"I was having a good day, you know? Woke up, felt refreshed, had a great breakfast, then went out for lunch. Sounds awesome, right? But of course, nothing good ever lasts, does it? Something always has to go wrong. And as it turns out, my roommate - the person who's supposed to be my best friend - is being a nosey little shit and tells me I'm acting strange. And obviously she doesn't see my side of it, no, I'm the villain, even though she's the one that won't keep her nose out of my fucking business. Like I don't have enough going on without her making herself a problem. I have enough problems! This whole city is my problem! But when I try to fix it, suddenly I'm the bad guy. What the fuck? She just keeps pushing! Is that my fault? Maybe I snapped at her a bit, but who wouldn't? I mean, she's the one getting in my business, but I'm the one that feels like I kicked a puppy. And I've actually kicked puppies! She was actually crying when I left. Her, crying, when I'm the fucking victim in all this! Tell me, how the hell is that fair?"

Mikoto delivered a sharp kick into the prone boy's ribs. He wheezed in response and curled in on himself, tears streaming down his face, but he didn't say anything.

"You're a really terrible conversation partner, you know that?" Mikoto spat on the ground next to him and stomped on the back of his head, grinding his face into the pavement. "You seemed so eager to talk to me a little bit ago, too. What, am I boring you? Is listening to my problems too much of a pain for you to even bother responding?"

"P-please, I didn't mean it,"he moaned from between bloodied lips. "I'm s-sorry."

"You should be." She licked dried blood from her lips - leftover from the split second when Kuroko had actually fought back - and dug her heel into his side until she felt a crunch. The sound of his screams punctuated the night air and sent a pleasant shiver down her spine.

"It's just, I don't know what to do now. Kuroko has always been a bit of a pain in the ass, but she's never been this persistent about it before. I figured it would be the end of it when I apologized. I even kind of meant it! Do you understand?"

She growled the last words out and reached down to knot her fingers into his short brown hair. With a tug, his head was up and she forced him to look at her.

Her face twisted in disgust. "You look like shit."

He moaned in response. Blood covered the lower half of his face, streaming from his nose and broken lips and making him look like some twisted circus clown. His front teeth were chipped, giving him mismatched fangs, and the skin on his cheeks and forehead was scraped and peeling, like she'd run his face across a cheese grater. Tears streamed down his cheeks and his eyes were wide with pain and terror.

"I guess it's stupid of me to ask you. It's not like you would understand. And even if you did, I doubt you'd have any advice worth listening to."

A piece of piping snaking up the nearby wall groaned, trapped in the grip of her magnetism. It snapped off with a violent shriek and spray of white steam, spinning towards her.

Her hand snapped out and swiped it from the air. Its weight was impressive - heavier than she'd anticipated; perfect for violent work.

She slung it lazily over her shoulder and glared down at the boy that had approached her. Not much older than her - first year of high school, probably. He hadn't even tried fighting back though. No sign of an ability, or even so much as swinging at her in self defense.

It made her sick. Her stomach twisted in ugly knots and red tinted her vision. He curled up on himself, whimpering like a wounded animal. Which, really, was all that he was.

"What did you think you were doing, anyway?" She cracked the pipe across his elbow and he screamed, the sound echoing down the alley. "Did you think I wanted to talk? That I wanted help? What?" She dragged the pipe along the ground, kicking up sparks. "Pathetic. I mean, look at you. You won't even try to protect yourself!"

She brought it down on his hip this time, sending a tremor through his whole body. For a moment, she thought he might try to crawl away, or at least raise his hands to protect himself.

yet he just curled up tighter, as if she would go away if he played the part of the pitiful little boy.

Her patience snapped and she clubbed him in the back of the head with a vicious snarl.

"Come on!"

Across the back this time.

"Fight back!"

The right ankle, pulverizing fragile bone and collapsing the delicate complex of veins beneath the skin.

"Run away!"

Right against his jaw, shattering teeth and cutting off another scream.

"Do something!"

A strike directly at his side, and the ribs she'd cracked earlier splintered and broke. Blood misted on his breath as he tried to breath, before finally falling unconscious.

Mikoto stopped mid-swing, sweat sticking her disheveled brown tresses to her face and forehead, chest heaving.

Several nasty bruises were already forming across his face and neck, and no doubt under his clothes as well. The pavement in front of him was littered with flecks of blood and little bits of shattered teeth.

"Garbage," Mikoto growled.

She wiped her forehead and tossed the pipe aside. It clattered against the ground, quiet compared to the screams that had just echoed across the walls.

Mikoto backed up and leaned against the wall for support as she caught her breath. The sounds of traffic filtered into the alley, but so far no one else had come to investigate the screaming.

She slid down the wall as her heart slowly stopped pounding, the surging need to hurt and break and maim dulled, for now. It was still there, of course. It had been for as long as she could remember, really. It was only recently that it she had been able to identify what it was, and properly sate it, if only for a while.

With a frown, she looked at the boy still twitching on the ground. His chest rose and fell in a stuttering, uneven pattern, but he was still breathing.

Well. That was fine. He was annoying, a pest, but she didn't need to kill him. No, there were plenty of people in the city far more deserving of that honor, and she would make sure they received it.

Still, that didn't change the feeling of disgust in the pit of her stomach. She sneered at the unmoving body of her latest victim.

"You didn't even try. How pathetic can you get?"

Ruiko would have fought back. At the very least, she would have tried to run away, even beaten and bloody. Mikoto was certain of it. Level 0 or not, she fought for her own survival. That was what mattered: the will to live, to fight for it. All this boy had done was cower.

He couldn't have fought her. The end result would have been the same, she knew that. But that wasn't important. It was the struggle that was important, the refusal to accept the inevitable, to scrape and claw and scream, no matter what.

All he'd bothered to do was the last one.

People like him were half the reason the whole city was such a mess. The people who wanted power did as they pleased, and everyone else just let themselves get walked all over. It would have been funny, if she wasn't stuck right in the middle of all of it.

She stood and ran a hand through her sweat-slick hair. "It doesn't matter," she murmured. "I can do this on my own."

She rolled the boy over with a contemptuous nudge of her foot. He'd live. At least, as long as someone found him within a day or so. And if they didn't, well... he might be missed.

But probably not.

"Are you quite certain that you have no idea where she went, Shirai?"

"No, I do not."

Jun Ito, known to the students simply as the Dorm Supervisor, a woman with a heart of ice and will of iron, a power to be feared and respected, frowned.

"There's nowhere you can think of that she might go?"

"I... perhaps to see a friend of ours, but I can't be certain. She was rather upset when she left."

"Hm." Behind flashing lenses, Jun's eyes surveyed the scene.

Broken light on the ceiling, glass on the bed and floor. A few drops of blood by the wall. Scorch marks - no doubt left by Misaka's tantrum - gouged into the walls, ceiling, and floor. Paint, charred black and brown and rising up like blisters from where lightning had struck.

All told it was nothing new. Tokiwadai was home to some of the most elite espers in Academy City; it was expected that there would be incidents. And Misaka was not only the most powerful esper in the school, but also prone to rather explosive fits.

No, it wasn't the damage that was unusual about the situation.

Her eyes returned to Shirai, taking in the tight set of her shoulders, inflamed and bloodshot eyes that spoke of tears shed, and hair and clothing askew.

"And you still refuse to tell me the reason for this altercation?" She crossed her arms across her breasts and gave Shirai her best imposing stare.

Shirai wilted but still shook her head. "It is... personal." She bowed. "I apologize. I did not intend for things to get out of hand as they did."

"Indeed." Jun suppressed a sigh. It was hard to muster much frustration with the girl. Not when she sounded so defeated already, as if it was taking every ounce of control she could muster to keep herself from falling to pieces where she stood.

Jun resisted the urge to massage her temples - a stress relieving habit she'd fallen into during her first month on the job. Yet, she refused to do in front of the students.

Shirai and Misaka had been involved in no small number of skirmishes since the two had become roommates, so that, at least, wasn't unusual either. At this point, it was almost expected that she would have to intervene and enforce order between the two at least once a week.

Except recently she hadn't had to. The familiar shouting and sparring between the two had all but disappeared, save for this incident. Had she been a more optimistic person, Jun might have thought that the two had gotten over their childish squabbling and learned to get along without the need to destroy their room once a month.

Instead, Jun recalled her brief conversation with Misaka more than a week prior. There had been something about her then, something different - even dangerous. It wasn't simply that she hadn't responded to the usual threats of punishment. There had been something almost gleeful in her eyes at the prospect of conflict.

It had given her pause then, and now Jun was regretting it. True, it was her job to make sure the rules were followed, but she was also responsible for the wellbeing of the children under her care, and from the look of things she had failed rather spectacularly.

"If there's nothing else, may I be dismissed?" Shirai asked. She bowed again. "I would like to clean up the room as soon as possible, in case Onee-sama-"

"Let the staff take care of that," Jun interrupted. She led Shirai out of the room with a firm hand on her shoulder. "We'll have the lights replaced by tomorrow and everything will be cleaned as well. Tonight I'll have you spend the night in the infirmary. You appear largely unharmed, but it would be best to have them take a look."

"I assure you, I am uninjured."

"It was not a request, Shirai." Jun's eyes cut with a flash. "You will be spending the night in the infirmary. Should Misaka return tonight, I will see to it that she is taken care of."

Left unsaid was the fact that Jun intended to have words with Misaka. Scuffles between students were a fact of life, especially in a boarding school, but she hadn't seen Shirai this shaken since she'd moved into the dorms.

And perhaps she was being too harsh in her thoughts, but she had no intention of letting Misaka near Shirai again until she got a chance to talk to her, and certainly not tonight.

"This is unnecessary," Shirai mumbled as Jun led her down to the front desk and called for a member of the infirmary staff.

"It is not for you to decide what is or is not necessary, Shirai." She replaced the receiver and fixed her charge with a firm glare. "We will discuss this further in the morning. You will leave Misaka to me for the time being, and when she returns we will determine what steps will be required to discipline the two of you."

Shirai's shoulders stiffened slightly and for a moment it looked as though she might speak, but instead she simply nodded.

Scarcely a minute later a young nurse with a bright smile arrived and escorted Shirai out of the lobby, leaving Jun alone with her thoughts.

Once alone she allowed herself a heavy sigh. She removed her glasses and massaged her temples.

"You never fail to give me a headache, Misaka."

Frenda kicked her feet up on the couch and lay them across Takitsubo's lap.

"So, what's the plan? Full frontal assault? Assassination? Kidnapping? Stealth operation? Teams or solo?"

ITEM was gathered together in the penthouse of one of Academy City's ritzier hotels, that had more rooms than your average house. The suite they were in spanned half the floor, and the decorators clearly hadn't spared any expense. It was all gold and brown and maroon, full of marble tile and flowing silk curtains. The floor to ceiling windows overlooked the towering spires of Academy City, each a checkerboard of lights even this late at night, and the complimentary "snacks" could have been served at a Michelin-star restaurant.

Takitsubo and Saiai didn't seem to care one way or the other, and from the way Mugino reclined in what looked to be a modern spin on a victorian age lounge chair, complete with carved wood and dark red velvet, she felt rather at home.

For her part, Frenda was just happy to be staying in the nice part of town again. Much as she loved the pay and the opportunity to dirty her hands, working with ITEM often left her spending nights staked out in the seedier districts, or bunked up in some crappy hotel with one of the other girls, which was just not how a lady of her refinement should be spending her nights.

This place was several steps in the right direction as far as she was concerned, and she planned to take full advantage of it. The massive minibar - which seriously defied its name, since it was better stocked than some real bars she'd been in - was just a bonus.

And of course, it was all sweetened by the fact that it was on someone else's dime. Kihara might have been a creepy dick, but he could make the money flow when he wanted.

"Super calm down. We just got here."

"Well yeeeeah, but that's the whole point of meeting up, isn't it? We're gonna make a plan before we go after Little Miss Number Three."

"Ah, yes, of course," Takitsubo said. Her eyes flicked from Frenda to Mugino.

Frenda mentally cursed herself. Mugino had been in a good mood the last few days, but bringing up the Railgun brat's rank relative to hers was never a good idea.

But Mugino simply smiled, and let out a soft laugh. "You're right, Frenda. If we're going to properly put that little rat in her place, then it would be best to have a plan."

Mugino leaned back regally on her elegant chair and swirled a glass of blood-red wine with a sadistic grin on her face, like some kind of vampire matriarch out of a fantasy novel. It was almost enough to send a shiver up Frenda's spine, and she took a sip of her neon green cocktail - an abomination of Saiai's creation - to calm her nerves.

Mugino's impeccably manicured nails clicked against polished wood. "Since we're all here, how about we have a little brainstorming session, hm?"

"Sure." Saiai shrugged, apparently not bothered at all by the uncharacteristic saccharine tone of their leader's voice. "She might be Level 5, but it shouldn't be super hard to take her down if we work together. As long as we don't do anything stupid it should super be simple."

"Yes, Frenda. Let's not do anything stupid this time."

There was a cool edge to Mugino's voice that made the palms of Frenda's hands sweat.

"Hehe, well I got thumped good alright." She bopped herself in the head and forced a grin. "Learned my lesson for sure though! She won't get the best of me twice."

"I don't intend to give her - or you - the chance to prove you wrong. When we do finally corner our little rodent, you'll do exactly as I say." Her lips reached a little higher. "Saiai and I will pressure her; you'll be support. And it should go without saying that I'll expect a certain degree of discretion when it comes to your bombs this time, Frenda."

"N-no problem."

She took another drink. Fancy hotel aside, this job was already hell on her nerves.

"If we intend to track her, we'll need Takitsubo," Saiai pointed out. Her legs swung back and forth off the edge of her oversized chair. "But we super can't use her ability until we actually want to engage."

"I'm afraid I still have trouble using it for too long," Takitsubo admitted. She fidgeted until Frenda gave her a gentle thump with her foot. "That said, once we do have her where we want her, the odds of her being able to escape the effective range of my tracking are almost nil."

"And then we can use the same combo as last time even if she does try to escape." Frenda grinned. "Should be a piece of cake, right?"

"Super should have been a piece of cake last time, too."

"Hey, I didn't know what I was up against then!" Frenda tossed a pillow that Saiai didn't bother to dodge. "I woulda been way more careful if I'd known she was Level 5!"

"We know now, and there will be no surprises," Mugino cut through their bickering before it could progress further. "We're the hunters, and our prey suspects nothing. And this time, the trap will be too tight for the slippery little brat to squeeze out of."

She finished her glass and set it aside. "But for now, let's cover what we know about her. Number Three, signature move is the same as her nickname: Railgun. Electromaster. Our abilities are, at the base, similar enough that we can block or deflect each other's direct attacks, though of course she has a harder time with that than I do."

Mugino nodded towards Frenda, and she took her cue to continue where her leader had left off. "Uuuh she seems pretty good at magnetism. She used it to tear up the floor and mess up my ignition tape. She managed to use it on the fly too, using debris as shields and stuff."

Frenda ticked off her fingers one at a time "She can do it to herself too; she dodged me once that way." Her brow scrunched as she tried to recall anything else. "Oh yeah, and either she has some kind of auto-defense like Number One, or she has insane reflexes. She managed to incinerate all the projectiles from one of my shrapnel bombs when it went off like three meters from her face. Some kind of electro-sensey thing I think she said?"

"She dodged Mugino-sama's meltdowner too, when she couldn't even see it coming," Takisubo added. "Maybe that was because she could feel it coming, but even then her reflexes would have to be well above average."

Saiai pulled a face. "Super not cool."

"Oh yeah, you were the only one that didn't actually get to fight her, huh?"

"There's no guarantee that Saiai's Offense Armor will be able to protect her from Misaka's ability," Takitsubo continued. "Is it wise to have her as main offense in that case?"

"It doesn't matter." Mugino dismissed the concern with a wave of her hand, though Frenda thought that the look on Saiai's face meant she, at least, thought it very much did matter. "Your ability should at least be able to bear the brunt of an attack, and most of her focus will be on me. I'll overwhelm her with raw power and turn her into dust."

Fury burned in Mugino's eyes, and Frenda had little doubt she would do just that.

"She's also a student at Tokiwadai Middle School," Saiai said. "If we want to start with observation, that could be a good place to start."

"It is a private school though," Takitsubo said. "We could probably bribe someone to get permission to get into the Garden of Education, but following her on the actual Tokiwadai campus would be hard."

"Oh!" Frenda nearly hopped off the couch. "We're trying to find a way to draw her out, right? Get her where we want her? Why don't we just kidnap a bunch of their students and make her come to us?"

For a long moment, the other three stared at her.

"What?" she said, breaking the silence. "It's totally a good idea!"

Saiai sighed and shook her head. "Frenda, that's-"

"Not a bad plan, actually."

Three pairs of eyes turned to Mugino, whose smile now resembled the bared fangs of a tiger.

"It's not?" Saiai raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"Oh, quite sure." Frenda's chest puffed up with pride- "Of course, nothing so simple-minded as grabbing a pack of random schoolgirls like a gang of perverts." -and immediately deflated. "But I think there is promise in the basic premise Frenda has proposed."

She leaned forward in her seat and rested her elbows on her knees. "Why not use bait to draw out a rat? We just need to find the appropriate person. I'm sure we can find someone suitable to draw our prey into our web. A girl as popular-" Mugino sneered the word, "as that must have friends. A beloved junior, a close confidant... perhaps even a boyfriend."

She tossed the empty glass over her shoulder and it shattered against white marble, the remaining wine staining the floor like blood on parchment.

"I think it's time we started a little reconnaissance. Takitsubo and I, and Saiai and Frenda." She dug sharp-nailed fingers into the arm of her chair. "Find out just who it is that's important to our dear Railgun."

Her smile bared teeth that may as well have been keen-edged razors.

"And prepare a suitable location for our little party."

A/N: A little later than I'd hoped, but we're moving the plot along. As always, please let me know what you think!