Chapter 15: They Smiling In Your Face, Those Backstabbers

Date: August 7, 2009

Following the Poltergeist incident, Misaka and I wound up wondering whether or not Kiyama was once again involved.

Kuroko wound up reminding us both that Kiyama was still in custody.

Well, she was supposedly still in custody at last check.

Kuroko instead suspected, through some form or another that Erii was the somehow the cause of the poltergeist incidents.

Since most of the Poltergeist attacks had been occurring at places that Erii had been.

Misaka, myself and Kuroko wound up doing a clandestine background check on Erii.

And we wound up learning, that despite being a Level-2 telepathic esper, she could actually exhibit Level-4 powers under certain catalysts.

Uiharu who was unaware of any of this, took Erii to the park, where Erii wound up explaining to Uiharu that she had been looking for a childhood friend.

Erii then wound up going into another trance, and a violent Poltergeist attack then wound up occurring at the park.

Uiharu, once Misaka, me and Kuroko had arrived at the park, had become angry at Kuroko for suspecting Erii as the cause of the poltergeist attacks.

So Therestina performed some tests on Erii at the MAR Base Research Laboratory in order to ultimately prove her innocence.

Upon her waking up, Erii explained to everyone that she seems to fall into a trance upon her hearing the voice of her friend, Banri Edasaki, who as it happened was apparently another telepath.

When Erii showed everyone a photo of Banri inside her pendant, me and Misaka then each displayed a look of shock.

I then turned my attention to Misaka, and sure enough, I felt as though she was thinking of the exact same thing as what I was currently thinking.

And sure enough, even though I had no way of ever confirming it, we in fact were.

Because believe it or not, Banri just so happened to be one of Kiyama's Child Error students.

Who due to recent events, involving the Level Upper and the AIM Burst creature, had gone into a coma, along with all of Dr. Kiyama's other Child Errors who had suffered the exact same sort of fate as Banri had.

"Well, it would very much appear that things just got a heck of a lot more interesting haven't they?" I thought to myself as a straight expression now having replaced the previous shocked expression that was originally on my face before, which then changed over to a determined expression a second later.

'Erii wound up explaining that both she and Banri were both telepaths who had grown up in an orphanage for Child Errors before Banri had moved, but she had recently begun hearing Banri suffering and had been trying to find her ever since.

Me and Misaka explained about the Level Upper experiment to Therestina, who theorized that Kiyama's comatose students were the cause of the Poltergeist incidents.

However, this theory divided Uiharu and Kuroko even more, as Uiharu wound up thinking that Kuroko was now blaming them instead.

The next day, Misaka and I learned that Kiyama had been released from custody, later learning that the Poltergeists could've wound up potentially destroying Academy City if they were not resolved.

Whilst investigating one of Gensei's old facilities, me and Misaka encountered Kiyama herself, who showed us both to a hospital where all of her comatose students are under the care of Heaven Canceller.

He wound up explaining Gensei's conviction that an Esper can become a Level 6 by taking Ability Crystals made from the essence of comatose espers who have lost control of their AIM fields.

He had gathered the Child Errors and bailed Kiyama to find a cure, but without the "First Sample", the first test subject of Gensei's Ability Crystal program, their attempts at waking the students had caused Poltergeist incidents.

Therestina, who followed Misaka, myself and Kiyama to that location, arrived, and demanded the children to her custody.

"Well, isn't this just a very nice, annoying and quite frankly, a very irritating situation you have put us both in Therestina?!" I thought to myself, with a very irritated expression very much evident on my face, despite my very best efforts to hide it.

And to be completely honest, I was very much convinced that Misaka was very much feeling the exact same way as I currently was, very irritated and disgusted with Therestina's actions.

And not surprisingly, I was indeed correct.

And with us being forced to choose, Misaka and I wound up taking Therestina's side in an effort to give the children a chance, while at the same time, we wound up convincing a heartbroken Kiyama to put her trust in the authorities.

Man, talk about Therestina smiling in our face, that backstabber.