Toaru Maboroshi no Ukeire

A Certain Acceptance of Illusion

November 22nd, 7:18AM

Tokiwadai Exterior Dorms

Had things been different Misaka might have woken up this morning wondering if what had happened yesterday had been true. She might have thought that the depression was getting to her, might have thought that the reunion with the person she had been missing so much was nothing more than her imaginings.

But as things were there was little room for doubt in her mind. There was no way that she could imagine the soft warmth of her girlfriends body pressed against hers, legs and fingers intertwined as flesh pressed against flesh. There was no way the scent of lilies that rose from the younger girl's small body, still sweaty from yesterday's exertions, could possibly exist only in her mind. There was no way the quiet sound of soft breathing from her slumbering room mate was fake. There was no way the sweet taste of her lips was mere delusion as she kissed the girl good morning with as much fierceness and passion as she could muster.

And the sight that greeted her as she opened her eyes was too horrible for a dream and too good for a nightmare. Kuroko, laid almost bare beneath her with only a pair of panties to cover herself, was sleeping soundly. Her face peaceful and happy. But that was where the pleasant sights ended. As Misaka glanced down to her throat she saw a hole through her throat almost 2 inches in diameter right through her trachea, a spot that meant she shouldn't be able to breath at all. It glowed with a strange golden light that seemed to allow her to continue breathing and even talking.

Down lower a similar hole, even larger, was in her right shoulder and left collarbone, many small and even a few large holes also lined her arm, each filled with the golden light. More existed below, through the stomach, waist, hip, and legs. The largest one of all was through her heart where the golden light was strongest as well. The hole extended up to the top of the ventricles which no longer seemed to beat. Kuroko was down to a two beats, one for each atrium. The ventricles seemed to be completely non-operational, if not gone altogether. How the girl was alive she had no idea.

Misaka buried her head in the crook of Kuroko's neck, guilt washing over her like a flood. If she hadn't made that stupid decision to go after Touma then Kuroko wouldn't have felt so alone. If she had just held onto her tighter maybe she wouldn't have slipped away. If she had just done something differently at the windowless building then maybe Kuroko wouldn't have been hurt this badly.

A tear ran down Misaka's cheek, falling upon Kuroko's face. The younger girl had been crying so much back then, her face had been drenched in tears that seemed to be constantly shed. Now the only water other than the sweat upon the smaller girl's brow from last night's passion were the two drops of Misaka's tears.

A slight groan suddenly sounded from the girl, who seemed to have been roused by the impact of the salty water on her face. Her one visible eye twitched in anticipation of being opened while the other lay behind a veil of Kuroko's hair. As the pink orb fluttered open Misaka decided that she preferred the other hairstyle that let her gaze into both of her love's eyes. She reached her hand to brush aside the hair but Kuroko turned slightly so that the hand brushed her cheek instead. Then Misaka took the other cheek in her hands as well and lifted Kuroko's face up so she could kiss the girl's lips. She could feel the lips twitch into a smile before they molded themselves against the electro master's own.

The kiss deepened and got more passionate as Kuroko began to wake up. She moved from her position laying down into a sitting posture as the pair continued their frantic, passionate kiss.

The magic was, unfortunately, broken as Kuroko began to tug at Misaka's panties, causing her to break away from the kiss and frown at the girl, "for the last time, I'm not ready for that." she insisted, covering up her chest with an arm, "I already went this far for you isn't that enough."

"Hmm? Funny... I recall you being the one who seemed so eager to get me out of my clothes," Kuroko grinned as her hands continued rubbing at the skin under the waistband of the panties in a very distracting manner.

Misaka blushed and subconsciously lashed out with electricity. Kuroko didn't seem to mind all that much, but took it as a cue to stop her actions and move onto the far more innocent act of nuzzling Misaka's neck. Misaka cradled the teleporter's head and rubbed her hand up and down the other girl's back.

"Are you okay now?" Misaka asked for what was surprisingly the first time. Last night there had been too much emotion, too much want, too much need for such a question. But now things had had time to cool down and the electro master asked that question she knew she should have asked a while ago.

Her beloved girlfriend favored her with a raised eyebrow, or maybe two, she couldn't tell what the other one was doing. The message was clear but Kuroko still humored her with a verbal response as well. "I've been better... I could probably honestly say I've been worse as well... but either way it's fine, as long as I have you in my arms." The teleporter gave her love a gentle squeeze as she tightened their embrace.

"I didn't just mean physically, I meant mentally as well..." Misaka elaborated.

"Demasiada cordura puede ser la peor de las locuras, ver la vida como es y no como debería de ser," Was the younger girl's fairly nonsensical reply.


"Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be," Kuroko translated, "It's a line from Don Quixote which I feel quite aptly describes my view on how things have turned out. You see... all this time I've been too focused on the bad. The delusions that caused me pain and despair. But I should have been focusing on the delusions that caused me love and happiness. Starting today I've decided that I'm going to choose the illusions of happiness and defend them with my life."

"This illusion talk again..." Misaka sighed, slightly disappointed, "you're still convinced this is a dream?"

"No... if this was a dream then those childish panties of your would be on the floor instead of on your person," Kuroko grinned.

Misaka giggled, the perversion actually charming after all this time. "Dream on," she retorted.

Kuroko joined in on the giggling.

The teleporter really should have waited another few days to recover in the hospital before returning, but she could not bear the thought of not seeing her Onee-sama for another three days. After having seen the state she was in she did not regret this decision in the slightest.

"Hey Kuroko... about us..." Misaka began, her voice very serious again.

"Yes?" Kuroko wasn't sure whether or not to be hopeful or despairing at that.

"My parents are coming to the city today... both of them... I'm going to tell them about us. I'm done hiding and being ashamed of this. From now on you're officially and publicly my girlfriend." The blush that colored the electro master's face at these words was only matched in hue by the most vividly colored strawberries, or by the blush that was on Kuroko's face at hearing them.

"Onee-sama..." she went back and stared deep into Misaka's eyes, then smiled a smile of such pure happiness that her face seemed to glow and sparkle with warmth, "that makes Kuroko really, truly happy to hear."

Misaka sat there just entranced in that face, before smiling herself, "In return... I don't want you to keep any more secrets either..."

The smile dropped. "Onee-sama... there are some things I can't tell you, not because I don't want to, but because I can't. I was an important government agent. A lot of my missions and things are top secret. I'll try and get permission to declassify it or at least to grant you clearance. Uiharu and Saten and Konori too... I really need to go and talk to them."

"Well you have plenty of time while I go and be with my parents," Misaka said.

"Yeah... but I still have a lot of work to do in addition to ensuring my friends know I'm all right," Kuroko continued, "I need to go check in with Aleister too..."

"You're still working for him?" Misaka demanded, confused and annoyed, though this annoyance was directed at the man who was manipulating Kuroko rather than the girl herself.

"Of course. I don't know what you've been told but he's the good guy, trust me. It's because of him that I'm alive, twice over. At times his plans may seem to involve unpleasant things but I know better than anyone that he's a good person. Far better than that group of murderers, vandals, and hoodlums that you waltzed into that building with."

"They're good people... some of them..." Misaka tried to defend.

"Good people who do bad things," Kuroko compromised, "either way I'm still going to be working for Aleister. I've helped too many people to give it all up now."

Misaka sighed, "I still have no idea what you've been doing..."

"Saving lives, saving the world," Kuroko shrugged, "that sort of thing. Like what that neanderthal does only on a bigger scale."

"You really hate Touma don't you..."

"More than you can possibly imagine."

"Don't kill him..." That was about as much as Misaka felt right in asking Kuroko to do regarding Touma, anything else would just be... difficult.

"If I haven't yet then I'm not going to."

Misaka nodded and hugged Kuroko before getting off the bed, "My parents will be here soon... I should get ready..."

"Shower together?" Kuroko chimed happily at the prospect.

"If your hands wander I will zap you, injured or not," Misaka warned.

"Acknowledged... your hands can wander wherever they want though..." Kuroko grinned.

"Oh shut up," Misaka chuckled as they went into the bathroom.

Author's Note: Another very short first chapter. I kind of just wanted some happy fluff after all the drama that ended the second book... Anyway we have a full schedule ahead of us for this book, including some really cool fights and a lot of reveals about... well a lot of things. This book doesn't adhere to canon so I have more freedom.

I'd like to try writing 8000 word chapters but that might not be possible... we'll have to see how it goes from here on.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new book.