Ch 203: There is no escape.

Gudako rushed into the room and hurriedly pushed a cabinet to block the door, pressing her back against it.

"Senpai, you won't be able to escape me." laughed Mash from the other side of the door.

"Get a grip, Mash! I want my cute Kouhai to return to normal!" yelled Gudako, taking from her pocket the smartphone Romani had given her. She hurriedly called Chaldea.

"Yes, Gudako? Is there an emergency?" asked Olga-Marie.

"Director, I need help! Mash is acting strange!"

"What do you mean, acting strange?"

"She wants to put a collar on me and treat me like a pet! She's got a rope from God knows where, and I only escaped because she's bad with tying knots! I locked myself in a room right now, and I'm reinforcing the door with Magecraft, but I won't hold her if she decides to break it down! I need reinforcements!"

"Oh, it's about that. Sorry, but there's nothing I can do."

"…Director?" asked Gudako. Surely, she hadn't heard correctly.

"Mash must be acting on Akeno's orders… Wait, Alaya wants to say something to you."

Gudako blinked as another voice was heard coming from the phone.

"I have observed a significant increase in the combat power of those who were subjugated by Akeno or her subordinates. For you to become one of them is beneficial to your mission. Your sacrifice will be remembered."

Gudako couldn't believe her ears.

"Well, you heard it." sighed Olga-Marie. "For what it's worth, I can tell you from experience that it's not so bad. There are some good benefits to compensate for the loss of freedom."

"Et tu, Director?" whispered Gudako.

"Once you give up and accept it, you will be happy, too." said another voice, coming from inside the room.

She looked up as she saw Britomart, the Heroic Spirit who had come with them, materialize. One of the Sanctuaries appeared in her hands.

"There is no escaping us, Gudako." grinned Britomart, forcibly bringing Gudako into the artifact's dimension, then opening the door.

"Thank you, Britomart." smiled Mash, dressed in a black leather bustier and shorts.

"As agreed, you get a whole week alone with her before I ask to join in on the action. Have fun, and be careful with your knots." smiled Britomart.

"Yes. I'll switch to leather and chains. She won't escape so easily. See you later, Britomart." smiled Mash before disappearing inside the Sanctuary.

With a satisfied smile, Britomart put the Sanctuary inside her spatial ring, then picked up the smartphone on the floor.

"Director, this is Britomart. I will be taking over the communications for a while."

"Understood. How is the timeline you are in?"

"It's a medieval one, with no electricity or plumbing. We visited two villages so far. The locals are occasionally threatened by some kind of powerful mutants called Yoma, and an order of female warriors armed with large swords accept commissions to deal with them. They call themselves Claymores. I was mistaken as one, due to my silver hair, beauty, and my weapon, although Claymores apparently are all blondes with gray eyes."

"Are those mutants dangerous?"

"I found one while scouting ahead in the forest around the road. A large humanoid shape, able to extend its fingers like claw-tipped tentacles. Too strong and fast to be dealt with by unenhanced humans, but a strong Magus with adequate combat experience would have been able to kill it." shrugged Britomart.

"Things should be okay, then."

"Yes. While Gudako and Mash are busy, I will go hunt more Yoma, to make life easier for the locals."

"Good hunting, Britomart."

"Thank you, Director." smiled Britomart.

…

Mikoto Misaka entered a public phone booth, looked around to make certain the streets were empty at this hour, and used a cable to connect her smartphone to the public line. Thanks to her hacking skills, she should be able to hide her identity.

Mikoto had met one of her clones earlier this afternoon.

She hadn't been all that surprised. For weeks now, she had heard about encounters she didn't remember making, things she was certain she hadn't done or said. Since she was fairly certain she didn't have any biological sister, she had wondered, and remembered about the DNA sample she had once given to some researchers.

And she had met one today, trying to rescue a kitten stuck in a tree. Misaka 9982, as she called herself, was almost identical to Mikoto, being only a few centimeters shorter and wearing night vision goggles over her head.

The two girls had spent a few minutes together, sharing an ice-cream. She eventually left, leaving Mikoto determined to find out by herself. Which was why she had violated curfew to hack into the public network. Misaka 9982 had refused to say much about the research program that had cloned her, but had still let slip a few crumbs, enough for Mikoto to know where to search for answers.

It took her a while, but she finally found the server she sought, and managed to get past its firewalls in a few minutes. She found files on a half-dozen projects. Most seemed relatively innocuous, but when she opened the one named "Radio Noise Project", she found the information she wanted.

This project used her own DNA to create clones, using advanced medical techniques to accelerate their growth from conception to young adult in barely a year. During the later part of their development, the clones received basic knowledge with Testament, a machine using bio-electric signals to impart information directly into the brain of the person wearing the helmet.

Mikoto frowned, wondering just how many clones had been created using that technique. Five? Ten?"

But when she saw the note near the bottom of one of the files, her anger quickly rose. Due to the rapid cellular division during their accelerated growth, the clones had a life expectancy of only a few years.

"Those scum." muttered Mikoto, feeling sorry for her artificially created sisters. Maybe some of the doctors in Academy City would be able to help with that?

Mikoto closed the file and was about to leave, when curiosity got the better of her. Under the Radio Noise Project was another one called Level 6 Shift.

She opened it, located the file used to succinctly present the project, and began to read. Her eyes widened in incredulity, as she began to read aloud.

"…by preparing specific combat grounds and staging battles according to certain scenarios, the growth rate can be manipulated. According to the results of the simulated calculations, by preparing 128 types of combat scenes…"

"And killing Railgun 128 times, it was concluded the subject would shift to level 6…"

"However, securing multiples copies of Railgun is an impossibility, so the 'Sisters' of the previously suspended 'Radio Noise' program will be employed instead…"

Mikoto trembled in horror as she kept reading.

"...By using large quantities of armed 'Sisters', we can overcome the difference in specs. By using 20 000 'Sisters' in combat scenario, the shift toward level 6 can be reached."

Suddenly, the 9982 number used by the clone Misaka met made horrific sense.

Mikoto felt sick to her core.

She closed the file and opened another, describing a long list of numbered experiments and locations. If Mikoto assumed they were records of past battles, this experiment had been going on for months already. And on top of the list as a chilling text.

9982nd Experiment. Commences on August 15th, 23:00. Coordinates: X-162258 Y-74683.

9982nd. Mikoto blanched as she realized the vey clone she had met was about to die.

She checked the hour in a hurry. She had about 20 minutes to find the location and reach it. Frantic, she started translating the coordinates into something she could use.

She didn't notice the four figures standing in the shadow of a nearby building.

…

Mikoto ran as far as she could and started hearing gunshots. The fight already had started.

By the time she reached the dock and its attached train station, no shot had been fired anymore for at least 30 seconds, and that worried her immensely. She finally reached the site of the battle and saw a white-haired young man wearing a black t-shirt with white strips and blue jeans, arrogantly standing with his right hand in his jean's pocket.

"Oh? There's two planned tonight?" asked Accelerator as he coldly stared at Mikoto.

Mikoto slowed down and stared at the Misaka 9982.

She was on the ground, trying to crawl away with her last forces.

Her left leg had been severed above the knee by a fallen cargo container.

Seeing this, Mikoto trembled as she hugged herself, and let out a scream of both sorrow and rage.

Many arcs of lighting emanated from her body, and the heavy metal beams all around the deserted train station were torn from the bolts keeping them in place. Two dozen of those beams, each weighting several tons, floated in the air above Mikoto, and she propelled them in Accelerator's direction with several g of acceleration.

The steel beams planted themselves like arrows around Accelerator, who only smirked.

It was Mikoto who had to hurriedly evade as three beams suddenly changed direction, completely ignoring the law of inertia.

Mikoto changed tactics, and particles of iron sand floated off the ground gathering into a large black mass. She sent the mass at Accelerator and surrounded him with it, then tried to crush him from all directions.

"Ahah. Controlling iron sand with magnetism. I have to admit it's an interesting idea."

The iron sand was suddenly dispersed.

"What?" exclaimed Mikoto.

"…But when you know how it's done, it's not a big deal anymore." shrugged Accelerator.

He lifted his foot and stomped the ground. several dozens of the railway ballast stones in front of him were suddenly projected toward Mikoto, expanding in a cone like a shotgun blast.

"Argh!" exclaimed Mikoto. She had put her arms in front of her face to shield herself but was still hit by a dozen projectiles. The stones had enough weight and speed to cause severe bruising and even break the skin, but wouldn't penetrate her flesh.

Experiencing the terrible pain from those wounds, she fell to a knee, and gritted her teeth as she straightened. She took a coin from her pocket and held it in her right hand, as if she was about to flick it with a finger.

"Why did you do this, Accelerator? You already are the stronger Esper! How could you participate in such a cruel experiment?"

"Hey, can we just fight?" replied the white-haired man, uninterested in a debate over his motivations.

The number of lightning arcs around Mikoto increased, and with a determined expression, she fired off her Railgun. The coin, instantly propelled at over fifteen times the speed of sound, turned into a brilliant streak of orange light as some of its mass instantly vaporized due to the air friction, and the air itself was heated to near ignition.

But as soon as the coin reached Accelerator, it changed direction, brushing past Mikoto and hitting a pile of cargo containers nearby with a huge sound of impact. A thirty centimeters hole with a molten circumference showed the power behind the small projectile.

"Ahah, I understand now! You're the Original! That's great! With you dead, the experiment will be over sooner! What's your next move now? Don't tell me that this is it?"

Mikoto was about to fall into despair, when Accelerator's expression suddenly changed with a "huh?". He wasn't looking at Mikoto anymore, but in the direction of Misaka 9982.

Mikoto risked a glance back, and was shocked to see one of the girls who had just integrated her dormitory crouching near Misaka 9982, her right hand glowing, and…"

Mikoto had to rub her eyes in disbelief. Misaka 9982's leg was regrowing, and fast.

"We made it barely in time." sighed Takina. "Thirty seconds more and she would have lost too much blood. Hitomi, Tamamo, please take her away."

"Yes." said Hitomi, jumping down from the pile of containers with Hitomi. Mikoto lifted her gaze and saw that Chisato was also present, her magic gun in hand, staring coldly at Accelerator.

"Everyone, you shouldn't stay here!" shouted Mikoto. "That guy is dangerous!"

"He's not the only one." muttered Takina, loud enough for Mikoto to hear.

When Takina was done healing Misaka 9982's leg, she stood and walked closer to Accelerator.

"Who are you? Barging in on my experiment, are you prepared for the consequences?" smirked Accelerator.

"Level 4, Light Sword." replied Takina, taking from her inventory one of the black blades covered in Stop runes Noah had made. The runes shone gently in the relative darkness of nighttime.

"Only level 4? Don't butt your nose on…"

"How many?" cut in Takina, her voice flat.

"How many, what?"

"How many of them did you kill?"

"I think we're getting close to ten thousand by now. But there's no need for you to get all worked up. They are clones, just things created for this experiment."

"Being a clone doesn't mean they do not have a soul. It doesn't mean they aren't human." said Takina, deciding against activating Augment, or even Shunpo. Since that guy was so confident in his reflective defense, she suspected she would let her come close, and she wanted to keep some of her trump cards hidden.

With a light step, she ran toward Accelerator, who smirked and lifted his foot once more, before stomping again.

When the ballast stones were propelled toward her at the speed of bullets, Takina created a large multilayered shield to absorb the blows and didn't slow down.

Accelerator's eyes widened in surprise, but it was already too late for him to attempt another attack, as Takina was on him.

He expected his mirror defense to instantly reverse the inertia of her sword, breaking her posture and possibly breaking her wrists as well.

But to his immense shock, the sword didn't rebound, and pierced his chest just under the sternum, going deeper until it emerged from its back.

The pain started to overwhelm him, and he could only gasp as he saw a dozen light swords appear all around her.

The swords pierced his body, and he couldn't use his ability to stop them.

He died a few seconds later, and Takina used one of the light swords to destroy his brain, just in case some maniac scientist would somehow have the means to revive him.

Takina put the black sword back in her spatial ring and turned to Mikoto. She had no doubts that the sick perverts who ran this experiment had observed the fight, and that there would be consequences. But she felt no regrets.

"You… you just killed… Accelerator." muttered Mikoto, dumbfounded.

"Yes. It had to be done." said Takina. "…Do you see me as a monster?"

"…No." sighed Mikoto, wincing as she touched one of her wounds. "I was ready to kill him myself. It would be hypocritical of me to blame you for it. But you killed Academy City's strongest Esper. Are you really a level 4?"

"That's the ranking the researchers gave me." shrugged Takina. "I won because he was so arrogant and just stood there."

"And you… you healed her. Is this, multi-skill?" whispered Mikoto with a bit of awe.

Takina touched Mikoto's shoulder and healed her. She smiled gratefully as she felt the pain disappear.

"Let's continue this conversation in a more private place. For now, we need to return to the dormitory without the supervisor noticing, and with your little sister."

Mikoto nodded, wincing at the thought of being caught by that woman.

They walked back toward the dormitory, but after a minute, something strange appeared. Mikoto's eyes widened as Misaka 9982 disappeared in a flash of light.

"What happened?" asked Mikoto, worried once again.

"It's fine. She is safe." said Chisato. "We'll explain once we're in the dormitory."

"You better have a good explanation." grumbled Mikoto.

Chisato nodded, and they resumed their walk.

Shortly before they reached the dormitory, Chisato's phone rang.

"It must be Noah. I didn't tell him about the Sisters. The face he must have made!" laughed Chisato as she accepted the call.

"Hi hi, Noah! Not safe to talk here, can you call back in twenty minutes or so?"

"…Okay."

Chisato ended the call.

When they reached the dormitory, every light was off, and there were no signs of activity or human in sight.

"Safe." whispered Chisato, taking a ladder from her inventory. "I let my window open. All we have to do is climb it and gather in my room, and we'll talk about what happened tonight."

Mikoto nodded, but when Chisato was half-way up, she instinctively looked to her left, and froze.

The Supervisor was there, still dressed in her suit, looking coldly at them.

"S-Supervisor-sama!" trembled Mikoto.

"Tche, busted." sighed Chisato as she jumped down from the ladder.

"No even one day here, and you already broke the rules. Are you ready for the consequences?"

"Yes." nodded Takina. "We were warned, and we did break the rules. We will accept the punishment."

The fact that Takina didn't search for an excuse seemed to mollify a little the Supervisor.

"Since this is your first offense, you will report to me after classes tomorrow. You will all clean Tokiwadai's pool. Do not be late."

"A-Again? But Kuroko and I cleaned it three weeks ago." grumbled Mikoto under her breath.

"Do I hear a complaint? It seems you think I should come up with a harsher punishment."

"N-No, not at all!" squeaked Mikoto.

"Yes." nodded Takina.

"And I'm confiscating this ladder." said the supervisor as she took it.

Under her direction, the five girls entered the dormitory by its main entrance and were directed to their rooms. By a stroke of luck, the rooms assigned to Chisato, Takina, Hitomi and Tamamo were on the same second floor than the one Mikoto and Kuroko shared, and close to each other.

"Onee-sama?" asked Kuroko, still half-asleep, as she saw her enter the room. "Why are you dressed like this, and with this cap? You were going out?"

"Yes. And we got caught by the supervisor." sighed Mikoto. "We're on pool cleaning duty tomorrow."

"We?" asked Kuroko, suddenly completely awake and looking hurt. "Onee-sama, are you seeing someone being my back?"

"Don't say something stupid, Kuroko. And since when do we have that kind of relationship? It's, complicated…"

"Then uncomplicate it for me, Onee-sama." insisted Kuroko. "I won't allow you to sleep until you come clean."

"I can't. This isn't…" Mikoto's words were interrupted by a soft knock on the door, barely audible.

Kuroko was the closest and opened the door, ready to berate whoever would attempt to steal her Onee-sama from her. She was surprised to see all four of the newcomers.

Chisato put a finger on her lips in a hush sign, and Kuroko sighed as she let them in. She wanted to hear what they had to say, and didn't want the supervisor to catch them.

"Sorry for intruding." apologized Chisato. "We at first planned to have that discussion with only Mikoto, but after a vote with two yes and two abstentions, we chose to include you as well, Kuroko."

"Include me in what? Surely you're not into…" Kuroko's cheek reddened. "…O-O-Orgies?!"

Mikoto bonked her head.

Takina took the sanctuary from her inventory and placed it on a shelf, ignoring Mikoto and Kuroko's curious gazes. She then teleported everyone inside.

Kuroko's and Mikoto's eyes widened as they saw their surroundings change abruptly. They were in a clearing surrounded by a thick bamboo forest, so dense that she didn't think she would be able to slip through, with a large stone house in the center.

"Let's go inside. Takina will make tea, and we'll explain everything." grinned Chisato.

Mikoto nodded dubiously and followed the others inside, finding that the home seemed much larger than she appeared from the outside.

"So, where is this place? Is this long-distance teleportation?" warily asked Kuroko as they sat down.

"The crystal ball I placed in your room possess an internal dimension, and I just brought us all inside." said Chisato, taking the lead role in the talks. "We can discuss safely here. You aren't aware of it, but there are countless nanites floating in the air all over Academy City, and they allow the individual who created the city to know everything that happens in his territory."

"Really?" frowned Kuroko. "I don't know what is the harder to believe, the nanite thing or the dimension."

Chisato nodded, as this was the expected reaction.

"Proving it is going to be difficult, unfortunately. But we got this information from a reliable source. The same source that told us about the Level 6 Shift project, and the existence of the Sisters. We have four objectives, two of them being related to highly illegal experiments done in Academy City."

"Illegal experiments?" frowned Kuroko.

"There are some disgusting things that happen in the city, away from the public gaze, Kuroko." said Mikoto. "remember three weeks ago, when you scolded me for ignoring you, and I didn't know what you were talking about?"

"Yes?"

"It wasn't me. They used my DNA to create clones of me, using special drugs and techniques to accelerate their growth and teach them some basic knowledge."

"A clone?" exclaimed Kuroko, her eyes wide. "Wait, clones, plural? This is… eheh."

Kuroko started slightly laughing to herself as she imagined being buried into a pile of Onee-sama.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Kuroko!" scolded Mikoto. "Making clones of me without permission is bad enough, but their reason for doing so is so much worse!"

Mikoto told Kuroko everything she had learned that night about the Level 6 Shift project, and Kuroko's expression quickly turned to absolute outrage.

"This is pure evil! Accelerator needs to die!" exclaimed Kuroko.

"Yeah. He's dead, actually. Takina killed him earlier." shrugged Mikoto.

"You did? But you're…"

"Level 4?" shrugged Takina. "We held back a lot during our tests and showed only one of our abilities each. Even Hitomi, currently the weakest of us four, can do body reinforcement, making herself stronger and faster, and she will soon be able to do a lot more."

Hitomi nodded and was about to say something when Chisato's phone rang.

"Ah, it's Noah." grinned Chisato.

"Noah, I'm activating the video call."

"Okay."

When Noah's figure appeared on her smartphone's screen, Chisato could see that he was in a living room, with two dozen Misaka behind him, and many other girls. Some, she did recognize, like Rias or Grayfia. Others, she didn't, but looked forward to seeing them in person.

She nodded and turned the phone toward the others so they could see.

"Noah, and everyone else, let me introduce you to Mikoto Misaka, and Kuroko Shirai. We decided to invite them into our faction, and we're telling them everything."

"I see. It is nice to meet you both."

"Likewise." numbly repeated Mikoto, taking in the view of all her clones staring back. It felt surreal to her.

Kuroko, to Mikoto's relief, kept her perverted side under control as she stared at all the clones behind Noah.

"I called Akeno and Asuka before you, to see if they were the reason ten thousand girls suddenly appeared all over the island. We're scrambling to deal with the logistics. You could have warned me."

"It's my fault." grinned Chisato. "I wanted it to be a surprise! Too bad I couldn't see your face!"

"Yes, too bad." chuckled Noah. "So, you guys are in Academy City, huh? That's not the worst place to be, all things considered. Pretty quiet most of the time. But be careful. Some people over there are dangerous enough to be a threat even to Takina."

"Takina killed Accelerator earlier." said Chisato.

"Oh?"

"I used one of the runic weapons you made for us, and he was stupid enough to let me get close." shrugged Takina.

"I see. Good for you. But there are a handful of individuals with actual combat experience, who won't make the same mistakes. I am mostly thinking about someone like Kaori Kanzaki, the sword saint." replied Noah as he showed the appearance of a girl with long black hair tied in a ponytail by a white ribbon, wearing a torn white t-shirt and blue jeans with a missing leg, and a long sheathed odachi in her hand.

"Ohhhh. She's cute." grinned Chisato. "Should we try to add her to our faction as well?"

"…It would be good if you can, assuming you meet her, but again, be careful. She is strong, and fights with both her odachi and nearly invisible strings. If it comes down to a fight, she won't be as easy to shut down as Accelerator."

"Okay. Anyway, what are you going to do with ten thousand girls in your family now?"

"The girls and I are in the process of making uniforms for them all, with a tag so they can choose a name of their own, if they wish for it. I can't refer to them using their number, it would be just wrong. Thankfully, the fruits and vegetables all over the island regrow almost as soon as they're picked, so hunger isn't going to be an issue. I'm going to work on transmitting my abilities to some of them as soon as possible, and they will in turn help prepare the others to receive them as well. With exponential growth, their lifespan problem should be solved within six to eight months."

"You can solve their lifespan issue?" asked Mikoto, hopeful.

"Yes. All those who acknowledge themselves as my subordinates and sign a soul contract where they swear loyalty to me can share some of my abilities, and one of them is immortality."

"How is that possible?"

"Mikoto." said Chisato. "Noah is a demi-god, the direct subordinate of a Goddess, an actual divinity, and there is almost nothing that she can't do. It makes sense that she would make him immortal, so that she wouldn't have to bother finding replacements every few decades, and Noah eventually earned the right to do the same for his own subordinates."

"A Goddess!" exclaimed Kuroko.

"I'll explain from the beginning."

"If you do not have any more questions for me, I will hang up." said Noah. "We're sort of busy on that side. But feel free to call later if you have any questions."

"Yes, thank you, Noah. Bye." smiled Chisato, ending the call and looking at Mikoto and Kuroko in turns. "Well, that's how things are. The Sisters are going to be well taken care of, and once they are ready, they will do what Noah does, help the innocent and punish the guilty. And we wish to invite you both to join our now very large family, to do the same."

"Sounds like he's doing what my father did. And that got him murdered." sighed Mikoto, thinking furiously. At a glance, it didn't seem like a bad deal. And she wasn't unmoved by the possibility of becoming immortal. And not just for herself. "…Assuming I join your family, will you let me bring my mom as well?"

"Of course. It won't be the first time someone joins the family along with a relative." nodded Takina. "Akeno, as an example, asked Noah to take her mother in as well, so she would never have to watch her grow old and pass away, while she herself would still be forever in her prime."

"I want to know more." said Kuroko. "Can you tell me more about this Goddess, and how you met Noah?"

"Yes. I'll go over things from the beginning." nodded Chisato. "From my point of view, it started when Takina became a workplace comrade along with a girl named Aria. All three of us were officially waitresses at a cafe, but in reality, we were assassins working for the Japanese government to deal with criminals."

"The three of us became close friends, and… Aria eventually confessed to being the Champion of the God Susanoo, just like Noah is the Champion of the Goddess Lilith. She told us that there are countless parallel worlds, and that she came from another Japan…"

Mikoto and Kuroka listened intently as Chisato recounted her story. About being sent to a world that would be co-managed by seven Champions, and how she had become part of Noah's faction in return for having Takina and a few others resurrected. How that world had been sabotaged, and about the existence of the world fragments and the Demonic Pillars. How they were acting as proxies to find and kill the Demonic Pillar on that world, and how the Goddess had given them a few things to do while they waited, like stopping the level 6 shift project, and what little they knew about Misaki Shokuhou and Exterior.

By the end of it, Mikoto felt light-headed. There was so much to take in, and most of it sounded preposterous.

And yet, she had no other explanation for some of the things she had already seen them do, like using multiple powers, or them executing Accelerator without a care for possible retaliation from those managed Academy City.

But she knew that if what they were saying was real, if they were really trying to save many words from destruction, she would do her part and help them. Because she wouldn't be who she was if she turned her back on people in danger.