Chapter 2012: A Certain Scientific Side Story (2)

With Vahn successfully pressuring the Goddess of Reincarnation into granting her request, Mikoto awoke in the middle of the night with a migraine so intense that it caused blood to flow from her nose. This was the result of the original Mikoto's fourteen odd years of knowledge and experience fusing with her own, a surprising burden due to the sheer amount of information processed by the original's brain.

Unlike 'normal' people, it seemed that the original Mikoto possessed a form of synesthesia that aided in her Electromaster abilities. Her brain literally interpreted aspects of the world as a set of numbers and other variables. As a result, simply looking at geometric shapes or angles allowed her to visibly see values such as their angle, radius, diameter, and their approximate distance from her current position. There were also fluctuating lines to indicate the magnetic fields emitted by various objects, fields that both amplified and interfered with her abilities as an Electromaster.

Realizing she had underestimated her original counterpart's mental capabilities, Mikoto sat with her face buried into her hands, palms resting against her eyes in a vain attempt to alleviate some of the wracking her brain. Unfortunately, due to the 'Law of the Assumed Form', a law that mandated that all beings taking a certain form were bound by the weaknesses of said form, her only option was to wait it out. This was an extremely convenient law when you were dealing with Angels and Daemons, but, now that she inhabited a mortal vessel, Mikoto was as susceptible as everyone else to physical ailments and death.

Fortunately, while her power was currently weakened, it was only a matter of time before she broke through such limitations entirely. She was already a Tier 4 entity, so, with a bit of effort, becoming a Magic God wouldn't be terribly difficult. The System she had received virtually guaranteed this, but, before she was able to analyze its functions, Mikoto was startled by a sleepy voice asking, "Sissy...? Did you have a bad dream? Want to sleep with me...?"

Recovering from her shock in an instant, Mikoto did her best to wipe away the blood from her nose before looking towards the owner of the voice, a petite girl with reddish-brown hair, matching eyes, and virtually nonexistent breasts. Her name was Kuroko Shirai, the original Mikoto's self-titled 'Best Friend', a Level 4 Esper, and an overtly perverted girl who constantly looked for ways to reduce the distance between them. This wasn't an exaggeration. Kuroko had basically been sexually harassing the original Mikoto on a daily basis. To make matters even worse, she had been pulling their beds a few millimeters closer with each passing day...

Noticing a few trace amounts of blood around Mikoto's nose, all signs of fatigue vanished from Kuroko's visage as she teleported into the former's bed, exclaiming, "Sissy! What happened!? Did you roll off the bed and hit your face!?"

Having already fused with the original's memories and experiences, Mikoto's body instinctually reacted to Kuroko's invasion, smacking the petite girl in the face as she exclaimed, "I'm fine! Go back to your own bed...!"

Despite having Mikoto's palm pressing against her face, Kuroko didn't immediately obey the order to return. Instead, she went out of her way to lick the former's palm, an action that sent shivers up and down Mikoto's spine as vibrant blue bands of electricity began to emanate from the ahoge on her head. This would have terrified most people, but, in Kuroko's case, Mikoto's electric shocks were actually the reason she was head over heels for the infamous Electromaster. After all, she wasn't just a 'normal' pervert, she was an irredeemable masochist.

Unable to restrain her body's muscle memory, Mikoto ended up sending a moderately powerful current of electricity through Kuroko's body. This caused the young girl to squeal like a pig being slaughtered, but, by the time her body became limp, a somewhat scary smile had developed across her face as she twitched about on the floor. Her state was exacerbated by the fact she was wearing little more than a white blouse and a pair of overtly sexy pink panties that didn't suit someone of her age and stature in the slightest...

Exhaling a sigh, Mikoto 'habitually' threw a blanket over Kuroko's body before nestling against the massive teddy bear her original counterpart often hugged to sleep. This normally would have been enough to help her calm down, but, before she could even think about relaxing and reviewing the functions of her newly acquired system, the giant one-eyed bear tensed slightly before turning its face towards her and asking, "Are you sure about this...?" in a familiar tone.

Recognizing the voice as none other than Vahn, a lot of the tensions in Mikoto's body drained away as she hugged the teddy bear even tighter and answered, "I'll be fine...I'll probably need a few days to get acclimated to things, but, once I do, I should be able to handle most problems on my own..."

Though he was tempted to point out that it was already June 16th, the very day the original Toaru Kagaku no Railgun storyline took place, Vahn knew Mikoto wouldn't have any trouble resolving the Level Upper Arc. After all, she already knew the identities of the people responsible for distributing the drug, so, once she found her footing, a lot of corrupt individuals were bound to get their asses handed to them. If she were going to struggle with anything, it would be keeping her identity as a normal Middle Schooler while trying to resolve city-wide issues that dealt with the darkest parts of society. This would be made easier with the imminent arrival of Summer Break in four days, but, the moment the break ended, she would need to split her time between school, maintaining her social life, and highlighting as a vigilante. This was next to impossible, so, even if his original purpose for being here was to simply watch over here, Vahn was already planning to resolve a number of issues on his own...

(A/N: This will stay up until the next chapter of EPIC is posted.)