"Make sure we bring all the necessary stuff. Only the necessary ones, guys. If you bring so many useless things because of your own desires it'll trouble all of us as a whole group. Do you understand me?"
Takeshi glanced at Misaki as he talked. Misaki who's packing some stuff pulled a face at him.
"You don't need to look at me when telling that."
"Just making sure you heard it."
At a certain room, Mikoto and Touma are helping Blaze packing the necessary stuff to be brought along on their journey to finding the way out of the building.
As Mikoto was rummaging through the drawer beside the queen sized bed, she found two polaroid pictures. Mikoto grabbed one of them and observed it. Blaze, Aika, a girl roughly the same age as Blaze and a woman is seen happily smiling in the picture. She looked at the other one. It showed Blaze and the girl from the other picture hugging his arm cutely.
"Misaka-san, what what are you looking at?"
Mikoto was surprised and immediately raised her head to look at Blaze.
"I'm sorry, I found these pictures and..."
"Oh, these pictures..." Blaze looked at the polaroids on Mikoto's hand. He smiled.
"Blaze-san?"
"These are my most precious belongings."
"Gyaaah sorry for touching it without permission!" Mikoto said panicking.
"Haha, it's okay. I'll let you look at them." Blaze smiled.
"Thank you," Mikoto said relievedly.
"I'm sure you're curious to know about the girl and the woman in the picture."
"Ah, yes... A little bit," Mikoto said grinning guiltily as she caressed the back of her head. She saw Blaze made a wistful expression.
"The woman is my mother and the girl is my girlfriend."
"Ohh," Mikoto nodded. "They're beautiful."
"Erm."
"They must be worried that you and Aika haven't gone home for days." Mikoto thought of her parents, friends and the people in Tokiwadai. They must've been really worried and searching for her right now. Especially a certain teleporter.
"They aren't worried."
"Huh?"
"Well, they can't get worried. They're dead after all."
Mikoto's eyes went wide.
"I'm-I'm sorry, I didn't know—"
"Why are you apologizing, Misaka-san. You've done nothing wrong." Blaze chuckled. A few seconds after that his face turned grim. "It's me who had done them wrong."
Mikoto didn't know what to say to the sad looking Blaze, and what his words meant. She only could stare at him with a blur expression.
"Blaze-san, what should I do about this thing?"
Touma's question made both Mikoto and Blaze turned to him.
"We should focus on packing the stuff up, Misaka-san." Blaze smiled. Then, he went to Touma's side.
But Mikoto couldn't shook the words he just told her off her mind.
༶•┈┈⛧┈♛ ♛┈⛧┈┈•༶
"Everyone must be tired. Take a break for 10 minutes."
Mikoto went to the infirmary room to rest. She figured it would be easier to rest there since no one is going to be noisy like Gunha goofing or Takeshi nagging around. In short, she wanted some alone time where she can be at peace. And she also needed to think about Blaze's words.
"It's me who had done them wrong."
'What does he mean, did he do something to hurt their feelings?'
"Ehem."
Mikoto turned to the direction of the figure who just cleared their throat. At the doorway, stand a pretty blonde girl crossing her arms as she looked at Mikoto.
"... Shokuhou. What are you doing here?"
"I was curious as to where you're going, so I followed you. It's weird you entered the infirmary room. What's up, are you hurt or anything?"
"Nah, just wanted to have some alone time."
"Hmm, is that so. Then I guess I'll go away."
Misaki tried to move away but was stopped by Mikoto.
"You can stay if you want."
Misaki looked at Mikoto.
"I don't really see the need to stay here with you."
"It wouldn't hurt to keep me company."
"You said you wanted some alone time."
"Well, since you're here I guess it'd be nice to have a chat."
"..."
"If you don't want I won't force you."
"Okay then, I guess." Misaki approached and took a seat next to Mikoto on the bed.
"Whoa, I didn't expect you to agree." Mikoto looked surprised.
"I don't have anything to do anyway, so I figured it's okay to kill some time here."
"Not that. I mean... You regard me as your enemy."
Misaki looked strangely at Mikoto.
"What are you talking about? In this situation, we're comrades. We don't have time to bring other personal issues in this matter of life and death."
"Heh, you're surprisingly acting mature."
"I don't want to see you as an enemy after you promised you'd protect me."
Mikoto glanced at Misaki. She had a wistful look on her face.
"Yep, that makes sense. If you act uncivil towards me I'd break my promise."
"Whatever." Misaki rolled her eyes.
"Still, it sure is shocking. We're trapped here with no clue where we are at all." Mikoto sighed.
"Yeah. My clique members must be going crazy searching for me now."
"It's been a few days, they still didn't find you. Even when a lot of the members are so sharp and skilled."
"That's why I suspect we're outside of Academy City. Who knows where that crazy freak took us."
"I really hope we aren't too far from Academy City," Mikoto sighed with troubled expression.
"Same here. Oh and that lesbian friend of yours must be a panicking wreck right now when she realized you're missing."
"Haha, yeah." Mikoto chuckled with a poker face. "What will the Academy City Board of Director do when they realize four out of the seven Level 5 espers are missing? Will they do something to find us?"
"Duh, of course. We're an important part to the nature of espers. Without us they can't find ways to advance their Esper Development Curriculum."
"That's relieving, to know they won't abandon us."
"But I'm confused why those freaks didn't kidnap the Second, Fourth and Sixth. Why didn't they just kidnap all of the Level 5s? Didn't they wanted to make this game 'fun' with Level 5 espers?"
"Maybe the little girl, Kana failed to trick them. You've heard about the Second and Fourth working for dark organizations right? They must be incredibly sharp people." Mikoto is reminded of Mugino who she had encountered back when she is trying to erase all data of the Sisters experiment in a building. Their fight was intense and exhausting, but Mikoto won in the end. "... And they're heartless people, so they won't care if a kid is in trouble."
"Hmm, that makes sense." Misaki leaned back. She glanced at Mikoto and notice the girl looking like she had something in her mind. "Hey, what're you thinking of?" Misaki asked casually.
"... Do you really want to know?"
"Why not."
"It's about Blaze-san."
"Oh. He's cool right? His masculine body is to die for, plus he's so warm and gentle towards other people."
"Right."
"So what's the matter about him?"
"When we were packing things in the room, I found two polaroid pictures in the drawer. The first picture has Blaze-san, Aika-chan, a girl and a woman in it. The second picture has Blaze-san and the girl. Turns out the girl is Blaze-san's girlfriend and the woman is his mother."
"That's all?"
"No. I said they must be worried of him and Aika-chan, and then he revealed that they're dead."
"Really?" Misaki was surprised.
"Yeah. I apologized because I accidentally touched a sensitive topic for him, but he said I've done nothing wrong. Now, here's the part which made me confused with a mixed feeling. He said it was him who had done something wrong towards them. And with a grim expression, on top of that."
"Hmm his response is sure questionable. Maybe he..." Misaki made an expression which continued her words and Mikoto understood it.
"Are you crazy? There's no way he'd do that. This is the guy that you just said is warm and gentle towards other people."
"Obviously I was just guessing, because you never know if a person has a hidden twisted personality in them. Or he was like that at the past but now he's changed."
"I don't even want to consider your ridiculous guess. I'm certain Blaze-san is a good person."
"Okay then. Just be careful."
"There's no need to be."
"Geez, whatever."
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Sorry for the wait! Here's chapter 14 :)