"Wow. You found all this in 3 hours? That's… genuinely impressive. I didn't even know about some of this."

"Hmm, yeah, incredibly strong spirit, but even I can tell that was weighing on you. Knowledge is a curse after all."

"… how does she find such trusting people?"

"I'll leave you with what you originally found. The rest… is a tad too dangerous."

"… So, I had to put her on the side of the road. I was running out of coins at that point, and it kept regenerating, so I ran to find some ammo and ended up getting some steel bolts from a car it had just wreaked," Misaka recounted as she walked, with Saten keeping up next to her, enraptured by the tale.

"You know the administration is not going to be happy about that, right?" Kuroko interjected, hands propped behind her head.

"It was already destined for the trash heap, and I was helping out, there's no way they'd get me for that!" She objected, glancing back at Kuroko to see if she was kidding.

Kuroko's exasperated smile grew as she looked her roommate in the eye. "That'd be true, if there hadn't been such an expensive blackout only a few days ago. And how about that guy's car that you totaled last week? Poor guy had their car stolen and searched tirelessly for it only to find it turned to molten scrap days later."

"Eh, that's umm…"

Ritsuka, who'd been keeping up with the conversation in earnest, spotted the opportunity to poke fun and was clearly obligated to take it. "Now that you mention it, who does pay for all that damage? I mean, I get that your signature attack is quite literally throwing money at your problems, but there has to be a limit to those funds, right?"

"Hey! They're just arcade tokens! I don't actually use money as projectiles!" defended the Railgun.

A smile grew and Saten piled on. "Wait, are you even allowed to take those arcade tokens out of the arcade? Kuroko, you're Judgement, you happen to know?"

The teleporter's grin only widened. "Hmm, that does sound like theft of property to me. While we're at it how about we talk about your conduct with vending machines."

"Guys…", the bullied Level 5 sighed, defeated and betrayed. "Fine, no more abuse of currency. It's not like I'm trying to cause property damage. Everything is just so fragile. Besides, what would I replace my coins with anyway?"

Kuroko reached beneath the hem of her skirt and retrieved a handful of shiny metal stakes. "Nails are nice. Cheap too, only a few yen a pop. I think the big carpenter ones at the hardware store would do fine for your Railgun. Plus they might even go faster, aerodynamics and all that."

"I've been meaning to ask," Saten chimed in. "How do you get away with bringing those to school? And doesn't that hurt, wearing that on your thigh all day?"

"I don't wear it all the time, only when I think I need it." Kuroko responded. "And it's not really… that dangerous? To keep around? Or at least, I had to have it approved and they know I can do the same thing with a pencil." At Ristuka's somewhat disbelieving stare, she continued. "It's not like it's any more dangerous than everyone else at school. Every class as a pyromancer or two who could light it all on fire, Mental Out could take everyone over at any time, and Misaka could level the building. Compared to that, it's probably fine if I'm carrying some nails around?"

Ritsuka's stare continued, while Saten seemed deep in thought, before shrugging and accepting the matter. Misaka didn't seem quite too happy with the teleporter's implication, but Kuroko had already accepted the imminent tasing. After the first few times, it had, weirdly enough, started feeling good, and she wasn't going to question that too much. Anyway, she was never going to directly ask for it, lest Misaka completely shun her.

"Now then, I'm gonna grab Uiharu and we'll pick a place to grab dinner?", she said, as the group approached the building that housed Judgement branch 177.

At the collective nods, she gauged the distance in 𝑛-space, making sure to avoid where she last remembered the furniture was, picked out a location roughly a few inches above where she expected the floor to be, and pulled.

"Hate to break it to you, but that's not a bed," a bemused voice commented, waking Uiharu from her slumber.

"Wha… ow…" The hacker blinked awake, sitting up at her desk, a row of keys now printed onto her arm where it had rested on her keyboard. For a brief moment, she regretted using a mechanical, at least a cheapo membrane keyboard wouldn't have caused indents quite that deep. She glanced up at her primary monitor, which was locked and displaying wallpapers from a movie she'd watched recently with the group. The clock read 19:24, so she'd been out for at least… what had she been doing?

Kuroko laid a hand upon her shoulder and gave a light shake. "Come on, everyone's waiting for us. Let's go?"

Uiharu gave a slow nod and pulled herself out of her chair. As Kuroko counted down the teleport out of courtesy, she looked back at her computer. She'd been reading… oh god. The memories came back in a flood, and a surge of nausea swept through her. As the teleport dropped the floor out from beneath her feet, it was all suddenly too much. Lunch felt like a day ago, so when her feet hit the sidewalk, Uiharu hunched over and retched, the taste of bile as overpowering as the horror she felt.

A chorus of worried voices shouted, indistinct.

"Really, what were you thinking! You know that you can't teleport someone without warning them first." Misaka's voice echoed, ringing through the hallway.

"I swear, I warned her first! I gave her a countdown and everything!"

Kuroko's pleading response jostled through Uiharu's mind, through the whirlwind of thoughts a moment of clarity shone though for just long enough to defend her friend. The world still swimming, she managed to prop herself up on an elbow and speak up.

"It's not her fault, I gave her the go ahead when I wasn't ready… Kuroko… can I talk to you for a bit," she said, sitting up from the couch. They had brought her back into the Judgment office to lay down for a bit, where the nausea ebbed and flowed steadily, petering out into anxiety as the seconds passed like minutes. This was too much. This wasn't something she could keep to herself, she knew that. It would eat her up from within, leaving a nervous wreak, a conspiracy theorist who looked at every corner of the city with wary eyes. No, she had to tell someone about this, but she had to be careful while doing so. She watched, gratefully, as Saten, Misaka, and Ritsuka seemed to get the message and headed out into the hallway, giving her a reassuring nod.

As the door closed, Kuroko looked at Uiharu somberly, "So. What did you want to say?"

Relief flooded through her, followed by the cold realization of what she wanted to say next. A moment passed, as Uiharu mustered up the courage to say the words that grated even to her own ears. "Do… do you trust Misaka?"

Kuroko seemed taken aback, opening and shutting her mouth a few times before sound finally came out. "I… yes, of course I do. What brought this on?"

Uiharu gave a pensive look, then continued. "Like, do you think she's a good person…" At Kuroko's stare, she waved her hands frantically to undo the damage. "I mean, I'm not saying she isn't! Like, the last week or two has been really fun, and I could tell that she seems to care about people deeply… but I've only known her for a short time. Which is why I asked you…" she trailed off.

Kuroko looked at her friend and colleague of over a year. "Did something come up that had to do with her?"

Uiharu nodded and led Kuroko over to her computer. Sitting down in an excellently adjusted chair that no longer provided comfort, she unlocked the machine and looked around for one of the many documents scattered over her desktop. Opening it, she gave it a quick once over. There it still was, she'd been hoping it was merely a nightmare, one too horrible to dream up. Taking a breath, she got up and gestured towards the open seat. Kuroko sat down absently, eyes glued to the display, which now showed a dense research paper. Project Radio Noise. She began skimming through, quickly at first, then slowing down to a crawl as brown eyes took in all there was.

Uiharu watched the emotions cycle over her friend's face. Shock, anguish, and clear horror resonating through, to which she could so painfully empathize. At the end of it all, Kuroko's gaze shifted to Uiharu, and deadened eyes asked, "Why are you keeping this from her?"

Uiharu raised her hands in defense, "I couldn't be certain that she wasn't involved. It said that the DNA was voluntarily donated. I… Misaka doesn't seem like the kind of person to allow something like this to happen, but I couldn't chance it if I was wrong." She fiddled with her hands. "I don't think I've seen her angry. I don't want to see her angry at me. I asked you about this because you've known her for so much longer."

Kuroko looked saddened at the thought. "She's a really nice person. She has her quirks, but she's someone who really cares about people. I understand that you're worried, but I really, really don't think this was done with her permission. I think we should tell her, right now."

As she finished the sentence, she slid the chair back and got out, walking towards the door.

Uiharu tracked the shorter girl as she left. "What would we even do about it? We're talking about something involving Accelerator, the Number 1 Level 5!"

Kuroko paused as her hand hovered over the doorknob, her face sporting a thin, wavering smile that Uiharu couldn't see. "We'll figure that out when we get to it."

Ritsuka didn't notice that she was biting at her nail. It was a habit she'd inadvertently picked up, one that she knew Emiya Shirou didn't have. It was both worrying and comforting, in a way, as it raised unsettling questions about whether or not this body was a host to another mind, but also separated her current existence farther from the being known as EMIYA, something that simply should not be. Of course, none of that was at the front of her mind right now, a mere whisper behind the seething hatred for the bastards that would even dare imagine such a plan. Tens of thousands of meaningless deaths, all for the goal of potentially increasing the power of the most powerful being in the city. It was absurd and cruel at a level few magi even achieved. Even the complete loss of Alimango Island was a case where the death and destruction was out of negligence, rather than the end goal itself. If this plan was anything but fictional, then the sheer scale of callousness behind the work was beyond anything she'd seen.

Ritsuka bit down. Naïve. To think that this world wouldn't be plagued with the same darkness as the last. To believe that simply because powers are more open, that there wouldn't be those who seek more behind the scenes. What was she thinking?

Static leapt off the coffee table and skidded across her arm, stinging it. She looked over at the person who ought to be worst affected by the news, who was leaning back on the sofa, staring at a point past the ceiling, eyes sparking with smoldering anger and betrayal. For the third time in the past ten minutes, Misaka bit out, "They told me it was to save lives."

Ritsuka couldn't say anything to that. She looked around. At Uiharu, who looked distraught, fidgeting with one of the mechanical key toys she kept on her desk. At Saten, who while consoling Misaka seemed intent to put someone into the bed she'd just left. At Kuroko, who was absently flipping her spikes through her fingers, glancing occasionally out the window to stare into the distance. She took a deep breath.

"So what do we do?" She asked to no one, getting up from her seat.

There was a brief silence, then Misaka responded.

"We don't do anything. This was a result of my mistake, I'll take care of it."

The incredulous looks she got in return took her out of her grief for a moment. "Wh..what?"

Kuroko looked at her, eyebrow raised. "You really think we'd let you do that? Seriously?"

Misaka looked down at her feet. "I'm not letting you guys get hurt on my account."

Ritsuka crossed her arms. "It won't be on your account, it'd be on our own. Just on a personal level, you know that we could never know that something like this is going on and do nothing about it."

Uiharu nodded. "Kuroko and I are Judgment, we swore an oath to protect those that reside in this city. If we know about something like this, you'd be hard pressed to stop us from do something about it."

Misaka stumbled over her words, "Guys…"

Saten put a hand on Misaka's shoulder, her subtle smile infectious. "Give it up. We're your friends, which mean we care about you. That also means we care about what you care about. You know it's hopeless to stop us now."

The brunette's eyes became misty, as she repeated once again. "Guys…"

Saten grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. "Shh, it's fine. We're here for you. No matter what we'll be here for you. So don't you dare push us away."

Kuroko smiled, walked over, and joined the hug, as did Uiharu. Ritsuka looked on for a moment then joined in as well, at which point her fellow Level 5 was now audibly sobbing. She smiled too. Alright, there was indeed great evil in this world, but that's not what made life so worth protecting. In the face of great callousness around her, great compassion had emerged beside her.

Maybe this world wasn't so bad after all.

Misaka stared at the blank wall beside her bed, unable to fall asleep. The anger and determination from earlier had slowly faded, replaced by an emotional tiredness that nevertheless kept her awake. Uiharu had worked into the night, training a facial recognition model to find her clones through Academy City's security cameras. Kuroko and Saten scoured the documents Uiharu found, searching for details on any concrete locations they could investigate. Ritsuka took over the meager kitchen in the office, cleaning off the dust and disuse to cook up a simple dinner for everyone. It must have been how stressful the day was, as the plain little meal felt like the best thing she'd ever had.

They called it a night shortly afterward, with nothing concrete to work off of but a promise to continue early the next morning. She'd teleported back with Kuroko, appearing back in their dorm, which was a empty black even with light filtering in from the lampposts outside. Kuroko had gone off to shower first, and had already fallen asleep by the time Misaka was done. It felt wrong, changing into her PJs without that lecherous gaze on her back.

She shouldn't have dragged them into this. It's horror they didn't need to know, and danger they didn't need to be in, all resulting from a mistake that wasn't theirs. She knew they didn't care about that but that was all the more reason why she'd be protective of such good friends. She had half a mind that wanted nothing more than to slip out the window in the dark of night and tear the labs to the ground, not that she knew where to start. She frowned.

There it was, that powerlessness. A word that never came within the same postal code as "Level 5", but there it was nonetheless. She hated it, that she was looked to as the pinnacle of power but couldn't even be certain about the safety of her friends.

Misaka Mikoto drifted off to sleep, ending up hugging the pillow in her fitful rest. An unconscious part of her was reminded of her friends actions from earlier that night, and she held it ever so tightly. She dreamed of mirrors, a scientist with a gold tooth, and a group of friends that stood united beside her against the world.

Author's Note:
It took far, far too long to figure out how to portray breaking such an important moment in a satisfactory way. To consider how the characters would think, would act, and still carry on the narrative in a way that gets to the fun parts sooner rather than later. Already working on the next chapter, since that's at least got some action in it. Still, might be another week or two before it's ready, since I've got a job to do and all that. Actually, that's a terrible excuse for a problem caused by my particular writing style. I write, rewrite, and edit all in my head, trying out half a dozen iterations of a sentence before committing it onto the page, which might only get one more review pass before release. I'm trying the fix the latter problem, but the former, combined with my horrid typing speed for someone whose profession is typing, makes for short, dense chapters. 1k words might take 3 hours, which makes my dreams of 10k word chapters quite infeasible. Though, if I ever do release such a chapter, you'll know I either got better at writing narratives or have become unemployed with nothing better to do.

On a possibly controversial note, I originally thought that these girls were taking to these terrible things happening in the city around them too easily. Recent real world events show that, no, when horrific things happen, it's not unfathomable to the point where your whole worldview changes, but is instead cynically disappointing. Unacceptable, requires drastic actions to be taken, but sadly doesn't fall too far from mental expectation. With that being said, no matter your political affiliation, if you live in a democracy, make sure to vote. I started writing because, however insignificant and quiet it might be, I feel better knowing my voice has been heard. That's what a vote is, on the actually important issues that will affect your life. So go vote, and make a slight but appreciable difference to the world where you're actually a character.