had gotten caught for it, too. The fact that he was ostensibly part of Judgement also disgusted her-How dare he have the temerity to join an organisation devoted to justice and do such things!?

Regardless, she was lost in thought for a few seconds, pondering Tobios' statement, before giving Tobio a weak smile.

"That's good to hear, Tobio-san. And...Like I said before, all hope is not lost; there might be a healing Esper somewhere in Academy Citys' databanks that we haven't heard of before. It's just up to us to look..."

[Duos]

Yori stops his tour outside of a door marked SURGERY. A small red light glows beside the name plaque over the sealed room.

"This is where the second phase of the project occurs. A spinal graft grown from the bone-marrow derived stem cells of a compatible ESPer is implanted in a blank. After the procedure is over, a duplicant AIM field is superimposed over the blank's own brain waves using a specialized machine."

He pauses as the unmistakable sound of a circular saw starts up and a quavering, inhuman moan emanates from the closed doors.

"I won't show you inside now, since there's a procedure going on right now and the room needs to remain sterile, but the end result is a unit with whatever ESPer abilities the 'donor' possessed, along with above average physical traits and a complete lack of free will, since the blanks are controlled via a hardened chip that's part of the spinal implant."

Motioning once again for Katashi to follow him down the hallway, Yori leaves behind the increasingly frantic screams of whatever is unfortunate enough to be on the operating table. He goes back into his pitch as he walks.

"The greatest advantage this project has over traditional cloning techniques is flexibility. It's rather like a drill with interchangeable bits. you just swap out a useless bit for the one you need. And by overlapping AIM fields and chimerizing the DNA in the spinal grafts, we can even mix certain ESPer skills to create speciali-OI! Pay attention, slacker!"

Yori snaps as Katashi stifles a yawn. He pinches the bridge of his nose

"Honestly, how somebody like you ever ended up in a position of power I'll never know. Well, I'd show you phase three, which is the testing of production units before shipping them to storage, but currently we're having trouble keeping anything whole. As it turns out, they're all fairly unstable. Just like how regular clones don't have quite the 'oomph' of the original, copying an ESPer ability onto a blank leaves it with very little control over the power it has. One of our most basic units-copied off a pyrokineticist-keeps incinerating itself. We're looking for an ESPer with either a self regenerative ability or a healing power to counteract the self-destructiveness our operational units have."

Yori looks like he's about to say more when his phone rings. He snaps it out of his forearm and answers, listening intently and making a few terse replies.

"Moving?
...
So we have a known destination.
...
No, we need to act on it. I want the project back on track as soon as possible.
...
Yes.
...
I'll spearhead it myself on the off chance we run into her bodyguard again.
...
Right. I'll meet the team there."


He clicks the phone shut and turns to the bored looking man slouched against the wall.

"I'm cutting the tour short, I have more important things to do than escort you around like a child. I'm sure you can show yourself out."

Yori gives the man a dismissive wave and walks off around a corner, the air stretching bizarrely as he folds space onto itself and steps through a fold in reality onto the street a few blocks away.

[AnimeKid]

Ryuji not noticing that Katsu noticed his glances (how could he not? To Katsu most people probably moved far too slow!) he looks over Ringo and Seko as well. 'Hmm, well these two aren't bad either. Ringo-chan measurements are 78-52-83, very nice. Seko-chan has that homely look to her, almost like a house wife. Plus with he measurements of 84-55-82 she may be plain looking, but she is still quite beautiful.'

With a charming smile he grabs Kikio's hand and gently kisses the back of it drawing a blush from the girl that could rival the hue of a tomato. He quickly repeats the process with Ringo and Seko getting similar results. He smiles at them genuinely before he says, "Such beautiful names of course with you girls' beauty I am sure any name you could be give would be beautiful. Also I notice that you are wearing Tokiwadai uniforms. May I be so bold as you ask what your powers are?"

The three girls nod their heads enthusiastically as Kikio speaks first. "Well my power is control over cell stimulation Ryuji-sama. I can speed up or slow down the cell stimulation process immensely. So I can cause very rapid healing, however this comes at the cost of the more it's used the shorter your lifespan becomes. Cells have a set number of times they can divide before they give out. So my power is kind of a double edged sword. However when used in the opposite way I can cause the natural cell stimulation process to slow to a crawl. Basically I could legally be 50 years old and still physically 20 if I wanted to. Basically it would be a kind of functional immortality. However injuries would take forever to recover from unless I switched my powers to their acceleration function and switching the functions like that puts a strain on my body."

Ringo stepped forward to go next in spoke in a energetic tone, Mou mou, don't hog all the spotlight Kikio-sempai. Well Ryuji-sama my power is Molecular Reinforcement. Using my AIM field I can reinforce the molecules of just about any object. So in my hands a Boken transforms from a practice weapon into a deadly object capable of withstanding sword strikes and capable of beating a sword in combat. A punch from me can turn from a punch from a girl with no martial arts training into a blow that easily matches the power of most martial art masters." She finishes her explanation with a bright smile that is directed at Ryuji.

Seko then looks up from where she was staring at her feet as she says in a suprisingly regal tone, "I guess it's my turn. My power is The manipulation of the Pauli Exclusion Principle. The principle itself is a little tricky. In essence, it states that no subatomic particle in the same area may possess the same quantum state-It is necessary that one switches to another state when they come into each other.

That basically means that in practice that two objects cannot occupy the same space, even though matter is 99% empty space. Being able to manipulate this law means that I can effectively move objects through solid matter or alternatively, increasing the effects of this law to force objects to move apart and disintegrate. It was a little confusing at first. They actually tough my power at first was a sort of Molecularization." She seems as if she wants to say more but is unsure if she should.

Ryuji seeing this smiles as he says,

Seko obviously thinks for a moment before nodding as she decides that Ryuji is trustworthy before closing in an whispering gently into his ear. "Please don't make me regret telling you this Ryuji-sama. You are the only person to know besides my friends and the higher ups of Academy City that I... am a Gemstone."

Ryuji's eyes widen in shock as he nods clearly interested as Kikio says, "Because of our powers being at the small scale that they our and the fact that we're the best of friend people usually call us the Micro Misses'. It fits don't you think Ryuji-sama"

He smiles as he says, "Indeed it does. Well then, shall we get going ladies, Katsu?" With that Ryuji leads the way to the residential area of Academy City.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Tobio looks down at Mei as he can clearly see how bother the news made her. He rubs the back of his head as he tries to think of something to say. After a few silent seconds he says, "I'm sorry things had to turn out like this Mei-chan. I know that he was your friend once. For what it's worth you have my support and my sympathies. You helped me in my weakest moment. If there is ever anything I can do you name it. Maybe I could even get a certain Chinese taichou to take responsibility for his mistake and take you to see the movie you really wanted to go to in order to make up for it."

Tobio smiled a little in an almost amused manner down at Mei. Once she could stop sputtering at him she could probably take the time to be properly shocked at the fact the Tobio cracked a joke. A small one and he was serious about it, but is was a joke none the less. He gets ready to head back inside as he says, "But seriously Mei-chan you need it I'm on it. It's the least I could do. Also, thank you for offering to help me with looking for a healing Esper for Shougo-san. Just add it on to my tab I guess." He smiles serenely at her before heading back inside. She would notice that when that did go back in Tobio seemed to revert back to his usual nervous self although slightly bolder that he had been a few days ago when he was newly recruited. The nervousness wasn't a charade either.

It had seemed that within the course of 24 hours Kakamura Mei had endeared herself of Ishida Tobio enough that he could truly be himself around her. With her he wasn't nervous or shy. He was simply Tobio. Perhaps one day, he would be able to share the person that only she saw to the entire world.

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

(OOC: Ren isn't Chinese, lol.)

As predicted, Mei spluttered as Tobio made his declaration, face flushing bright red as he mentioned her 'shameful' secret; which coincidentally broke her out of her brooding.

"No! What are you talking about!? I...Uh...I just pity ...him..."

Even this declaration was void of its' usual firey vitriol; Mei knew her gig was up and sighed. So much for trying to keep it under wraps-Now she had someone trying to play matchmaker with that idiot-Not that that was a bad thing-Wait, what was she talking about; of course it was! Reflexively, she entertained the thought of blowing Tobio off the roof; but then decided that even though what he said was embarrassing, it was also true...And, well, she liked him. He was a really good guy and she was proud to call herself his friend. As he walked away, she called out to him.

"Ne, Tobio-kun? Thank you for being there for me. And don't worry about it; that's what friends are for, aren't they?"

She smiled.

.......

And on a window overlooking the two, a trio of girls stared through a set of binoculars, hands pressed to their cheeks from shock.

[Atrum-Persavor]

Judgement Branch 092

Jin slumps against his seat, flinging his hands up in the air in a gesture of surrender. In front of him sits an open physics workbook, the pages covered in diagram scrawls and equations.

"Sooo... How am I supposed to do this one? I'm stumped." Jin lets his hands flop down as he groans. "I mean, I give up. Just lemme see your answer."

"Read your notes. Page sixteen has the equation." Ren taps through his laptop in a bored manner, not bothering to face Jin as he answers.

"But I don't know how to apply ittttt........." Jin pleads ineffectually.

Ren snorts. "Hnh. Says the guy who got a "A" last test without studying at all."

"Hey, come on. That was an easy paper. Now lemme see your work."

"No. I'm going to go get something from the archives. I'm sure you can figure this one out yourself, since you found that test easy."

"Selfish kid." Jin calls after Ren.

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

On the way to the archives, Ren hears whispering. It would be normal if it were in the morning or early afternoon, where everybody was on-duty.

Except that nobody was supposed to be in the offices at this time- except in the emergency call office, which was in the main lobby.

Ren peers into the door, then teleports into the room silently.

”I'm pretty certain this is Masami’s office. What are the three of you doing in here?” Ren leans against the door frame, his hands folded against his chest.

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

The three girls 'eep'd' in fear as the infamous Ice King of Nagatenjouki entered the room. Simultaneously, they all looked at each other conspiratorially and then offered three completely different explanations.

"We got lost on the way to the bathroom!"

"We heard noises up here and went up to investigate!"

"We were watching your girlfriend cheat on you!"

The third girl suddenly gasped and covered her mouth, realising her mistake. The other two promptly looked terrified and started searching for a way out of the mess that they thought they were going to get themselves in-Everybody knew that Ren was a pretty strict enforcer of the rules, and these three in particular feared his wrath against anything and everything if he found out about, well, 'Meis' Infidelity'-So to speak. Of course, the truth is is that the two were never officially involved with each other, but rumour has a way of spreading, and the way which Mei continually acted towards Ren and about Ren-And Rens' unusually caring attitude towards Mei-Certainly didn't help things either.

Regardless, the three appeared to be looking out on what was currently an empty rooftop with an old pair of binoculars-Or at least, they were, before they were interrupted.

[Atrum-Persavor]

Ren facepalmed.

"...Get out. I have no idea what you're talking about, but I don't think Masami and Nakamura would appreciate the three of you rifling through their things."

Watching his girlfriend cheat on him... What? He had no girlfriend.

As the three girls shuffle out of the room, Ren picks up the binoculars and looks at the rooftop they were peering at.

Oh. Mei.

I should pay her a visit later to apologize in person.

But he had to deal with Jin first. Ren pocketed the daily hospital logs he retrieved from the archives, and kept the binoculars with him as he left the room, passing them back to the girls as he passed by them.

[AnimeKid]

Tobio looked back at Mei with a happy smile on his face after she finished her sentence. he nodded enthusiastically and placed his hand over his chest as he said, "Yeah, That's what friends are for. Well I don't know anyone else that might know anything. Hmm, then again Shougo is friends with Ishimaru-sempai. Maybe she has been looking as I have. She probably has been looking longer too. Only I don't know where she lives. Oh well. We'll just have to look through the database as carefully as we can."

With that Tobio goes back inside the building to start searching through the database again. He is completely focused on the task and will only respond to Mei's voice while he is doing it. Other people who want to talk to him would have to physically shake him for a while in order to get his attention. Once they did Tobio's focused look would leave him and he would go back into shy mode.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Meanwhile Crocell had finally gotten out of detention. Too bad he had to go back tomorrow. Now that he was free he decided to that the day was his and he was going to freaking enjoy it. So he decided to see he could find his two favorite female friends (The only ones he has that his attitude hadn't chased off) to see if they wanted to hang out.

Of course he had no idea wear Krystal and Kin lived. Sure he could try the Tokiwadai dorm, but if they didn't live there he would have wasted his time. Not to mention that the lady that ran the place scared the piss out of him. So he decided to try the arcade first to see if the dynamic duo was present there.

[Anyr]

The fates were not kind to Crocell: Kin and Krystal were nowhere in sight. However, he did manage to find one familiar face, standing by the Blazblue machine. So instead of two Tokiwadai girls, he was instead rewarded with:

"Well well well, if it isn't the snake in the grass! Here to challenge me again?"

Yes, the fates were most certainly not kind to Crocell.

[Terry576]

'Maybe'. That one word echoed through Moroe's mind, growing louder every time it did. In the space of a few seconds, it had washed away all the hastily constructed barriers she'd created to keep the events of yesterday out of her thoughts. Now, once again, those thoughts were completely centred upon the fate of Nimori Shougo; A fate which she now had a chance to change. With new-found vigour, she leapt to her feet and advanced upon Shiki, heedless of how scary this made her look.

"I need you to listen very carefully, because this is important: Do you remember the boy who you met in the hospital? The one who I wanted to save? Well, he's sick now. Really sick. I...I'd like it very much if you would try to heal him. The price doesn't matter; Just name your terms and I'll meet them. I just...I just need you to save him. Please."

Her voice had started out firm, but by the end she was practically begging. She didn't care, though. The only thing that mattered right now was saving Shougo.

Shiki shrunk slowly, but surely, behind Hajime, until her face barely peaked out behind him. "O-okay oneechan... B-b-but... B-b-but..."

She scrunches up her face and points directly at Moroe, a determined look on her face. "I want an ice cream afterwords, okay?!?!"

Hajime looked at Moroe blankly, no signs of any emotion in his eyes, an odd and apt contrast to the glaring fire that burned in Shiki's face.

[Anyr]

"Agreed. Wait, what?"

Moroe blinked. That wasn't the horrendous sacrifice that she'd been bracing for. Normally she might have spent a few minutes pondering motives and looking for hidden traps. Today, however, there was no time. Today she just shrugged off her confusion, turned around and rushed straight out of the door, gesturing for Hajime to pick up Shiki and follow.

The journey didn't take long. Moroe ran the whole thing at the fastest pace she could manage. Logically, she knew that there was little need to hurry; That Shougo had probably either died hours ago, or been hooked up to life support. Unfortunately for her long suffering legs, logic wasn't in command of Ishimaru Moroe right now. She ran as if it was last night all over again. Across streets, down side roads and, finally, through the hospital entrance.

A few minutes later, the door to Shougo's room burst open, to admit three new visitors. It was only then that Moroe stopped, as much from the shock of seeing Shougo in this state as from reaching her destination. It took her a few seconds to tear her eyes away from the sight of him lying there. But soon enough she came back to her senses, stepped aside and ushered Shiki into the room.

"There. There he is. Heal him. Please."

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

Nimori Koizumi peered upwards laconically, almost deprived of energy as Moroe noisily entered the room. That is, until she mentioned the word 'heal'-Whereupon she sat bolt upright, the jolt of hope against all odds surging through her body like a bolt of lightning. She glanced at her son, then at Moroe, then at Shiki, mouth working the whole time but unable to form any proper words for a good ten seconds or so.

"H...Heal? Is it...Is that possible?"

__________________________________________________ _______________

Shougos' wounds would have been fairly easy for Shiki to heal-His physical wounds, at least. While she was capable of repairing his brain-damage, she wasn't capable of repairing his memories; sections of it were unfilled-Some sections were important, on the level of 'Knowing how to walk' important, and others jumbled up and distorted. It would probably take either intensive (hypno)therapy, Academy City supertech or a telepathic psychic to fix that particular problem.

In any case, Shougo wouldn't immediately have woken up, although it would have been apparent that he no longer needed the life support systems.

[Duos]

"It most certainly is possible, to some extent. Shame it's not going to happen, though."

Yori enters the room, flanked by a pair of heavily armed men in heavy body armor. Behind him in the hallway, more soldiers can be seen, weapons ready. Yori draws his sidearm and taps it against his leg.

"This can go one of two ways. The first one is you giving up the brat and me walking out of here no questions asked. The second one is you refusing to give me the girl, in which case I put you all in a coma to match your adorable friend on life support over there, THEN I take the girl and walk out. Your choice, although I'm partial to the first option, since it saves me time. Your call though."

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

"Now, what seems to be the problem here?"

The sound of over dozen booted feet following Kamakura Kouta echoed up the hallway; six Anti-Skill officers with their sidearms strapped to their sides, and Mogami Jounouchi. While certainly not as well-equipped or as dedicated as Yoris' bodyguards, the simple fact that they were present meant that Yori was extremely hampered in what he could or could not do; such as starting a firefight on the sixth floor of the District Sixs' General Hospital unless he wanted to start a commotion that would probably severely endanger the security of GEAR.

"I had just thought to drop by to tell the Nimoris about what is going to occur within the next three hours; I certainly didn't expect ....This."

Koutas' lips curled disdainfully, showing neither fear nor hesitation. Privately though, he was afraid. He did not recognise those soldiers' uniforms nor did he recognise the man in charge, but this whole affair smelt like Dark Side to him-And he would know, being one of the Beta Class members. Taking a brief glimpse inside the room he noted the presence of Moroe, the boy that heavily resembled Nakamura Rin and an unknown girl of around eight. Ah. That would explain it; he had already figured her to be heavily involved in the Dark Side simply going by what Jounouchi had told him.

Kouta let out a deep sigh. He could walk away here and they would probably not follow him. That would save him a lot of trouble. But if he backed out here, he did not feel as if he would be able to look at himself in the face. It would be hypocrisy in the extreme to struggle so hard for justice on the Nimoris' part and then deny it to Moroe-especially after the effort she had gone through to help. Besides, he figured those two deserved a happy ending, even if were only for a little while.

He just hoped that he wouldn't even up dead in a gutter for this. Mei would never forgive him.

"Now, I know you're Dark Side, but the official side of Academy City is here. You're supposed to slink around in the shadows, not be brought into the light-Which you will be if you interfere with Academy City justice. Now vamoose."

[Anyr]

"Unbelievable. I just needed a few minutes of peace; That was all. A few minutes to heal him, then get out of his life forever. Was that too much to ask?"

Moroe almost felt like laughing. This whole situation was a bad joke made manifest. Apparently her presence in Shougo's life was so poisonous that she'd have been better off leaving him in a coma, rather than coming to help. It was a good thing that she'd decided to leave him last night, or he might not even have made it to this room alive.

Okay, enough wallowing in self pity. It was time to find a way out of this situation. Moroe glanced around the area, taking in everyone she could see: Yori ("why now?"); Kouta ("thanks for trying."); Mrs Nimori ("poor woman."); Hajime ("please don't die for me."); Shiki ("some bodyguard I turned out to be"); And Shougo ("I'm so sorry.").

Damn it. Even that glance had been filled with self pity...

[AnimeKid]

Tobio's head hits his desk as he sighs. "Nothing, I couldn't find a thing. Well I didn't find anything that could help Shougo. Man I can't believe that I failed him and his mom this badly." Tobio then turns his head towards Mei who had offer his help with his search. They had both taken sections of the database to search. After all the database contained several thousand Espers. There was no way they were going to get though it in one day with two people.

"Ano, Mei-san did you find anything. As you can see my section turned out to be rather fruitless."

__________________________________________________ _______________

Crocell broke out his signature scowl as he looked towards Jirou. Man detention and now this guy, man today sucked. "Ugh, your here? I come here looking for pretty girls and I see your ugly mug truly there is no justice in the world. Crocell shrugs his shoulders raising his palms to shoulder level as he did so and shaking his head.

He let his arms back down as he says, "Besides I almost whipped you at Mahjong and I was still a rookie. What makes your think you'll stand a chance at a game I actually know huh?"

[Duos]

Yori swivels in place and stares down Kouta. Antiskill was going to be a pain, unless he played his cards right. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs.

"Your understanding of the situation is a bit skewed. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, though, and assume you're just slow on the uptake. I am here-"

Yori puts his arm around Kouta and guides him into the room, his goons stepping further into the room to allow them passage, and he motions around.

"To take this girl-"

He points to Shiki, who is trying her best to hide behind Moroe.

"Back to where she belongs. There doesn't HAVE to be a problem. The men I have with me are only here if there IS a problem, and at that point I hardly think you're going to be willing to use firearms in a hospital."

Yori then stares into Kouta's eyes, a complete lack of humor deadening his gaze.

"I really can't say the same for us, though. Your call, hero."

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

Mei clicked her tongue in irritation. Hours upon hours of searching, with numerous Espers who could simulate healing, but none who could actually handle the damage that Shougos' body had apparently sustained. It didn't seem right-Several thousand Espers; there should be at least one who could do real healing. Failing that, there must be some technology that would allow it-Mei had heard rumours of Academy City technology being able to bring back peoples' bodies from the brink of ruination: there had been once incidence a few months back where an important politician was involved in a head-on collision with a truck, yet was walking again within three weeks. Academy Citys' technology bordered on miracles, she knew that much.

She scanned over the level fours again, then the level fives, and frowned. There must be someone-

There was a flickering bubble of light as Ren teleported behind her.

Oi, I didn't see your message yesterday. I was busy doing something. Sorry about that."

Mei did a double-take; surprised, as always, by the sudden and unexpected appearance of her partner.

"Uwahhhh! Stop doing that, you dumbass! You scared me!"

Curiously, however, everyone around them had gone silent, opting to stare at Ren, Mei and Tobio out of the corner of their eyes. A few hushed whispers of fear, and someone motioning to Tobio that now might be a good time to leave.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Kouta stared at the man flatly.

"Do you honestly take me for an idiot? You clearly aren't that girls' father or brother or any sort of relation and she certainly doesn't look like she wants to go with you; and until you show me the exact papers that identify who you are, who she is and under whose authority you have to do so, I do not think she is obligated to go anywhere."

He stood up out of his typical slouch, rising to his full height above what is quite likely most of the room, trying to muster as much affronted dignity as he could. He knew he was playing a risky game here; he had already noted that strangeness of the mans' artificial limbs and the fact that the light from the standing lamps bent along with them and concluded that this scarred man was almost certainly an Esper. And he was not.

"You could shoot me, Esper. We'd shoot back, and we'd probably lose, but we aren't your main problem. Those cameras over there are. Oh, and the hospital staff that we've alerted of your presence on the way up. They'll be here in about a minute. And if that's not enough, what about the Anti-Skill vans full of Anti-Skill members in Entry Equipment just outside? You see, Esper, you're not even legally allowed to be here, in this room; furthermore, I've had it watched for quite some time now...Oh, and Tai?"

A young Skill-Out officer pressed a button on his mobile phone, having recorded the entire event on camera from the darkness of the corridor.

"Aaaand...Uploaded. I got all of that, sir."

Kouta turned to stare at Yori, equally emotionless, before inclining his head towards Shiki.

"Why don't we make this simple? Little girl, do you want to go with this man?"

[AnimeKid]

Tobio wasn't paying attension to the person motioning. Instead he gave a cheery wave to Ten as he said, "Hey there Ren-taichou nice to see you again." While he was surprised, it was not nearly as much as Mei's. Turns out killing a man can detract from your surprise counter. Seeing Mei's interaction with Ren he smiles at her and winks as he says, "That's all well and good taichou, but Mei-san was still very upset the other day. It is very uncouth for a gentleman to cause a lady to cry and not attempt to right the situation is it not?

The crowd would really have their heads turning at what Tobio was suggesting. Fortunately Tobio was not paying attention to them, other wise his hair and his face would be very opposite colors.

[Terry576]

The instant Shiki had entered the room, she had begun to heal. She really wanted that ice cream. So when others entered, and began to argue, she did not hear them, too deep, too far inside of her own abilities and inside of Shougo.

She had to analyze every part of his inner structures. See what was wrong, see what makes him tick. So when the man asked her what she wanted, she did not hear him, and instead began. She had found the wrongness, and she was going to remove it.

Shiki had ignored everyone - her eyes were closed, and she was almost pulsating with the power that was being exerted. This was healing. This was how the Witch healed.

Bones. Muscle. Nerves. Everything changed as her power washed over them, and Shougo's body faintly pulsated as she worked - fixing his smallest scratches, erasing his deepest pains, all with the touch of a hand.

It was not easy. It was not without pain for either participant. The sound of bones breaking and resetting themselves echoed through the room, and blood streaked down Shiki's eyes and out of Shougo's nose. The power that was being released in that room was insurmountable, and the small girl ignored everyone as she fixed Shougo.

His memories were half-repaired. The important parts - how to walk, how to think, how to feel, those were fixed. The less important ones, such as his family, his friends, and most of his life?

Those were not fixed. Those remained lost in a sea of emptiness, a sea that could not be crossed, and felt insurmountable.

And as she opened her eyes, she fell backwards with a small smile, pointing at Moroe as she did so.

"Oneechan... Y-y-you owe me an ice cream..."

And then she slept.



------

Hajime stood above Shiki, and stared at both men. One had noble intentions, and the other didn't.

And yet, he didn't want to give the girl to either of them. They both had their own selfish reasons for wanting the small girl, and he would prefer neither of them got her.

"Master? I am requesting permission to enter combat."

His voice was dead, but his eyes were hard, harder than she had ever seen. Harder than Souji when he had first frightened her, harder then any foe she had ever faced. And he still stared blankly forward, almost as if neither man was even there. But there was still the faint crackling of electricity from his hand.

[Duos]

Yori sighed. Well, so much for the diplomatic approach.

"So you ARE a moron. What kind of idiot would I be if I didn't cut the camera feeds before coming here? And I think you'll find that any video you take of me and my squad is, sadly, completely out of focus, with a rather soothing soundtrack composed of white noise."

He backs up and spreads his arms in a sympathetic manner, his sidearm loose in one hand.

"I'm taking the girl. It's not a question of what she wants; it's a question of how long it takes for me to do in in a nice, organized fashion. You just saw what she can do, and I need that. And there's not a whole lot you can do about it, because you're alone. In a room with five very well trained and very well armed men."

As Kouta starts to process that statement and the Antiskill in the hallway starts to draw weapons in response to the threat, the hallway suddenly disappears; or at least, most of it does. The walls of the corridor buckle madly and snap inwards to a width of one inch with a sickening crunch, blood and gore spraying into the room as the insane pressure forces six Antiskill operatives to occupy very little room in a very messy manner. Yori thumbs the safety on his handgun and racks the slide.

"Right now, you are trapped in a small box, that nobody can reach, with a very angry man and his troops. I'm going to count to ten. And if you and that sad excuse for a clone over there are still standing between me and my prize by then, I'm going to do SO MUCH WORSE TO THE BOTH OF YOU THAN KILL YOU."

Yori's voice rises, an edge of steel entering as his eyes narrow. He points the gun at the wall as space begins to twist around the barrel. He turns and stares down the boy standing defiantly over the comatose girl.

"One."

[Anyr]

And just like that, the situation became wonderfully simple. All of the doubt and conflict about which had filled Moroe vanished like a summer breeze. Now she knew exactly what to do.

"Hajime! Permission granted!"

Moroe was already moving before those words left her lips. With speed born from years of training, she grabbed Mrs Nimori and pulled them both sideways. The two of them ended up crouched behind a sturdy dresser; At least, sturdy by furniture standards. Moroe doubted it would hold up against automatic weapons, but it was the best option available. Then she drew her gun; Though truth be told, it was hard to tell where one action ended and another began. Each movement flowed into the next, without an instant of delay. She looked out from behind the dresser, then shifted back, and at some point between those two actions a bullet got shot at the head of an unlucky soldier.

Moroe was finally back in her element. This outcome wasn't one she'd have chosen, and there was a good chance that it would end with a 'Game Over', but at least it was simple.

[Terry576]

Hajime's head slightly tilted in recognition, before his body was a blur of motion.

Pocket. Case. Open. Bullet.

Five bullets was always a decent number, and he loaded one (If by loaded, you mean readied himself to flick it), pointing directly at Yori as he did so.

There wasn't a sound as the bullet expelled itself from his hand, travelling at over 1000 m/s, just a flash of motion, but Hajime already spun again, another bullet in his hand pointing at the nearest wall - the one that had a window to the outside, and shot another bullet at it. The wall exploded outwards, shrapnel flying every which way with no consistency or logic, and Hajime grabbed the small girl in one arm, and jumped out. He flew for a short time, before running into a tree, and quickly grasping a branch. Blood flew out of his mouth in little specks, from the fall and the scratches, it coursed down his arms like a million miniature rivers, and he quickly made his way down the tree, before attempting to blend in with the crowd (as well as a silver haired boy covered in scratches could).

[Duos]

No.

Not this time. This time, Yori was getting what he wanted. He was tired of playing nice. Tired of the subtleties, tired of trying to keep things quiet for the Board. This time...

This time, they did things HIS way.

Even as Moroe spoke, as Hajime was reaching for his pocket, Yori was moving-and not moving. The world around him stretched in terrifying and impossible ways, non-euclidean space folding itself around him. The bullet leaving Hajimes hand shot straight towards him, issuing a blinding trail of plasma-and slowed to a crawl in midair, hanging there like a white-hot insect as it strains to cross miles of space compressed into the span of a few inches. Yori takes a lazy step to the side, murder in his eyes. As the silver-haired youth blasts open the window and jumps, Yori shouts orders to his men.

"I want the rest of the people in this room either dead or in custody by the time I get back!"

Yori spins and fires, the bullets arcing crazily as they flew in a straight line that somehow turned ninety degree corners. As Hajime dodges the bullets and rushes off into the crowd, the hail of lead tears through the civilians around him, panic erupting as the people in the street scramble for safety. He rounds a corner into an alleyway, to safety-

And runs face-first into Yori's fist.

"Sit.
Down."

The sour-faced man takes a step back, rolls his shoulders, and cracks his neck. His right arm folds open, space stretching to accommodate its impossibility, and drops a very, very, sharp looking balisong knife into his hand. He flicks it back and forth a few times experimentally. Slice, slice, slice...

"I could fold this blade into your neck, right now. It would sever your spinal cord and leave you paralyzed from the neck down. Then I'd take the girl. Or I could sever your pulmonary artery, and you'd hemorrhage to death in seconds. Then, I'd take the girl. Or, you could just GIVE me the girl. And I'd let you live. I'm giving you this choice because I'm really such a NICE person at heart."


Yori stops twiddling the knife for a second, the sharp edge hanging in the air mid-swing.

"Hmmmmmm. You know, if you hand over the brat right now, I could also be convinced not to kill that girl you seem to follow around like a pet dog. She seems so fragile, too. She puts on such a tough shell, but I bet she'd be so heartbroken if her favorite pet were injured..."

Yori smiles.

Some smiles show friendliness.

This one just shows teeth.

[Anyr]

Crocell broke out his signature scowl as he looked towards Jirou. Man detention and now this guy, man today sucked. "Ugh, your here? I come here looking for pretty girls and I see your ugly mug truly there is no justice in the world. Crocell shrugs his shoulders raising his palms to shoulder level as he did so and shaking his head.

He let his arms back down as he says, "Besides I almost whipped you at Mahjong and I was still a rookie. What makes your think you'll stand a chance at a game I actually know huh?"

Jirou's mocking look froze for a second. If there was one way to provoke him, it was to insult his Mahjong skills. With an effort he plastered a more casual expression onto his face. No sense in giving this punk the satisfaction of getting under his skin.

"Sounds like your memory is just as faulty as the rest of your sorry excuse for a brain. If you had one which actually had more than three cells, you'd know that there was no 'almost' about it. Or are you the kind of guy who counts a couple of lucky shots as a win?"

Granted, those 'lucky shots' had been good ones, but Jirou wasn't about to admit that. He may have won the game, but he'd come away with much less profit than he'd been expecting. Ever since then, he'd been eagerly awaiting his next chance to humiliate this little upstart.

With a smile that positively oozed arrogance, Jirou inserted a coin into the BlazBlue machine. He then took his position at the controls, without even issuing a challenge to Crocell. He just selected his character, which the game's announcer loudly declared to be "Ragna Za Bludd edge". Clearly, the possibility that Crocell might refuse hadn't even occurred to him.

[AnimeKid]

Crocell just smirked as he cracked his knuckles ans says, "So doggy wants to play does he? alright then just remember Puppy-chan here your bark has nowhere near as much power as your bite." With that Crocell walked up to the machine and also inserted a coin. Seeing as he choose Ragna Crocell rolled his eyes and thought in his head, 'Typical well then if he wants to play with power then I'll just run circles around him with speed' It was then that the announcers voice shouted "Taokaka!" as he selected his usual speedster character.

Crocell grinned as the announcer signaled the start of the fight. In an instant Crocell's character Taokaka was on Ragna and spitting out combos at an insane speed. However he only keeps up the heat for a few moments before he tries to back off to avoid any counter attacks. Unlike Mahjong fighting games couldn't be won with just luck. And Crocell put in a lot of hours on many of the games to up his skill.

[Terry576]

No.

Not this time. This time, Yori was getting what he wanted. He was tired of playing nice. Tired of the subtleties, tired of trying to keep things quiet for the Board. This time...

This time, they did things HIS way.

Even as Moroe spoke, as Hajime was reaching for his pocket, Yori was moving-and not moving. The world around him stretched in terrifying and impossible ways, non-euclidean space folding itself around him. The bullet leaving Hajimes hand shot straight towards him, issuing a blinding trail of plasma-and slowed to a crawl in midair, hanging there like a white-hot insect as it strains to cross miles of space compressed into the span of a few inches. Yori takes a lazy step to the side, murder in his eyes. As the silver-haired youth blasts open the window and jumps, Yori shouts orders to his men.

"I want the rest of the people in this room either dead or in custody by the time I get back!"

Yori spins and fires, the bullets arcing crazily as they flew in a straight line that somehow turned ninety degree corners. As Hajime dodges the bullets and rushes off into the crowd, the hail of lead tears through the civilians around him, panic erupting as the people in the street scramble for safety. He rounds a corner into an alleyway, to safety-

And runs face-first into Yori's fist.

"Sit.
Down."

The sour-faced man takes a step back, rolls his shoulders, and cracks his neck. His right arm folds open, space stretching to accommodate its impossibility, and drops a very, very, sharp looking balisong knife into his hand. He flicks it back and forth a few times experimentally. Slice, slice, slice...

"I could fold this blade into your neck, right now. It would sever your spinal cord and leave you paralyzed from the neck down. Then I'd take the girl. Or I could sever your pulmonary artery, and you'd hemorrhage to death in seconds. Then, I'd take the girl. Or, you could just GIVE me the girl. And I'd let you live. I'm giving you this choice because I'm really such a NICE person at heart."


Yori stops twiddling the knife for a second, the sharp edge hanging in the air mid-swing.

"Hmmmmmm. You know, if you hand over the brat right now, I could also be convinced not to kill that girl you seem to follow around like a pet dog. She seems so fragile, too. She puts on such a tough shell, but I bet she'd be so heartbroken if her favorite pet were injured..."

Yori smiles.

Some smiles show friendliness.

This one just shows teeth.

Hajime froze, and a small growl erupted from his throat. He stands, slowly, and glares defiantly at Yori. The implication, the sole implication that Yori would hurt his Master, the only person who mattered, over a single child.

But the child mattered too. She had risked so much for so little gain, and he wasn't going to give her up to some... cutthroat.

"...No."

Three bullets left. Three targets. left eye, wall, and the ground.

"Just because you think that you are... that you have some sort of right to terrorize her..."

Hand up, fire.

The first sped towards the man's left eye, and the second swirled behind him at a rapid speed, heading for the base of the wall. If it strikes, the building slowly crumbles, debris falling directly on top of him, just as the third bullet explodes underneath him.

Hajime is already gone, vanished from sight with the girl, as a wave of people runs screaming from the scene of the accident. The crowd is shocked and frightened, and calls are rushing to Judgement as they move.

The girl in Hajime's arms lets out a soft murmur, snuggling deeper into his chest. The two cut a striking picture, with Hajime's hawkish face and messy hair, compared to Shiki's small form and round features. He moved quickly in the crowd, trying desperately to avoid hitting anyone, as causing a scene would bring Yori right down on top of him.

[Lord-Cao-Cao]

(OOC: Fffffff, Gitp was playing up for a couple hours. I meant to post earlier, sorry.)

There was a horrified yell as the six Anti-Skill members were crushed together by the suddenly warping dimensions; but they were not finished. Tai, at least, was not finished, despite missing his lower left arm, half his left leg and a good chunk of his side, having leapt away at the very last instant. He drew his pistol and fired, again and again at Yoris' bodyguard; until he was met with the unwelcome click that indicated that he was now out of ammunition. By chance, one bullet found a tiny chink in his armor at the base of his neck: blood spurted in fountains as he went down, dead before he realised it. As the other guard turned to face him, however, he was tackled to the ground by Mogami Jounouchi who was howling in terror. A few shots rang out before he too was silenced as Jounouchi disabled him by means of his psychic power, glad that he had lagged behind everyone else and utterly at odds as to why he had effectively signed his death warrant by attacking that man.

Hearing the commotion and seeing the firefight that had apparently broken out in the corridor, the confused Hospital Security staff unholstered their barely-used firearms and began firing at the apparent perpetrators-The heavily armed and armored gunmen who were apparently firing willy-nilly in the building without regards to their victims, of course. Sure, they didn't stand a chance, but they were calling for help-Which was arriving shortly, in quantities that Yoris' men could not possibly hope to deal with as-was.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Inside the room, Koutas' heart nearly stopped as his men in the corridor erupted in gouts of blood, gore and agonised screams. This was no ordinary Esper. This was far beyond even a level four, by his count. A level five? He'd made a point of memorising the names and faces of all the level fives in Academy City (not a hard job-there were only a handful of them); but he did not recognise this man.

So the Dark Side really did have agents of this caliber.

And he was almost certainly going to meet the same end as those poor men who were currently dead or dying in the corridor. But he resolved that he would go down fighting-That was the only way he knew how to do it. He reached inside his jacket for a handgun; wait, no handgun. A flashbang? Nope, he hadn't thought to bring one. A smoke bomb? He didn't have one on him. The only thing he really had in his jacket was a metal lighter.

So he threw that, and, by sheer, raw chance, it plinked harmlessly off the back of Yoris' head, somehow bypassing his spatial-warping defensive barrier as Souji made his escape. When Yori turned, he would have found Kouta standing in a fighting stance-Not that that would have made a whit of difference. What did, however, was the fact that there were now thirty-odd people-Hospital staff, security exchanging fire with his men, and confused onlookers in the warped corridor just outside. True, they'd have backed off in a hurry if he so much as raised his finger in their direction, but... And the alarms were sounding, the Anti-Skill vans outside emptying in a hurry as rifled-armed Anti-Skill rushed up the stairs.

People were dying, he'd made a mess of things and people were beginning to notice.

__________________________________________________ _______________


Outside, more Anti-Skill were already beginning to arrive from other locations as people fled the building in terror. The noise of the alarms radiated outwards in ever-larger amounts as even hastily-scrambled Anti-Skill helicopters approached the scene. Souji would have gone mostly unseen and unnoticed by them; at least for now....