02x21 - Darkness

[bunniefuu]

An artificial construction?

Febri?

Yes.

You mean she's a manmade, fabricated person?

Correct.

No way. She couldn't be.

I figured that'd be your response.

Common sense dictates that such a thing is impossible.

However,

sometimes, mankind steps outside the bounds of common sense.

You should be able to understand, no?

When I analyzed the proteins that her body was made of,

I was able to ascertain that they didn't exist in the natural world.

She doesn't seem to be aware that she's not a normal person, however.

And of course, you can't tell just by looking at her.

Her body functions the same way yours or mine would.

The only problem...

Is that every time she forms new cells,

her body produces a certain amount of toxin, as well.

Toxin?

Yes, and if left alone, it will continue to accumulate,

causing her internal organs to shut down,

resulting in death.

Really?! But right now, she's fine—

That's because of her candy.

It includes a component to neutralize the toxin.

It would be fair to say that it's what's keeping her alive.

So she has to keep eating the candy, or she can't survive?

If you were to ask me why, I'm afraid I wouldn't know.

It could either be a technical problem or it could be deliberate.

Regardless,

if anyone can keep her body going in its normal state,

it would have to be the people who created her.

But who? Who created Febri?

And for what?!

Are the powers that be in Academy City starting up another ridiculous experiment?!

I had heard stories about research being carried on to scientifically create a person a number of years ago.

But then the rumors stopped quite suddenly.

Then, Febri was made from that research?

Back then, the underworld was involved in that research.

Underworld?

Academy City holds a number of dark organizations,

that not even Antiskill can touch,

whose existence remains largely unknown.

I work for the underworld.

Do you think you can do anything about the dark underbelly of this town

by fighting like you're on the playground?!

If you want to save her,

it'll be necessary for you to prepare to face that darkness.

Are you ready to do that?

Ge-Ge-Geko!

I'm Gekota!

Geko geko geko!

Ah, Misaka! What did he talk to you about?

Oh...

Well, he said there was nothing more to worry about,

so we should get going.

Really?

Thank goodness!

Febri, wanna go home?

With you?

Yeah, and Uiharu, too.

Yeah!

But then, if we go back to my dorm,

couldn't they come looking for us again?

Yeah, you're right. Let's contact Antiskill

and have them ramp up their patrols.

Yeah, okay.

It's finally morning.

Febri, are you hungry?

For meatballs!

You really like them that much?

Isn't it nice?

Milady, something's bothering you, isn't it?

Eh?

Ever since you talked to the doctor,

your face has been pale.

Y-You think so?

A cat?

What's it doing here?

Huh?

Oh, uh, that is...

I forgot to ask the doctor something, so I'll be back in a bit.

You guys go on ahead.

Milady?

Long time no see. But then again,

is it okay for you to be out and about on your own?

"The doctor gave me permission, so it's okay,"

Misaka explains.

Oh, you did? All right then.

I spoke to that girl last night.

Eh?

That girl—you mean Febri?

"Yes.

I saw you staying up all night waiting for her to be treated.

Even though you haven't visited Misaka, your own sister, lately.

Whoa, hang on!

I thought that she must be a pretty important person,"

says Misaka, with a pouty look on her face,

enveloped in a gloomy atmosphere.

I-It's not that I view either one of you as more important!

Then, late into the night,

I had a look inside her room.

Looks like you've regained consciousness.

Mikoto?

"No, I'm her younger sister. More precisely,

I'm a clone created from a map of her DNA,"

says Misaka, introducing herself.

Younger sister... So Mikoto is your big sister?

Yes.

She's quite the problem child, but still...

I have a big sister too.

I wanna see her.

Febri has an older sister?

But she's artificially created. So what does that mean?

Could she be like Febri?

"There's one other thing that stood out when I talked to her,"

says Misaka, continuing on.

I sensed that there was a fixed pattern to the inclinations within the realm of her knowledge.

Huh? What does that mean?

"It's something that Misaka also experienced.

It's similar to the initial state of the Testament learning process,"

reports Misaka.

"It's not unlikely that she received her knowledge through the use of Testament.

Also, considering the similarity,

it's very probable that the pattern developed by the Testament program

was done by the same individual who developed Misaka's,"

says Misaka, offering her conjecture.

That means...

Scornful eyes...

I haven't seen her at all since everything happened.

Could she have something to do with Febri?

Could she have gotten involved with another project?

Even then...

She's the one

who showed Misaka what milk tea tasted like.

Huh?

"If possible, I'd like to see her again and thank her,"

says Misaka, voicing modest hope.

Whether she's involved with Febri or not,

based on what Kongou said,

the people that att*cked me spoke about recovering Febri.

Taking her back, in other words.

Does that mean that Febri ran away from them?

Whatever the case, it seems that the quickest way to find out

is to figure out who they are and ask them directly.

And if the underworld is really involved in this...

Then I can't drag any of the others into this.

I have to do this alone.

Yes?

Oh...

What's up, Kongou?

What's up? I've been on pins and needles about Febri ever since I left yesterday.

When I called the hospital, they said she'd been discharged.

Oh, I'm sorry. She's fine now.

She had her appetite and left a little earlier,

so there doesn't seem to be a reason to worry.

That's wonderful!

I'll pass the info along to Wannai and Awatsuki, also.

Yeah, please do.

Oh.

Hmm?

Come to think of it, I've done something intolerable to those two.

Huh?

When I told them about what happened,

they blamed themselves for not being there.

"Sharing the fun times as well as the bad times together

is what friends are for," they said.

It's true.

If I'd been in their shoes,

I'd have blamed myself for not being there too, without a doubt.

I can't believe I put them through that.

Friendship is so profound, isn't it?

Yeah. You're right.

All right, well, tell Wannai and Awatsuki I said hello.

Milady.

Did you finish the errand?

Huh? Oh, yeah.

Then let's get home.

As long as I'm acting on my own,

I have to be efficient about it.

First, I'll search through a number of databases, and look for leads.

Sharing the fun times as well as the bad times together

is what friends are for.

Milady, are you going out?

Ah, yeah. There's something I need to take care of.

I see.

I should be back some time this evening.

Later.

Come back safely.

If you happen to need any assistance,

please feel free to tell me any time. I...

I'm always here for you.

Huh? Milady?

I'm just not getting anywhere, am I?

Uh, Milady—

All right!

Listen, Kuroko.

We need to talk.

Right!

Hey, the towel! The towel!

Huh?!

Easy, Saten!

Oh, sorry, sorry. But Febri is...

...artificially created?

Yeah.

Imagine not being able to live without a lollipop.

Did whoever made her design it like that?

Probably.

And Antiskill can't do anything about them?

Do organizations like that really exist?

I believe so.

Do you have one in particular in mind?

I believe so.

One time before,

I faced down some people from one of them.

They were incredibly dangerous people.

If we're gonna help Febri,

it'll mean setting foot in risky territory.

I want you to understand that.

I don't want to put you in harm's way,

and honestly, I don't know how much I can protect you.

Even then, if you want to help out—

First we need to find out who created Febri.

We know that Kongou saw this guy's face before, right?

That's right. Let's fill her in and have her help us too.

We should also check the area where we were att*cked last night

and see if we can find any leads.

There's a good chance that the surveillance cameras

were not working due to construction.

But I'll check to see if there are any signs of a system break-in.

Also, it's because of the lollipops that Febri can survive, right?

I wonder if we could make them ourselves.

Oh, you're right. Why don't you take care of that part, Saten?

There's also the problem of the powered suit.

I'll check with Antiskill to see what they've come up with so far.

Yes, of course.

That leaves...

You guys...

Misaka, what's the matter?

Please, Misaka, can you get in on this too?

The best plan would be to hit them first, before they come looking for us.

Yeah.

Febri, whatcha drawing there?

Gekota!

Oh yeah? That's good!

I'll draw you next, Mii.

Really? Thank you!

Thank you, Konori,

for letting us ask you to play with Febri.

It's fine by me.

And how are things coming? Find anything?

Doesn't look like there's any sign of intrusion in the system.

Maybe I'll widen the search parameters more.

Okay.

All done!

Let me see!

I'm back.

Ah, Saten!

Welcome back, did you find anything about the lollipops?

Well, the thing is...

"It'll be difficult to analyze all the candy's components.

And even once it's done,

it'll be even more difficult to make such candy," he said.

I see.

He did say he'd be in touch if he finds anything out though.

I don't put that much faith in the doctor, y'know?

His face kinda looks like Gekota.

Ruiko, you're so funny!

Default overlap ,S-Saten...

Yes, there's something we'd like to check—

I'm sorry, but it's no longer here.

HQ has taken over the investigation,

so they took all the evidence away this morning.

They took the security robots, too.

Security robots?

The ones that went nuts at the Reach Assembly?

Yeah, and while this isn't the first time HQ took things over,

they were awfully quick about this case.

Anyway, I did get a quick look at everything,

but I didn't get much in the way of results.

The whole thing's a patchwork of unregistered parts.

No particular leads from its footprints, either.

I see.

Guess there's nothing we can do then.

Thank you very much.

See you.

Yeah.

Hey!

Take this with you.

What is it?

It was lying inside the powered suit.

Might be of some use to you.

Are you sure about this?

If it's gonna be taken away by HQ,

it makes no difference if you guys hang onto it.

However...

Don't do anything crazy.

What could it be?

Maybe it's some kind of part?

Then when she said all the evidence had been taken,

sure enough...

It's possible that someone is putting pressure on Antiskill.

You mean like one of those dark organizations Misaka mentioned?

That could certainly be, I suppose.

Listen, Febri, anything might be useful,

so were you able to remember anything?

Mm-mm.

All right.

How did the cameras pan out?

Well...

When it all happened, all the cameras in that area appeared to undergo operational failure en masse.

Huh? The other cameras too?

Yes.

The only thing that would explain it is if the entire area experienced some kind of interference.

Come to think of it, at that time,

our cell phone calls didn't go through either, right?

That's hardly a coincidence.

Oh!

What?

Oh, nothing, just that on that day, not far away,

there was some more traffic signal trouble.

Like the kind we had the other day?

Huh? Could that have something to do with this?

Not necessarily, but...

That would be an awful lot of work, if they were just out to get Febri.

Could they have some other objective in mind?

We attempted to retrace that guy's steps from the other day,

but we haven't come up with anything.

I see.

Yeah. All right, thanks.

We'll try looking over a larger area, though.

Don't get in over your heads, okay?

Oh, have you found out anything about the powered suit?

Antiskill checked it out, but apparently they couldn't find anything.

I'll see if I can find anything out on my end.

My father's company has some joint research divisions

that deal with powered suits in Academy City.

All right, that'll help.

Okay. Talk to you later.

Was that Kongou?

Yeah, it sounds like they're still looking around.

Come to think of it,

why would that man be at the Reach Assembly location?

Because he was after Febri, wasn't he?

We can't afford to be outdone by Kongou Mitsuko!

We have no choice but to once again thoroughly investigate anything that comes to mind!

You're right!

I'll investigate any blackouts that happened over the last few days.

Then I'll go back to where we first met Febri and—

Misaka Mikoto.

Why did Febri know my name? Someone must have told her.

Someone...

Her? But if that's the case,

why?

We've taken measures with Antiskill.

I doubt they'll be able to uncover anything,

but just in case.

We can't have them sniffing around

right before the all-important Reach Assembly.

Are you sure it's all right to leave Febri alone?

I thought we took a vote on that matter yesterday.

Just confirming. We don't want to have anything ruin the big moment.

Febri will definitely die before the Reach Assembly.

She's just a backup, after all, so there's no problem at all.

The Reach Assembly is close at hand.

We should prioritize the tune-up right now

of Janie.

We haven't overlooked anything in our preparations, right?

Of course not.

Right, Miss Nunotaba?

My utmost.

I'll do all that I can.

The trail's gone cold since then.

Which means...

The only avenue I have left...

About the fiber that was inside this capsule...

It appears to be made from the same components as those from Febri's body.

To put it more simply, this is a hair.

Hair? Then, is it Febri's?

No, it's not.

It belongs to someone else.

Someone else? Febri's sister?

There's something else I wanted to ask you about, too.

I had a closer look at the candy she has,

and considering the amount of lollipops she's carrying,

it occurs to me that the situation is quite dire.

Dire?

Roughly seventy-two hours.

That's how much time she has left based on the amount of candy she's carrying.

Oh, no. Isn't there anything you can do?!

Like I told you before,

if there's anyone who can fix up that girl's body,

it would have to be the one who created it.

Where are you going?

Where? I'm going to go looking.

We're all going to go look for the guys who made Febri, right away.

Do you know where to look?

Even if we don't...

I'll ask you again.

Are you ready to face off against the darkness within this city?

Even if it means getting yourself hurt?

If it'll save Febri...

The quickest way to find out about the underworld is to ask someone well-informed about it.

If it's what you want, I'll arrange a meeting.

I'll explain the situation in advance.

This person is someone that you know well.

Long time no see...

My little guinea pig.

Long time no see, guinea pig.

You're...

Yes.

That lady from before...

Yes, I am.

Who are you again?

Therestina!