A Certain Magical Sunset - Prologue - 03 - Sunset - Mind Blown
Sunset - Mind Blown
Thursday, August 14 - 11:00 AM Canterlot time
After her graduation Sunset suddenly found herself with an abundance of free time.
So, Sunset requested more hours from Mr. Namori, the owner of the Sushi Cafe and her boss. He was more than happy to oblige her, given her great track record, her passionate willingness to do the job well, and the fact the customers really liked her.
So it wasn’t much of a surprise for Lyra to find Sunset working behind the Cafe counter that Thursday morning.
“Good morning Lyra! Welcome to the Sushi Cafe! What’ll it be today? Our special today is Tuna Sashimi.” Sunset smiled.
“Hi Sunset!” replied Lyra. “I'm sure seeing you here a lot lately! It’s a nice place to work, huh?”
“It really is! I enjoy working here, and Mr. Namori-san is a great boss!” grinned Sunset. “So Lyra, what can I get you? Your usual? Or do you want to change it up?”
Lyra was one of the Cafe’s most loyal customers. She lived in Japan during her early childhood, and often claimed the cafe reminded her of her home growing up. Well, not the cafe itself, more the way Mr. Namori and his staff treated everyone with kindness and respect. The wonderful food also helped.
“You know me well, Sunset!” Lyra smiled. “The usual please, with a side of sticky rice balls.”
“Give me a moment, I’ll have that right up. That will be $7.58, Lyra,” Sunset replied, ringing up the order for her.
“That sounds a little light Sunset. Are you sure?” asked Lyra. “I figured it would be more like $10 with the rice balls.”
Sunset smiled as she put her tray together. “Nah, I put them in as a promotional item. You’re a regular so I'm allowed to give you discounts on some items. Enjoy!”
Sunset prepared the spicy tuna donburi rice bowl with a little extra kick just like Lyra liked, placing it on the left front of the tray. A steaming bowl of miso soup went to the right of the rice bowl, with the nori and tsukemono behind them. To the soup's side she placed the order of savory sticky rice balls, one of Lyras favorite treats. Sunset finished off the placement with a pair of chopsticks at the front of the tray.
“Here you go Lyra! Enjoy your lunch! I’ll bring your tea and water over in a moment.” Sunset smiled, handing the tray to Lyra.
“Thanks Sunset! You know just how I like it, you’re the best!” Lrya beamed, taking the tray and heading for her favorite table at the front of the cafe.
Sunset steeped a pot of green tea, placing it, cream, sugar, lemon, a traditional tea cup, and a glass of water onto her serving tray. She wheeled over to Lyra with the tray on her lap. At Lyra’s table, she placed the tea, condiments and cups before Lyra in their proper places, then poured Lyra her first cup of tea, placing it on the table by her tray. “Lyra, If you need anything else just let me know and I’ll take care of it.” Sunset gave her a smile as she returned to the counter, taking the serving tray back with her.
“Thanks Sunset!” Lyra grinned, already enjoying the miso soup with a happy appetite.
Sunset waved to her as she headed back behind the counter. “Not a problem, Lyra-san! I’m happy that you’re happy.” Still smiling she wiped down her tray then went back to preparing for her next customers.
Many customers later and one happy and very satisfied goodbye from Lyra, Sunset started her cleaning, taking advantage of the brief lull in business. Noticing the trash containers needed to be emptied before the next rush, she rolled back to the office where Mr. Namori was working.
“Mr. Namori-san? Can you watch the counter for a few minutes? The trash is full and I need to take the bags out back before the next group of customers arrive or they'll be overfilled.”
Mr. Namori looked up from his ledger. “Sure thing, Sunset! And thank you for noticing that, you really are my star employee!” Mr. Namori smiled, stretching as he rose from his desk. “I have you covered, so why don’t you take your break after that, and I’ll see you when you get back?” He stretched to the side cracking his back. “Truth is it feels good to get out from behind that desk for a while. Too much looking at those books hunched over all day and I’ll turn into an Oni!” He laughed.
Sunset grinned. “Thanks Mr. Namori-san! I could use the break. And you as an Oni - hah! As a girl that’s actually been one, you’re way too sweet to ever be an Oni.”
Following her out to the counter Mr. Namori chuckled. “You told me you used to be a real devil, but I can’t see it. You’ve one of the nicest and most respectful people I’ve ever met, so forgive me for not believing it.”
“Ah Mr. Namori-san if you only knew!” laughed Sunset, wheeling over to the first of the trash containers and changing the bag. Mr. Namori chuckled as he stepped behind the counter to help the line of customers that was forming.
Tying off all the bags, Sunset piled them on her lap, surreptitiously using a little bit of her magic to keep any of the bags from actually touching her uniform, just in case anything had leaked out. At the back of the store she pushed open the door and rolled out into the alleyway. She wheeled down to the shared large trash bin, then quickly threw the trash into the bin and shut the lid. As she was about to return to the cafe and her much needed break she heard yelling and fighting further down the alley.
Concerned that someone was being attacked, Sunset rolled down the alley to investigate. Partially hidden behind a large trash container, she peered over its top to get a glimpse of the ruckus. A dozen or so yards down the alley she saw two groups of people waving their arms and shouting at each other in what sounded like Old Ponish. Staying hidden behind the trash bin she watched.
A tall, intense, and lithe woman with dark hair and rather bizarrely cut jeans stood at the front of one group, waving her arms chanting loudly. “Incineratus Invictus!” A large gout of flames leapt from her hands towards the other group. Sunset felt a familiar tingle buzz through her body at the same time.
“Sweet Celestia! She’s using Magic! Actual battle magic! Who are these people?” she wondered quietly.
“Obstructionum!” shouted a woman in the other group, conjuring a shield that blocked the flames.
“Two groups using battle magic! What’s going on here?” thought Sunset in slight panic.
“Accelerate!!” yelled one of the mages from the other group, causing a wooden crate to go flying at the tall girl and her group.
“Obstructionum!” the tall girl shouted with a wave of her hand. The crate whipped off on a new course hurtling straight towards the bin Sunset was hiding behind.
Startled, Sunset yelled out. “No!” A teal shield surrounded her. The crate slammed into it, shattering to pieces then sliding down into a pile before her. The fighting stopped, everyone looking at Sunset.
“Uhm… Hi?” said Sunset sheepishly, aware that everyone was looking at her from her shout, her head still popped up from behind the bin. “How’s it going? Uh, I was just taking my break, no worries! Ha ha. Yeah…”
The group opposite the intense tall mage looked at one another then sprinted off down the alley. “Damn it! They're getting away! After them!” shouted one of the mages with her.
“Go!” the tall lithe mage commanded, her voice resonant with authority. Her eyes never left Sunset’s. “I’ll be there shortly.” Her associates took off running in pursuit.
Walking over to Sunset, she crouched down, leaned over, and looked directly into her eyes. “Who are you, and how do you know magic?” she demanded.
Sunset flinched. Staring into her eyes, she gulped. “Uh, you’re not from the government or anything, right? You’re not going to take me away and do experiments or something? Right?” She smiled hopefully.
The girl smiled, then laughed. “No, we’re not from your government,” she grinned. “I’m Kanzaki Kaori. My friends just call me Kaori. We’re from Necessarius with the Church of England. The group you saw fighting us is a magical cabal who stole an artifact of ours in an attempt to dominate the world. Again. We’re taking it back. Again. Though your outburst seems to have interrupted our efforts.” She grinned. “Nice block by the way! Sorry about that crate, I had no idea you were there until you yelled.”
She leaned down once again, right in Sunset’s face, though this time smiling. “So, again, who are you? And how do you have magic?”
Feeling a little more at ease now that dissection was off the table, Sunset smiled back. “That’s actually a long story,” she sighed. “Honestly, I’m surprised to see you and others using magic. My friends and I thought we and others infected by the magic that came with me from my Realm were the only ones who could use magic. So I was actually going to ask you that same question. How do you have magic?”
“Also a long story.” replied Kaori. “And one for another time. Though I don’t know how you think you brought magic to this Realm, or what you mean by coming from another Realm. Magic has been here since the beginning of creation. We clearly need to talk, you and I. What’s your name?”
“Sunset Shimmer” replied Sunset. “I work here at the Sushi Cafe. When do you want to talk?”
“Soon” replied the tall girl, straightening back up. “For now, I have an artifact to recover. I will be seeing you soon, Sunset Shimmer.” The tall mage nodded, then took off at a dead run after the fleeing group.
Shaking her head, Sunset returned to the cafe, waving to Mr. Namori as she passed through the cafe on her way out to the mall for her break. Finding an empty table, she pulled out her cell phone and texted a message to the girls.
“Girls! We’re not alone! I just met another group of magic users.”
My blindness, my weakness, my doubts and fears, these are gifts from Harmony to refine my soul; in facing them I am strengthened - The Celestial Teachings
Mikoto - Academy City
Misaka Mikoto, middle school girl and the third ranked esper in Academy City, was spending the day with children as her friend and roommate Shirai Kuroko was busy with Judgment, the student organization responsible for keeping order among the student residents of Academy City.
She was annoyed about not getting to spend time with her friend, but she did enjoy spending time with the children. Besides being adorable in their own way, it also gave her the chance to indulge her secret shame - her passion for collecting toys and prizes featuring Gekota, a character from a cartoon for children. It had taken many tries, but she won a Gekota badge from a gachapon machine. Now, as much as she wanted to, she didn’t dare try it on herself, knowing she would be mocked horribly if anyone saw her. So she tucked it away to play with later.
While escorting the children home, Mikoto sensed a strong electromagnetic power similar to her own psychic power. Curious, after saying goodbye to the children, she ran towards the source, only to discover a person dressed like her in the Todiwaiki Academy school uniform. Coming up to the girl, she noted with a start that the girl was identical to her, to the point they could be considered twins.
“Who are you?” she asked suspiciously.
Instead of answering, her double only said one word. “Meow.” She pointed up into the tree she was under, pointing out a black cat stuck in the tree.
Mikoto repeated her question, still getting no useful responses, as it seemed the girl was only interested in explaining why the cat was in the tree. Asking a third time and getting no useful answers, Mikoto grew frustrated. Seeing her frustration, the girl pointed at the cat. Mikoto relented. “Fine. What do you need?”
Taking hold of her shoulders, the girl suggested she crawl under the tree. Mikoto did, and the girl climbed onto her. Mikoto looked up and saw the girl’s bloomers. “Just hurry up, will you,” she blushed madly.
The girl stretched, unable to quite reach the cat even from her elevated position. Starting to panic, the cat lost its grip on the branch and fell. Quickly leaping from her back, the girl lifted her skirt up and used it as a net to catch the cat as it tumbled out of the tree.
“What are you doing!” panicked Mikoto as the girl stood there smiling at the cat in the folds of her skirt, her bloomers now proudly displayed to everyone nearby. Safely tucked into her skirt, now bunched up in her arms with the cat, her bloomers were quite proudly on display to the world.
“OMG! Put your skirt down! Do you want everyone to see your bloomers!” Mikoto blushed madly, trying desperately to tug the girl's skirt down. The cat escaped, agitated by all the movement. Flushed beet red with embarrassment, Mikoto finally got her double’s skirt back where it belonged. “Who are you?” she asked again.
“I am Misaka Mikoto, replies Misaka evenly,” replied the girl.
“What? I’m Misaka Mikoto! What are you, a clone or something?” demanded Mikoto.
“I am a clone, yes, informs Misaka,” replied the girl.
“What?! How can that be? Who made you? What are you doing here?” demanded Mikoto.
The girl rattled off a string of letters and numbers, then asked. “What is the passcode, Misaka requests reasonably.”
“What passcode? What are you talking about?” stormed Mikoto.
When the passcode was not produced, her double resolutely refused to share any further useful information, stating everything was confidential. Mikoto, angered by this, grabbed her by her shirt, intending to intimidate her into talking. Noticing the crowd gathering around and staring, she thought better of causing a scene, and changed her tactics. “Fine! You won’t tell me anything, I’ll just follow you to your creators and make them answer me!” She watched her clone walk away, then followed behind her, thinking about what was happening and what it could mean.
She stopped as a thought occurred to her. Racing up to her clone, she asked. “Are there more of you?”
She never did get an answer. Still frustrated, she nonetheless spent the rest of the day following her clone, even sharing a free ice cream from a kindly ice cream truck vendor who didn't like seeing sisters fighting, then being treated by her sister to a milk tea and a snack.
As night fell, her clone turned to her. “I have to leave now, it’s time for the experiment, states Misaka with regret. You can follow me if you want, but you will not find my creators there, informs Miskaka.”
Mikoto’s mind raced. While she was trying to understand what her clone meant, she realized this was the perfect opportunity to see what the Gekota badge would look like on her. Taking it from her bag, she put the badge on her double. “Huh,” she mused, looking her over.
“Your preferences are a bit childish, notes Misaka,” stated her clone.
Noting with approval that the badge did indeed look good, she went to take it back. “Fine then,” she stated. But when she reached for the badge, her sister slapped her hand away.
“Huh? Whatever,” she tried again, and was slapped away a second time. Frustrated, she tried again and was again physically turned away. Her efforts quickly turned into a slap fight with her clone. After several moments of this silliness, both finally stopped to catch their breath.
”Once you placed this on Misaka, it became her property. You cannot have it back. While this is a childish gift, it is the first gift Misaka has ever received from her big sister. I will cherish it, informs Misaka. It is now time for the experiment. I must leave, states Misaka.” Her double turned and left, still wearing the Gekota badge.
“Wait!” called out Mikoto. “Ah, drat!” She watched her double run off into the distance with her badge.
No closer to understanding why a clone of her was running around Academy City and spouting some nonsense about an experiment, Mikoto went to a phone booth and called her friend Uiharu, who was a wizard with data searches. If anyone could help her find out what was going on, it would be her.
In another part of Academy city, her clone removed a rather suspicious looking case from a locker, slinging it over her back. She drifted through the streets, finding the alleyway that was scheduled for the experiment. When she arrived, she noted that the other participant in the experiment was already present. Accelerator, the number one rated esper in Academy City, was smiling at her.
“It is 20:58. The experiment will begin in two minutes, note Misaka,” she stated evenly, removing a large rifle from the package on her back.
Two minutes later, she looked at Accelerator. “Misaka 9982 is now ready to begin the experiment, states Misaka,” she said, pulling the enhanced vision goggles down over her eyes. “The experiment will now begin, states Misaka.”
Grinning, Accelerator slapped a nearby wall, sending vectored ripples through it that caused a fire escape behind Misaka to fall, nearly killing her. She leapt to the side, barely escaping the hazard. Misaka fired her rifle at Accelerator, the high speed high powered bullets racing at him faster than sound. Despite this, nothing she did actually touched him. Every shot was reflected right back at her, several hitting her and injuring her.
Misaka, seeing her blood running from her body, realized she needed to escape. She ran from him.
Accelerator taunted her. “What, so helpless? Can’t even take an unarmed opponent?” he called out as he gave chase. He caught up with her as they came to a rocky clearing. Sweeping up the rocks and dust in the clearing, he launched them at her at high speeds, bruising and piercing her repeatedly.
Misaka was severely injured. “There is a barrier surrounding Accelerator, Misaka notes. He is walking, so maybe his feet are not affected by his powers, Misaka wonders,” she labored, lying bloody and battered on the ground. As Accelerator paced towards her, she pulled herself back to her feet.
“I have lured you into a trap, points out Misaka,” she called out in pain to Accelerator. At that moment, Accelerator stepped on the land mine she had placed before the experiment. She triggered the mine with her electormancy, and he was engulfed in a large explosion.
Working with what Uiharu had told her, Mikoto had used her hand terminal jacked into the public pay phone to uncover the experiment her clones were involved in. She was still unable to wrap her head around what she had found. She did, however, find the location of the experiment currently running, the 9982nd experiment in the series. Armed with that information, she rushed to find her clone.
Arriving at the experiment's start, she found no one there. She almost convinced herself she was mistaken about the entire ghastly experiment when she spied a lone pair of broken goggles matching the ones her clone had been carrying. While looking around for some sign of her and seeing nothing, she heard a terrifying explosion in the distance, then raced off towards it.
Misaka, the cloned sister, watched the smoke from the explosion, hoping her conjecture was right.
From the clearing smoke, Accelerator stepped out, grinning madly and completely unharmed. “That was very clever!” he complimented. “A slight flaw in your deductions though!” He grabbed her left leg, and with a pull ripped it from her body, eliciting a scream from her and a splash of blood.
Through her pain, she attacked Accelerator, but all attacks were reflected back at her, injuring her further.
At that point, sprawled once again in the dirt, bleeding profusely and moments from death, Misaka noticed that the badge Mikoto had given her had fallen off her uniform, landing in the dirt nearby. Knowing that her life was nearly over, she dragged herself towards it, wanting to die with the only gift she had ever received. As she clawed her way over the dirt and rocks towards the badge, Accelerator watched, grinning. He tried to engage in banter with her as she died, teasing her more to get some response from her, but she ignored him, focused only on the badge, blood pouring from the jagged wound where her leg used to be. Reaching the badge at last, she sat up and placed it back on her uniform.
“This is pointless. Time to end this experiment,” sighed Accelerator.
Mikoto arrived just in time to see her cloned sister clawing her way towards the badge she had taken. She had just put it back on with a smile when she was crushed brutally by a train engine, dropped on her by Accelerator.
“No!” She screamed, enraged, charging towards Accelerator. Using her powers of electromagnetism, she whipped up a sand tornado, filled with the iron-rich sand in the lot around them, launching it at Accelerator. It engulfed him, then dissipated all around him, still grinning where he stood.
Mikoto stopped, in shock that he had survived her brutal attack completely unharmed. “That should have killed you!”
Accelerator clapped. “Impressive power! I haven’t faced someone that powerful in ages. There was a weakness to your attack, however.”
At that point, Mikoto noticed the leg that Accelerator had ripped off her sister, still laying in the dirt nearby. Completely enraged, her power flared out, unhinging the metal rails from the train tracks in the lot and launching them as missiles at Accelerator.
Accelerator raised an eyebrow, impressed with her power, but did not flinch as the wall of steel flew at him. He simply stood, smiling, as everything rebounded back towards her on hitting him, causing her to quickly dodge to avoid being hit by her own attack.
“The only one who has ever been completely unaffected by my powers is Toma,” thought Mikoto, dumbfounded at his ability to completely reverse or dispel everything she threw at him.
Accelerator smiled, the truth dawning for him. “You’re not a clone, are you! You’re the original Railgun. Sweet! I’ll speed up this program and advance much faster if I kill you instead!”
Mikoto pulled out an arcade token and prepared her signature attack. “Why are you doing this?!” she raged. “Why are you killing my clones?! Why even participate in an experiment where my clones are killed?!”
Smiling, Accelerator answered. “Merely being the top Level 5 esper is not enough. Fools still want to fight me, to challenge me. I want to be so absolutely above everyone else, so powerful that no one would even think of challenging me,” he answered honestly.
Angered by his callous response, Mikoto fired off her railgun attack, launching the token at him at hypersonic speeds. Mikoto barely had time to notice the crack of air next to her head as the token was reflected right back at her, just missing her and obliterating the metal beams behind her.
“Well, that certainly was impressive! That was your signature move, wasn’t it? Gave it all you had, didn’t you. I’m shocked, I knew I was rated higher than you, but I really thought you would have more to offer. Instead, you’ve spent it all and have nothing to show for it. But now it’s my turn!” crowed Accelerator.
Before he could launch his attack, a small army of Mikoto clones emerged from around the lot, calling out to Accelerator.
“You must not attack her, Misaka states!” called out one.
“If you attack her, you will create discrepancies! She is not part of the experiment! Clarifies Misaka,” called out another. “You must stop! You may invalidate the experiment, informs Misaka,” another said. They surrounded him, calling out to him to leave Miktoto alone.
Nodding, Accelerator aqueised. “Fine! I was just playing around anyway!” He turned back to Mikoto, who was completely shaken from what she was seeing. “I guess introductions are in order. I am Accelerator, Academy City’s number 1 ranked esper. And this experiment is over, so I’m leaving,” Still smiling, he left with a number of the clones.
Mikoto turned to the clones who remained, and collapsed to her knees. “Why?” she asked, searching their faces for some sign of understanding. “Why are you doing this? Why are you taking part in an experiment that just gets you killed? Why be part of this?” she asked, completely lost.
“We are simply artificial beings, created for this experiment. We are simple lab animals, to be used and discarded, Misaka states clearly,” replied the clone closest to her.
Mikoto knelt there, collapsed, broken, feeling completely lost as the clones moved around her, removing any signs of the experiment, the battle, and their dead sister before leaving her to her thoughts, still slumped where she had collapsed.
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Looking through the gecko link I discovered that “A certain scientific Railgun” is a side story. Never knew that.
So Lyra is a two fisted drinker meaning she is drinking water and hot tea with the same meal mixing a cold drink with a hot drink something I like to do from time to time