Chain 031: A Certain Scientific Railgun

Chain 031: A Certain Scientific Railgun
Location: Academy City
Age: 8?
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+500] Power Dampener, Permanent Child
(Abilities: Savant; Regeneration; Hyperkinesis; Achron; The Stars Shine Upon Me; To Truly Live; Metamorphmagus; Metaphysical Biology, PhD; Waveform Anatomy; Hybrid; AT Field Mastery; Pattern Ultraviolet; Secondary Field; Cybernetic Knowledge; Light of the Orokin; Civilian Mode)

[100/1500]  Esper: Meltdowner
[150/1500]  True Grit
[300/1500]  True Sight
[600/1500]  Premonition Precog
[900/1500]  Doubled Growth Rate
[1500/1500] Hard Science
[Free]  	Media Collection

Well, I'm not the only person in the setting who's permanently a child. I am, however, now the second person who has the same sort of power as Mugino Shizuri. You know what that means, of course; I must immediately adopt her as my big sister, consequences be damned.

("What the hell? Are you supposed to be a clone of me or something?")
(No, no, nothing so normal. I'm an intermultiversal traveller. And let me tell you, what a long, strange trip it's been!)
("That... makes absolutely no sense.")
(Most people hate that and run screaming. But I like you, big sis, you're awesome. You're not simple-minded like that railgun girl. So I'm going to use cool things to help you! But first...)
("... First?")
(I have a dimensional warehouse that has basically anything I want, so... want some hot cocoa?)
("I... can't even... you know what, why not?")
(Marshmallows?)
("Please.")

The broad arcs of the plot differed surprisingly little from canon, quite frankly, aside from her having a chibi version of herself that literally would bend over backward to help her if it came down to it, while trying to give her something concrete to have some sanity injected. Along with some character development. And hoo boy, did she need something positive to interact with, even if she started noticing after a couple of years that I didn't seem to be growing up; the girl was unhinged. Really, other than that I sort of faded into the background; selective notice-me-not charms are pretty effective in making sure nobody notices that you're using a wand, for instance. Or that you can fly. Or deflect bullets.

("What are you, a discount Accelerator?")
(Oh, no, that's just the light of my soul.)
("The what.")

Also, when Shizuri got wounded, I gave her MUCH more effective replacement cybernetics; turns out that when you give a cybernetic eye and some cosmetic surgery to fix up your face, you come off looking a lot more sane, get judged less by others as a result, and overall things tend to go rather a bit better. And when you have the ability to fire off particle beams, stocking the cybernetic arm with parts that effectively turn it into a particle cannon makes you a lot more deadly, even if it reduces how well that ability can be redirected. Perhaps not a solution I'd employ myself, but it gave her a lot more variety in her tactics, from pinpoint destruction to weaker wide-area attacks. Combining my knowledge of metaphysical biology with the knowledge I now had of the local sciences was helpful, too - it turned out to help quite a lot with figuring out exactly how the AIM fields worked. There were enough shared similarities with AT fields at the basic principles.

When I left, I was not very far beyond where Shizuri was when I met her, but ... I don't know. Honestly? I didn't expect to get as attached as I did. And really, she had a much more level head on her shoulders than she might perhaps have had, otherwise. Maybe that was part of why; I expected to just be following an axe-crazy lady around and playing mini-me, and instead... she actually embraced the role I foisted upon her.

(Oh. Oh damn.)
("Hm?")
(My ten years are up.)
("Your ten years- oh, you still- wait, you were serious about the time limit?")
(I... I'm sorry, big sis.)
("But... I...")
(I wish I could take you with me. I didn't expect...)
("... Don't forget me.")
(Never.)