If someone was remotely familiar with the level 5s in Academy City were to be asked what the defining personality of the fifth ranked Mental Out was, the answer would most likely be paranoid, for someone ranked among the top of the empowered espers the average city resident would have trouble even imagining a threat that could ever oppose the omnipotent level 5s.

It was thoughts like these that Shokuhou Misaki found very irksome, if these people knew what lied behind that innocent face of their beloved city it would be enough to make them cringe just to walk down a back alley. It couldn't be helped, what was actually perfectly reasonable precautions looked like more than a slight case of paranoia from the perspective of the ignorant masses.

To live in Academy City, a place that advertised to be able to empower people with abilities beyond common sense, the peak of humanities potential seemed more like a time bomb that go off at any time.

It was almost amusing seeing the population so eager to try and yearn to become one of the legendary level 5s completely unknowing about any of the risks going with it yet alone be prepared to have any countermeasures ready at all.

For the so called "overly suspicious" Mental Out still had a fall back measure, a little something that she thought she would never use but was put in as a "just in case" scenario. After such a troublesome incident happened yesterday, she would normally cut her losses from directly engaging the enemy, subtly planning suggestions into the law enforcement to go after the opposition in her steed. None the less, this time was different, Shokuhou Misaki needed to see this event to its conclusion.

The Queen of Tokiwadai was playing with her new toy, a tracking feature that she managed to plant on one of her adversaries of that night or more accurately inserted into her, several hundred near microscopic tracking beads, made by Academy City's hidden research labs, amazing what one could fit inside say... a syringe. On the current settings, exactly every fours hours the beads would emit a special radio wave that could be picked up.

Employing this device to actually track down someone was a first for the girl, if there was normally a person worthy enough that she would need these measures in the first place the girl would rather repurpose the device more to evade the individual entirely.

It was an aggravating day. Something the mages unanimously felt wasn't helped by the frequency of their unwanted guests. A near daily event of what was supposed to be a very rare occurrence was not something they expected to happen. It didn't take an idiot to figure they were being tracked in some way, still the problem was how. Magic was very versatile and could probably solve this problem if they applied it, the problem was that they didn't know the how they were suppose to use it. Their group, like the majority of mages, were slightly lacking knowledge in technology use, unable to figure the exact method their enemy was utilizing to track them they were unable to perfect a complete counter against it until they figured more knowledge about it.

The magic users admitted to themselves that it was a mistake to be as overconfident as they were beforehand, from the results that came about denial wasn't something they could afford to have. Putting a little more effort into their security was a given, some extra sensor spells, unable to be detected unless the one was familiar with magic, was a given, in any threat approached the area the prior warning the magic sent out was enough for the magic users to prepare before their pursuer arrived.

This technique had proven a vital asset as the spell sounded the alarm bells within the mages' heads. The spell was worth all the effort it was to put up, sensing the arrival of enemies in the immediate area closing in on their position.

It was once again time to release their secret technique, their superior mobility and the small agile group, the infamous dubbed tactic known as "Strategic Retreat". Utilizing their speed, the high performance technique of packing up their camp and leaping out of the window was executed. Running away as its finest, with their supplies and all with them and without leaving a trace, the enemy didn't even get a glimpse of them as they left the area undiscovered,

Avoiding confrontation right now was a necessity, though lacking in numbers the small group of magicians made it up with mobility, their team of four was able to leave the area within a minute after sensing an enemy. They just needed to relocate their temporary base to another location, something they planned to do regularly anyway, however not this frequently as they were doing lately.

The mages did not properly possess the resources to come out uninjured if they were forced into a battle with an unknown adversary, even if they won, the odds were that the damages they would sustain would be enough to fatally cripple their mission. That said, the game of "hide and seek" wasn't their ideal image of success either.

Having to relocate everytime the were discovered was hindering their progress, It wasn't enough to put their plan in jeopardy, far from it, but time was certainly wasted and more importantly it was an annoyance, though recklessly attacking their pursuers without a plan would amount to suicide.

The situation would have to remain as if for now. As much as they would like to counter attack they had too little information about their enemies, a successful ambush against such an enemy relied on prior knowledge of their abilities at least for a chance at victory, but as soon as they got that knowledge things would have to change soon.

"Is there something bothering you?"

That phrase had become common lately, almost to the level where one might be sick of it. Trying to disguise her worries had become futile as of late.

To be more specific, Kuroko Shirai had be more stressed than normal lately, ever since the rumors of several kidnapping incidents started appearing, it wasn't the case itself that was causing the young woman to worry but the something else with it that sowed the seed of uneasiness inside her, it was alongside the kidnapping problem her roommate, her onee-sama, her beloved goddess had suddenly decided to take a sudden leave of absence. Sure, on her phone logs there was a message from Misaka informing her she wouldn't be around for a while.

It was a nice gesture, it just wasn't enough to stay her mind. It was just an ambiguously worded text message after all.

Misaka Mikoto had temporarily disappeared from the daily life of the Judgment teleporter, without even any forewarning, all she had was a simple goodbye and her Onee-sama was gone before she even had the chance to beg her to take her Kuroko with her. The travesty of it of all, denial was the first stage when it happened, the girl became despondent to the outside world, barely answering the calls of her classmates.

It wasn't as if the all powerful electric esper could ever be kidnapped herself though, she was far above such concerns, but still she couldn't completely squelch the tiny bit of doubt in her mind. It really was something that this just had to happen at the same time as kidnappers had to coincidentally show up.

With the proper conditions, the message itself could after all been forged or perhaps her Onee-sama had dropped her phone while kicking one of Academy City's infamous vending machines causing some deviant to pick up the device and decide to pull such a vile prank.

Not to mention there was always the most miniscule of chance... No...

It was ridiculous, a stupid thought that was not even worth considering, an impossible scenario with chances less than 0.01% of anything being remotely possible...the whole idea was laughable...ridiculous...stupid...and yet...

The young Judgment member had felt a small foreboding feeling on the edge of her consciousness, it wasn't as if the girl believed that such a crazy possibility was possible, but still, if the was even an atom sized possibility it concerned her beloved electric esper it was irritating enough to gnaw at her piece of mind, this troublesome feeling that wouldn't go away until the teleporter had over 500% certainty that the incident in no way involved her roommate.

"It's probably just the stress from not seeing Onee-sama for a few days" the young girl softly muttered to herself. "Yeah, a small little worry just because she hasn't contacted me in a while doesn't mean anything...but still...why hasn't Onee-sama contacted me though, kind of weird isn't it?"

Kuroko took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, she was fully aware how this would turn out if she continued with her thought train, whittling down her own nerves was not something she needed in the immediate future.

The teleporter tried to forcefully clear her mind, calming herself down, deep long breaths and convincing herself with logic how such a thing could never occur in reality. The method worked well enough, in a few seconds her face was the picture of serenity, an aura of grace could be felt surrounding her, so much so that one would hardly notice her hands betraying her expression as they were fumbling through her pockets for her phone.

"It is just to be sure, were friends, friends have the right to worry about each other, just a little friendly check up, that is all it is." the girl softly whispered to herself as she finished scavenge herself for small communication device.

It didn't take more than a second before the teleporter had the phone to her ear, in a moment she would hear her precious, oh so wonderful Onee-sama's voice scolding her harshly for calling for such a stupid reason, the bliss of being reprimanded was sure to eliminate even the more annoying insecurities planted within her heart...if the only the voice on the phone didn't inform her that the recipients phone was not currently in service that it.

"Hehehe" the sound of Kuroko Shirai lightly laughing to herself. "Oh well, it was a good effort, besides this doesn't prove anything at all, it's probably Onee-sama turned off her phone because of bad connectivity of something trivial like that"

Sweat, perspiration, the teleporter ignored all the small droplets of moisture that was rapidly sprouting from her skin, it was all well and good, all she had to do was type out a message asking her goddess of lightning to call her back as soon as she had the chance.

That was enough, the young girl immediately felt relief after pressing the button sending the message on its way, fully confident that it would be answered within a day. Really, that was all it took to relieve the fatigue away, ridding herself from the stress was simply such a divine feeling, so much so that the girl just had to do it again... and another once more, and then maybe another time, such a blissful feeling, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to be categorized as a newly discovered peak of therapy.

he morale among the small magic group was nowhere near as high as it could be, this chase seemed to amount to no more than a game of hide and seek but for now this would have to do.

Results were still techniquely successful abeit not at the quickly as she hoped it would be but there was little that could be done to improve it at the moment, a direct assault would probably end in failure by being overwhelmed by enemy numbers, traps and deceptions were okay now and again but looking at long term they were losing to much resources to set those up. The mage's enemies full numbers were unknown to the group so for now they would have to assume they have unlimited amount of human resources.

Utilizing their speed advantage over their adversarie's larger yet slower group by simply fleeing whenever the enemy got close enough was fine as results go, but still, this whole situation didn't give the magic user in a good mood, personally the mage Mizar favored a more direct approach rather than a hit and run tactic even if it was a suicidal move. The only thing stopping her was the knowledge that consequences and risk far outweighed what they stood to gain.

At this rate the magic users needed some miraculous strategy to fully counter the enemy force, with the way this mission was going it would likely turn into a battle of information. A small hit on the enemy's weak point was all they need to either eliminate them or remove them completely, or course the reverse was entirely possible as well.

For now the magician group had decided have to give information retrieval a higher priority.

The first objective before raiding a building was scouting, easy enough, merely near basic magic. Some well placed sensor spells was already enough to full several books worth of information about the city, Academy City security was so inexperienced dealing with magic that one would almost think it was a trap with how trivial it was to spy on them, it wasn't as if the science side had any of the counter spells to stop them or any instruments that could even detect magic.

Searching the possible blind spots, the rate people came and left, the number of stairs leading up to the next floor, all the information at the convenience of magic spell.

The citizens of their sworn enemy of Academy City sure were lax or was it some twisted form of arrogance, this was the opinion once the magic users first discovered the city wide curfew that this so called "Judgment" had to abide by, empowering a large group of people only to put the restraints their on them at night, did they really have that much faith that their technology backed up with only basic law enforcement was enough to deal with threats. Not that they were complaining however, something like a curfew could certainly help say a kidnapper who knew how to work it to their advantage.

But for the moment, that potential would have to wait, there was an objective more important to accomplish here, namely stealthily infiltrate the building, obtaining all possible information about her pursuers and compromise any data on their small mage group. If it all goes precisely as planned it would be done before daybreak and nobody would be ever the wiser.

The electric user was staring at the screen, the hesitation caused her to hover her finger over the button. A slight sense of guilt, knowing how her roommate would feel it she knew where she was or rather who she was with, well, it wasn't as if she planned to inform the teleporter about her latest exploits anyway, it was better that way, for both of them.

Even procrastination had it's limits. The phrase echod in her head Misaka Mikoto stared at the screen of her phone, or to be more specific the long list of missed calls and messages left by her roommate. It didn't take living it the same room with that person to pick up that she had some...troublesome traits, but from the looks of things that girl had broken her record for the sheer amount of notes that been sent to her to the electric esper's phone.

Misaka had been hoping to avoid as much communication with her roommate as possible or at least put it off until her trip was over. Needless to say, if she made the slightest slip up leading to her borderline stalker detecting a hint of where the level five was and more importantly who she was with, safe to say nobody would like to be within distance of the outcome.

The image of her roommate in her mind, the Railgun had hoped to restrict their communications to mostly messages, the perverted teleporter was oddly perceptive at times, well as a member of "Judgment" she had ought to be, still the point was that the Level 5 wasn't entirely confident she could keep all the extra details of her little trip hidden if put on the spot, messages could reviewed but one mistake here could trigger a lot of unwanted complications.

Well judging how erratic her roommate was by the rate of mail in her phone it was probably something more than an usual report of her delusions of her "Onee-sama"... probably. The Tokiwaai Ace knew that she was more or less avoiding her junior's calls more than usual but with this situation it couldn't be helped. It couldn't be helped, it looked like calling her was inevitable, if the messages were this persistent it was almost certain it was important.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself and mentally brace from the unknown, and then all it took was a simple press of a button on here phone.

"ONEE-SAMA!"

...Of course...

The effect was immediate, before what could barely pass as the first ring could finish, the incoming cry that could startle the average middle-schooler ringed in the ears of the receiver.

"Ahh! Kuroko!? What!?" the Tokiwadai Ace panicked a reply before another sound could be fired.

"Ah...eh...Onee-sama..." the voice was suddenly mumbling over the phone as if the teleporter was unsure of how to proceed. "Ahem, Onee-sama you err...your calling because you saw my message on your phone, correct?"

"Of course, it's not like I can ignore when a friend is telling me to call them like that, so tell me what is going on?"

"Well Onee-sama, this is a very delicate situation, I just want to make sure of something"

"Okay, I'm listening" the level five could feel some of her muscles tense at the anticipation. Her roommate was certainly...erratic, more than usual at any rate.

"Onee-sama" Kuroko Shirai's voice calmly came through. "Remember when you said we should get matching lace underwear, did you say wanted them in black or white?"

It was as if time was momentary stunned for Misaka Mikoto. A new power unlocked through the strength of disbelief... not quite.

"...eh?"

"Did you want our underwe..."

"Kuroko!? Not that! I mean! What the!?" the older girl felt a sudden jolt of frustration that words right now wasn't enough to express it. "I definitely don't remember doing anything remotely like that and doubt I ever will! Don't tell me you arranged this whole thing just to do a weird joke!"

The third rank level five yelled defiantly over the phone, continuing until she hit the human limitation of breathing to hear a sigh of relief in return.

"Ah, that's my Onee-sama that I love and adore," by the tone of the voice alone it seemed the teleporter had seemed the teleporter had ignored her protests. "Oh, that was just a small joke I did on a whim, just to make sure that your not an imposter or something like that"

"What? A test on a whim? Is there really a situation where you need to do that or is that an attempt as an excuse?"

"Ahaha, though I am ashamed to say it, it just seems I guess the extra Judgment work lately has made me a bit paranoid"

"Well these things happen now and then I suppose, though try to take a break if you can, working yourself up that much won't help anybody."

"I'll keep that in mind, But more importantly Onee-sama there is a question that Kuroko has been holding in for a long time now"

The level 5 let out a sigh, she knew what was coming next.

"Onee-sama! Where are you!"

Just as expected.

"Onee-sama, the message you sent me only had eleven words on it, "I'll be gone for a while, please take care of it", even for your loyal and trusted herald, to receive such a message out of the blue like that and nothing else of course even Kuroko would be tense with that little information."

The voice proceeded to speak in a rushed tone. Was her friend hyper-ventilating? No probably not. Moving on, calming the erratic teleporter down seemed right.

"Ah, was that how it was, I could have sworn I out more into that message, listen I was in a bit of a rush when I typed that thing, I guess I might have glossed over the fine details, sorry"

The level 5 tried to calm her roommate through persuasion and a little reasoning.

"I guess it's fine as things go, since it's Onee-sama I'm sure there was a valid reason if you had to do it that way, more importantly, where are you Onee-sama?"

"Well..." the electric girl slightly hesitated. "I'm somewhere in England apparently"

"Onee-sama? You left the country without telling Kuroko?"

"Errr, it was really sudden, you know, something came up, ummm, Academy City needed a level 5 there so I was there and I had to go in a hurry"

"Oh, is that what happened?" Shirai replied with hollow cheerfulness. "Well these things would happen, since Onee-sama's mere presence gives out such radiance it can't be helped that everybody would want your guidance"

"Yeah, something like that, anyway more or less it's a secret classified thing so I can't really go over details right now." The older girl slighted hesitated "So ummm, how has things been for you lately"

"Well in one way in looks that I am going to be fairly busy for a while, a new situation turned up recently and I have to admit I've fairly curious about it"

"Hmmmm, by the way this situation, did it have anything to do with your messages earlier?"

"Eh, well not really that was a different matter actually, how can I put this?" the teleporter . "A Judgment and Anti-Skill situation got me a little worked up and I might have overacted abit"

"Eh? Was it something that had to do with me?"

"It's more like Kuroko was just worried, since you weren't around I thought something might have happened, but it's in the end it was just needless worry."

"Hey, if you wouldn't mind, could you spare me a few details, when you put it like that I can't help but get a little curious over it"

"Well, I guess a basic outline wouldn't hurt" "Let's see, well to begin with a sudden rise of missing persons reports have skyrocketed recently, from the reports it appears they share the location of around School Gardens and the surrounding areas, judging from the frequency it is safe to assume that this is probably a series of kidnappings rather than the possibility of simply getting lost"

"As a result that's why you sent me those messages earlier?"

"Well we don't have anything conclusive that is definitely a serial kidnapping , it's going to be treated as much soon anyway, from the looks of it, it will probably be changed to strictly an Anti-skill matter without involvement from Judgment. Well that's the general gist of it anyway"

From the sound of it the Railgun thought that assigning the event to Anti-Skill was reasonable, something as big as a wide kidnapping wouldn't be assigned to a student oriented task force, not openly at least.

"As for me, I'm not really personally involved in it, so Kuroko doesn't know much else other than that, does that satisfy you enough Onee-sama?"

"Ah, I see, well thanks alot," Misaka let out a sound of a mixture of relief and annoyance "Just to make sure, you said your not involved in this thing right?"

"It appear's so, to be honest, right now I unfortunately have time to investigate the case even if I wanted to, my workload has increased lately and the branch is going through some reorganization you see"

The morning weather today was simply radiant, by normal standards a day like this one had far surpassed the feeling of being bright and cheerful, however located by a certain Judgment branch, a small group of onlookers seemed to not share the sentiment.

If one would like the classify the general emotion of the group "happiness" would definitely not be chosen, "sadness" would be slightly closer but would still be incorrect, more accurately the feeling would be more closer to a mixture of "aghast", "frustration" and "worry".

Standing in front of the group, or this case not standing at all, was what was once was the proud 177th branch reduced to what was akin to a ruins. The building which had become a part of their everyday life, had vanished in an instant with the slightest warning.

This wasn't natural, something sturdy, fully maintained and built with the technology of the most advanced city in the world was not something so fragile that it would succumb to just a simple collapse. A average accident, even one caused by an esper, wasn't something that could eradicate the building so cleanly.

At first glance the most probable suspect was a random thug over confident with his power taking some weird drug, it was often enough that in Academy City that some low-life gets a little power boost and develops a god complex, the self proclaimed "invincible" or something like that. If this was the case the reason would be similar to giving the middle finger to authority, declaring themselves above the law so to speak.

The next likely scenario was that this was some form of revenge, maybe a group of Skill-Out lashing out armed with a grudge but only had the intelligence to manage petty vandalism as a form of vengeance.

Well this was all based on surface appearances for now, it was hard to believe someone would intentionally do something so reckless, to go as far to incur the wrath of Judgment was not a wise decision for any law breaker.

if it was simple thievery there were much simpler places to be looted, it wasn't as if student run system was offered any specialized equipment compared to the latest ground-breaking technology scattered all over the city.

At any rate the possibilities were endless, without any further evidence to make a basis on, there was no telling if any of these scenarios were anywhere close to the real truth.

Regardless the reality before them was a scene of destruction and mayhem, all the terror of war was fully preserved and condensed into the small area of wreckage, or at least that was the impression it left onto the onlookers.

For the lighter side, there didn't seem to be any casualties, no loss or life or injuries had been confirmed as of yet.

Sorting through the rubble and debris wasn't what Uiharu Kazari pictured she would be doing this morning, in fact she had expected a completely mundane day, going through an average yet fulfilling daily adventure of school, work and spending time with her friends, sure a problem might arise or two however she expected more along the lines of her skirt being flipped or supporting her fellow Judgment members.

However it wasn't long before fate had erased her easy going smile she had worn only a few hours ago.

Dust, slabs of concrete, pipes, girders, those objects fashioned as they had just appeared from a war zone surrounded her. The young girl right now was sorting through the remains of building trying to anything surviving the wreckage, as far as it was known it appeared there were actually no casualties, therefore the incident was currently classified as an act of vandalism only.

The level 1 girl was just randomly moving the wreckage about, right now she and several and her colleagues were also seeking for clues among the rubble, getting any worthwhile items that could be saved, making a record of what they discovered and looking for any signs of the perpetrator, as a representative of the 177th branch of Judgment, this was something she had to do.

Utilizing the latest technology to scan the area and perform the basic analysis, soon this first task would be over and she would be temporarily be reassigned to work at another branch until building could be restored to a acceptable standard again.

Her thoughts passed over the mystery instigator of this destruction, truly an enemy that should be brought to justice, but that was for later, right now she had to seal her feelings of wrath, as long as nobody was in immediate peril recovering and stabilizing her branch's resources took precedence, this was the best way she could aid her allies, especially a certain level 4 esper who wasn't the type of person to take things passively.

The whereabouts of her fellow Judgment member and friend currently alluded her, earlier claiming she had something to do and vanishing away before anyone could deny her, come to think of it that had been a while ago and her friend had still had yet to return, not that it was surprising though. It was just a feeling but without any evidence, esper power or messages, Uiharu knew her friend well enough to hazard guess what she was up too.

Not that the dark haired girl was actually surprised, she already suspected that her friend would probably keep her phone off for a while if she was doing anything resembling near what her friend thought she would do in this situation.

It was all well and good that knowing her friend was all for the law, justice and protection of the community, but if only there wasn't that habit of taking things to the extremes.

Really, making your friends stress with worry whenever the teleporter did something like this, and in the end the worry is almost always unnecessary, which the level 4 always seemed to emphasize, accomplishing her goals with a grin of victory.

And meanwhile all the level 1 girl could do contribute right now was weave through this debris. Stuck with this menial chore now that her technical equipment had ceased to function.

Speaking of which, more than a few of Shirai's personal belongings appeared to have survived the incident, hopefully the spatial movement esper would be back soon to pick them up if she had the chance... but it was fairly obvious that the teleporter wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.

As expected, dialling her number, messages through text, failure to communicate. There was the option to just wait and try again later, whenever later was. It would be nice if her friend made it back before her belongings were shipped and stored in some desolate room in a random Judgment building somewhere.

No choice then, scrolling through her list of contacts she directed her thoughts to the roommate of the person she couldn't reach, a certain electric esper who shared the same living space, it gave her a slight sense of guilt interrupting her the older girl's daily life, but the sooner the items were returned to their rightful owner the better.

Dialing the number of her friend Misaka Mikoto, she hoped the older girl wasn't busy with some other task that required neglecting her phone.

Her momentary concerns proved false however as the phone was answered by the fifth ring accompanied with a earnest greeting.

"I wanted to ask if Misaka-san wasn't too busy today, you could drop by and pick up something for Shirai-san since I can't get a hold of her right now."

"Ummm, that's kind of impossible right now," Mikoto slowly answered. "I'm on leave from Academy City right now, errm, didn't Kuroko tell you?"

Uiharu adjusted her flower head band as she recalled Shirai's actions the past few days, it was true that she sensed that something might be troubling her colleague, she was almost non responsive and they didn't have a chance to ask about it before this incident came up,

"Umm, no, not that I can remember anyway, we have been so busy with duty lately so we didn't have much of chance to talk lately... But on leave huh? How did that happen"

"Well it's a long story, I'll tell you another time, right now I'm stuck in England, I'll pick you up a souvenir, want anything in particular?"

"Hmmm, well..if I have the chance can I think about it?." the small voice came to a short pause, "Can I come back to you on that later, if I can salvage a working computer I can find out look up something quickly"

"Err, did you mention something about salvaging something?"

"Yeah, you heard about it from Shirai-san before right?" a bit of a nervousness crept into the voice. "A few things Shirai-san's possessions survived the rubble so I thought I could return it to her"

The electric esper felt something off, the words "salvaging" and "rubble" weren't exactly the type of descriptions she wanted associated with here friend.

"Errr, I'm sorry I might have heard something a bit off, what's this about rubble and surviving, did something happen I wasn't aware of?"

"Um, was it perhaps something I wasn't supposed to say?" Uiharu felt a cold sweat creeping on her neck, this was never a good sign, an instinct developed through the job was telling her to be careful about her next words.

"Something happened didn't it?" There voice came calmly yet cold after a slight pause, it was amazing how that small pause of silence could contain such a big ominous aura.

"Err, well maybe, a small thing, hardly worth mentioning at all...probably" the Judgment girl hoped perhaps it wasn't to late to feign obliviousness.

"Probably? I see... Is that so...?"

Uiharu almost wanted to bite her tongue, she knew her friends enough to see enough how this would turn out, with the only other option prolonging the inevitable, Uiharu figured that there was no helping it and had no choice but tell Misaka everything she wanted to hear.

"Okay, I get the general picture, so tell me what's everybody on the branch doing now?"

It did not take more than a few minutes if explaining before the older girl had the general idea down.

"Let's see, if I remember right Konori-sempai is delegating with higher ups, Shirai-san said something about an errand she had to do and would be back shortly and Saten-san is helping me dig through the rubble."

''Hm, you say Kuroko left on an errand, do you know anything specific? Knowing her, she might have run ahead herself tracking this mystery vandal."

''Well to be honest, I thought that as well, she's done pretty similar things before after all. But even if she did she should be able to handle the situation herself."

The 3rd ranked level five furrowed her eyebrows in contemplation, it was true enough, her roommate was known to be more than capable dealing single-handedly with the typical crisis that occur in Academy City, with her level 4 teleporting ability Kuroko was versatile enough to handle almost any situation and if not could leave the location within the blink of an eye.

It wasn't as if the she had no faith in the younger's girls abilities, she really did believe in her more than anyone, it was just her reckless habit of charging head first into situations like these, a little bit of paranoia for her friend should be justified enough.

Well doing anything right now would probably be overacting, her friend was smart enough to know what she was doing, it was probably the frustration on not being told earlier about the incident from Kuroko when she called before more than anything. Forcing herself to calm down, Misaka Mikoto resolved to push her frustrations down, at least until she reunited with her beloved roommate when she got back to Academy City.