Disclaimer: I still don't own

A Certain Unexpected Meeting

CHAPTER 5

The Infamous Legend of Level 6

"...Don't give me that attitude! Just tell me about it."

Hmm? That was... Onee-sama's voice...?

"'Restricted subject matter" says Misaka because she doesn't want Onee-sama to get involved in this kind of situation."

And another person...

Running down the hall of the abandoned 5-storey building on the first floor was Shirai Kuroko who just stopped on her tracks after hearing voices from the walls that surround her. Her once panicking mind is gradually calming down. The focus of running out of the building took her mind off of the 'accidental incidents' earlier at the top of the said building.

("...Where are those voices coming from?")

"Hey now. To begin with, I'm already involved in this what you call situation... I mean..."

"'How?' inquires Misaka curiously and suspiciously as she notices a slip of words in Onee-sama's statement."

("This... Brick wall... Onee-sama's speaking with someone named Misaka. Misaka...? Misaka's Onee-sama's surname... Probably someone related to her?")

Shirai curiously yet cautiously leaned her ears onto one spot of the cold brick wall. She can clearly hear their conversation.

"Ah... Err... I mean... See here? Accelerator already saw me so-"

("Acce-lerator? Isn't that the strongest Level 5 in Academy City?")

"'Onee-sama is not a good liar.' comments Misaka after analyzing Onee-sama's speech patterns while discreetly looking behind Onee-sama."

("Tch, I'm found already?! This Misaka Imouto seems to be sensitive!") [Note -1]

She immediately withdrew back from the wall and started looking around her to make sure no one was about to ambush her.

("Got to get out of here.")

And with that, Shirai was finally able to teleport out of the building.

Where she teleported to was back at the entrance of the hospital. After experiencing such mind boggling experience, it made her mentally tired. She felt dizzy at some point and she sometimes feel like she wants to vomit in another point. Making sure that her appearance was okay, she entered the hospital and went straight back to Uiharu, who was still sitting in front of the room where the child, who Shirai claims to look like Mikoto, was confined in.

How many minutes was she gone? 43 minutes. Buying juice and water outsife should only take at least 10 to 15 minutes. Her overtime would make Uiharu curious. She needs to come up with some sort of excuse rather than saying she stalked a guy with white hair (she suspiciously suspects it was Academy City's strongest Level 5, Accelerator) and eavesdrop in Mikoto's private conversation.

"Ah, Shirai-san! What took you so long?"

"It's nothing to worry about. I just took a detour to check something out."

"I see..."

"So, anyway, has anyone else come by when I left?"

"Well, Misaka-san came by 5 minutes after you left. Then she left immediately when she found out that you weren't here. She looked like she was in a hurry. She also said that I should call you about it but you won't answer any of my calls."

Ah, so it's Uiharu who almost got me in trouble...

"Hmm? Is something wrong, Shirai-san?"

"No, no. It's nothing."

Shirai sat beside Uiharu with a big sigh. Uiharu's twinkling eyes were hinting that she wanted something.

"So? Shirai-san?"

"What is it?"

"My water."

"Oh, right, here."

"Thank yo- Ah! It's warm! What kind of water is this, Shirai-san?"

She just shrugged Uiharu's complain off as she tries to find the most comfortable position to sit in. Running around, even if you're fit, still tires your muscles.

"How's the child?" asked Shirai nonchalantly.

" Eh? Well, the frog-faced doctor said she's fine. He also said that we can leave."

"Hmm, is that so..."

"Yes, that's the case."

On their right appeared the said frog faced doctor known by not many as Heaven's Canceller. He can heal any wound and anyone as long as the person is brought to him alive. He doesn't care whether the patient is good or bad. As long as he can help, he would help anyone, even the most wanted criminal on Earth.

Even with his 'abilities' to heal any type of wound, he isn't perfect, because he isn't a god. He still has his flaws. A good example would be a certain boy's brain cells. He could not restore them because the cells weren't lost, the cells were destroyed. This resulted into memory lost. Another would be a certain Level 5's brain damage. Even if he was able to cure the main wound itself, he could not fully restore the certain Level 5's ability to properly speak and hear without the help of a certain network.

He may be able to cure almost anything, but he can't cure them once its lost. That's the only flaw he has.

And it should also be remembered, he is Mikoto's "real Gekota".

Shirai stared at the doctor for quite a while. Gekota...huh?

"Is there a problem?" asked the doctor after noticing her stare.

"Ah, it's nothing."

"Anyway, doctor, can we atleast know what the kid's condition is?" Uiharu joined in the conversation, "So that we can also report this to Judgement."

"Sure, sure. This kid's body just suffered shock due to something unknown but I hypothesized it as lightning or electricity. But this hypothesis has a flaw, if she were struck by lightning or electrocuted by electricity, her brain should've suffered more damage than what she has now unless the lightning or electricity was controlled by somthing or someone. Whatever i was, it tried to avoid major damage as much as possible. As a doctor, I find this quite interesting, really."

Shirai stood up.

"Lightning?"

"Yes. This girl is an electric user, or rather, electromaster, I believe. But I can tell that her level is only either 2 or 3. Her current level can not protect her from such powerful hit. And if I may hypothesize again, the reason why she doesn't have clothes is that the lightning or electricity burned it off. It's also a miracle that she didn't suffer any burn on her skin."

This is getting suspicious. This much, Shirai knows. It's really suspicious. How can a little girl be almost unharmed after such powerful hit? Is this girl some sort of god? Or is the lightning, itself, was holding back?

"I would like to ask, doctor. How many volts do you think hit the girl?"

"I'd say probably a hundred thousand."

One hundred thousand. This only means one thing then.

Onee-sama...

"Hmm? Shirai-san, are you okay?" Uiharu also stood up to support Shirai who was beginning to waver.

"Huh, you look beat up yourself, lassy." The doctor commented, "Did you use too much mental energy?"

This doctor... Is extremely sharp and observant. He figured it out in one look.

"Uh, no. I'm alright! I just feel a little bit dizzy, that's all!"

"If you say so..."

"Then doctor, I have one last question. If you were to hypothesize what exactly happened to this girl, what would it be?"

"Now that isn't part of my job. I can't tell anything about my patient's past. Isn't that your job as members of Judgement? And also, to say, I'm just a doctor who helps his patients regain their normal lives before they were hurt."

"I-I see..."

As I thought... I can't trust him for some reason. I feel like he's hiding something from me.

"Shirai-san?"

"Ah, yes, thank you for your cooperation, doctor. We may now take our leave. If someone claims to be a relative of this girl and decides to take her out of this hospital, kindly inform us for confirmation."

"I will do that."

"Thank you."

"Shirai-san, you don't look so good."

"I'm fine Uiharu. So, let's go."

"Ah-! Wait, Shirai-san!"

As Shirai walk past the frog-faced doctor, she once again glanced heavily at him. It's like this doctor has a shadow behind him. Even darker than a normal shadow. Or was he doing it on purpose? She really suspects that this doctor is hiding something.

As soon as Shirai and Uiharu left the floor, someone silently appeared behind the doctor. As soon as he noticed her presence, he sighed and finally, smiled.

"Such troublesome friends you have. I wonder how you are able to go through their persistence. Especially the pig-tailed girl."

"Do forgive them and I'm really sorry for the trouble they caused."

"It's nothing cmpared to what you had been doing all this time. So, what brings you here? Were you worried that I might spill the beans early?"

"Well..."

"You don't need to worry about anything. I won't do anything rash as long as my patients are perfectly healed."

"Ah.. Thank you very much."

"And then, how's your face with Accelerator?"

"It's... I wasn't able to convince him and that girl properly."

"Then do what you think is right. I know your thinking of something right now. But do remember that sometimes, you can always give a few kilogams of that weight on your shoulder to the people around you. You might go through a mental breakdown."

"I can't do that. I don't want to get them involved."

"You're pretty much like your clone, aren't you? Or should I say that they somehow inherited this unique trait of yours? Anyway, just leave the little girl to me. She'll be in safe hands."

"Please make sure she isn't hurt anywhere. I tried my best to... at least, hold back and not cause any damage."

"Hmph. Who do you think I am?"

"I, understand. Then, I will also be taking my leave. Thank you very much."

Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari are once again walking side by side on the familiar side walk near the Game Center Shirai was being eaten up by her thoughts. It was evident on her face as her expression look tense.

Uiharu noticed this ever since they left the hospital. This made her worried. Why is Shirai being swallowed by her thoughts so much? Is it really that serious? And Uiharu was being eaten by her own anxiety. She can't bring herself to ask what was bothering her lately. Something was stopping her from doing so. The atmosphere around the two is getting heavy.

The sky is tinted orange, a very warm color. "It's almost time for curfew. Please go back to your respective dorms as soon as you can," is what the announcement all over Academy City said. But for these two, as members of Judgement, they can stay late at night as long as they submit a proper letter of excuse.

By then, someone very familiar was running towards them.

"U-I-HAAA-RUUUU!"

"Eh?"

And a skirt flipped high enough for everyone in the area to see.

"Ah! Today's white with a Hello Kitty pattern?"

"KYAAAAAAAAA! WHA-WHA-WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING S-S-SATEN-SAN?!"

"Eh? The usual! Hehe! It's just that I can't pass a day without seeing your panties, Uiharu!"

"AAAHH! That's sooo ruuuude, Saten-san! You should stop doing that! It's so embarrassing!"

"What is that I hear? You want people to see your panties even more?"

"Ye- I-I MEAN NOOO!"

"Then your wish is my command! Let the skirt fly!"

"NO NO NO NO! STOP IT SATEN-SAN! HELP ME SHIRAI-SAN!"

Saten Ruiko, Uiharu's classmate in Sakugawa Middle School and the Level 0 of the group. Today, instead of wearing her school uniform, she was clad in a red, three-fourths open jacket with a orange shirt underneath, faded three-fourths jeans, sandals and a small bag hanging from her shoulder. To top off her outfit was her usual white flower hair clip.

Shirai only stood there with a sigh as she helplessly watch the duo do their 'thing'. But after seeing Uihar suffer enough, she decided to break Saten off of her. It's also getting embarrassng for her since many people are starting to watch then, especially men.

"Okay, okay, enough, enough."

"Ehh- Hahaha! I know, I know! I was just bored!"

"Eh?! Then am I just your play thing, Saten-san?!"

"Something like that~"

"Hah?! That's so rude!"

"Hahahaha! I'm just kidding! Just kidding!"

"Really Saten-san..."

Once again, Shirai Kuroko only sighed and said,

"So, what brings you here, Saten-san?"

"Ah! Yeah! I was searching for you guys to tell you something!"

" And that would be...?"

"Don't tell us that it's just another one of those urban legends you heard off."

"It is, but, it's something intriguing! A lot more intriguing that the Level Upper incident!"

"Then, what is it?"

"The Infamous Legend of Level 6!"

"Level... 6?" Shirai knew that most of Saten's legends were only false rumors. Even this 'intruiging' Legend of Level 6 sounds quite fishy. But ever since the Level Upper, Undressing Woman, and "Someone's Watching" incidents, she, sometimes, get the feeling that Saten's rumors aren't always wrong.

"But, isn't the current highest level in Academy City is 5?" asked Uiharu as she tidies her skirt.

"Yup, yup! But this legend refers to someone trying to reach Level 6!"

"Interesting," Shirai commented.

"So! Let's go to a café first!"

"Gakuen Toshi Report: Legend of False 6th Achievement. Alias Legend of Level 6. Academy City, which mostly consists of students, is a city which is 20 to 30 years in advance than the outside world."

Shirai Kuroko, Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko are currently sitting and drinking inside the usual café they go to, Joseph's Coffee and Restaurant. Uiharu, who was sitting beside Saten, started reading the file Saten just sent her, loud enough for the three of them to hear.

"ESP is very common within Academy City. Seeing flying garbage cans, hearing scientific rumors and legends are not rare and/or unusual at all. Since almost all of the students in Gakuen Toshi are espers, the city tries its best to achieve ultimate power. Thus having each school do certain tests and curriculums to increase the students' abilities. Seven out of the 80 million students in Academy City are Level 5 and are ranked accordingly. The most commonly known Level 5 is a Middle School student raised by one of the prestigious middle school in Academy City, Tokiwadai Middle School, and has the alias of 'Railgun', named Misaka Mikoto."

From that point on, Shirai's attention was caught and she started listening more attentively.

"Rumors were heard around Academy City, especially around the School Garden, that a certain research facility was planning to clone a certain Level 5 in order to achieve the impossible, Level 6. After thorough research, investigation and interviews, our group found out that there were many institutes involved in this case. People have seen Misaka Mikoto in various places at once, wearing something which can be identified as military googles."

Shirai immediately remembered something, Military... googles?. Flashes of Mikoto's image from the hospital earlier started running in her mind. Those googles?

"And from then on, it has been concluded by our research team that the Level 5 who was cloned was none other than Tokiwadai's Railgun, Misaka Mikoto."

"W-Wait a second. Clone? Onee-sama? This isn't making any sense!" protested Shirai as she stands up. It caught the other customers' attention.

"Hear the whole story first, Shirai-san! Also, this is just a legend. It's not 100% true and it's also not proven." said Saten in an attempt to calm Shirai down. Eventually, Shirai sat down with her arms crossed, her eyebrows showing off anger and instead of protesting, she just sighed.

"So... Let me continue. Umm... Where was I again?" Uiharu started going up and down the webpage on her portable terminal, trying to find where she left off, "Ah, there it is."

"Though this is just a hypothesis, we can say that our intuition is 50% correct. To confirm our thoughts, we had interviewed an ice cream man who sells the best ice creams around Academy City, claiming that he saw and talked to the Misaka 'Twins' once. After hearing his explanation, our research team did a minor family background research about Misaka Mikoto even if it's against our will to do so. That was when we found out that Misaka Mikoto is an only child. Therefore contrasting the ice cream man's statement. This result heightened our curiosity even more."

And a side comment from Shirai was heard, which Uiharu and Saten tried to ignore, "Tch, checking other people's backgrounds without permission is a crime. They should be arrested for such act. Especially for researching about Onee-sama's family background!"

"Every night, people said that they hear explosives, weak screams, and gun fires in dark alleys but no one was brave enough to figure out what was going on. Our research team gathered enough courage to try and look into the alleys one night. But we only found a pair of broken military googles that was last seen on Misaka Mikoto's forehead. We cannot further investigate the situation due to the tightness of security by Anti-Skill. One night, a phenomenon occured. The windmills around Academy City started rotating backwards. This can only happen when a certain electromagnetic wave is being directly absorbed by the windmills instead of being blown by the wind as said by one of our members who was an electromaster. One of our members went outside his dorm and he claimed to had seen Misaka Mikoto near the windmill. This speculation is uncertain because of the darkness. "

Is that the real reason why Onee-sama doesn't come home all this time? Then why was she doing that?

"This issue that happens every night lasted for months but recently, it stopped. This halted our investigation. Our last approach was to interview students who heard and/or saw the incidents. Most of them said that there were battles everynight at a certain time. Some of them say that the objective of this battles were to kill 20000 Railgun clones in order to achieve Level 6. None of these statements were proven at all. Therefore this research will remain as an urban legend called Legend of the False 6th Achievement. By Smith Research Group."

The three remained silent for a while as Uiharu catches her breath after reading the report aloud. Shirai broke a sweat and looked tense. The atmosphere around the trio became heavy. Only Saten felt this. Both Shirai and Uiharu were still reflecting on what they just heard/read.

("Th-This is... 20000?")

Saten finally broke the awkward silence.

"Yes. The Infamous Legend of Level 6! Even though it's just a legend, it sounds so real, right?"

"But... 20 thousand Railguns? Clones? Is this some kind of a joke?"

"I don't really know, Shirai-san. When I asked Misaka-san about this when we were in the Game Center, she immediately changed the topic. Like she was avoiding it for some reason."

"O-Of course Misaka-san wouldn't want to hear a legend that involves her, Saten-san." Uiharu interrupted, "Nobody likes it when someone makes a legend out of them especially if it sounds negative."

"Ah, is that so? If it were me, I'd be happy when someone makes a legend about me! Right, Shirai-san?"

"Ah, yeah..."

"Hmm? Shirai-san? Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah! I'm fine! And wait a second, Saten-san. Where did you find this file? Isn't this some private report?"

"Ah, it was from a hidden download link from some public blog about power development."

"Really?"

"Huh? ... Ah! It's true Shirai-san! I'm not a computer geek like Uiharu! I can't simply hack something or anything at all!"

"That's true."

"Wait- Who are you calling computer geek?!"

"I mean super hacker!"

Uiharu grunted but sighed in the end. Then, she suddenly remembered this rumor. She heard this before.

"Anyway, I think heard of this rumor before. From Konori-senpai. Back then, it was a normal rumor. I never thought some people would actually research about it and make a legend out of this."

"Uiharu did? Then why didn't you tell us before?!" Saten showed her disappointment.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just thought that this would not be a good topic in a conversation especially around Misaka-san!"

"Well that's true- but you should've at least told me!"

"But then, Saten-san would go around and spread the rumor like wild fire!"

"What? I wouldn't do that!"

"Oh really?"

"Yes really!"

The two were yet again arguing with something so simple. Shirai only sighed at the duos actions as her mind wanders off to her own world. Moments later a waitress of the café with blond hair came to their table.

"Um, excuse me but, uh, can you please keep it down? You're kind of disturbing the other customers. Oh and please do remember that it's almost curfew."

Shirai immdiately stood up and in behalf of Saten and Uiharu, she apologized.

"Ah yes, yes. I'm sorry about my friends and we will also go sometime soon."

Satisfied with Shirai's answer, the waitress left with a smile on her face. Shirai sat down and grimaced at the two noisy friends she's with.

"Really. Arguing at this time of the day. We should just head to the office and talk about this with Konori-senpai."

"Sounds good to me!"
"Okay!"

[Note-1] Since Shirai doesn't know who Misaka 10032 is, she called her "Misaka Imouto" instead of 'Onee-sama's little sister' or something like that knowing that somehow, Misaka 10032 is Mikoto's real sibling because 10032 calls Mikoto, "Onee-sama" which can also be used to call your older sister, other than 'Onee-chan', 'onee-san' or 'ane-san'. Reference to the way Touma calls 10032.

Note that Shirai doesn't use the term 'Misaka Imouto' in the original anime, light novel, nor manga since she doesn't know the existence of the SISTERs in the first place. I just made it up for this fanfic.

Also, Gakuen Toshi = Academy City.

Author's Note:

Ah, I never thought I would be writing this chapter THiS long and THiS early. This is why I don't like writing long ones. I almost forget about the length of one chapter.

So, I'm forced to break this down into little pieces and do a re-write. Shirai's reaction about the legend isn't quite what I expected but this calm reaction somehow pictures Shirai not believing the legend at all. This fact makes it more...um... I don't know what term to use. I just thought of something good right now for this story. Though I'm not telling what it is. It has something to do with Shirai and Mikoto.

Anyway, thank you for the reviews, views, faves, follows and visits! I hope you stay and bear with me with regards this story!

P.S. If you want hints regarding the next chapters, check my profile. I kind of update it with regards the next chapters whenever I can.