Electricity crackled lightly around Mikoto's head in irritation, but she was surprised when Kuroko got up on her own and moved away. Well, certainly, that was unexpected. It was still awkward, but at least Kuroko hadn't tried anything else aside from the initial tackling. The brunette rose to her feet, attempting to dust herself off and nearly opening her mouth to admonish Kuroko even if the smaller girl had gotten up on her own, until her roommate brought up the incident with her formal wear. Oh, that...

"I seem to remember it got stained because someone tried to give me something really fishy to drink," she remarked, folding her arms and giving the pigtailed girl a rather stern look. She glanced at Annette and gave her an affirming nod. "I need to get something else to wear for tonight, I guess."



"Ah... we were gonna go shop somewhere, right Uiharu?" Ruiko gave her friend a grin, trying to recall if they had a specific place in mind. To be honest, it had totally slipped her mind where they were going when she got caught up teasing the gothloli girl and looking for the ghost in the alleyway. Well, it was a shop, she remembered that obviously, but exactly which shop had totally slipped her mind. It was this way though! She figured it was, at least, it's where they'd been heading.

"I... kinda forgot which one we were going to," she said, embarrassment creeping into her grin.

"Left here," their captor said, pointing out what looked like another totally unremarkable alleyway, "And no, nothing so drastic as that. You're just going to be letting one person practice with their power a little bit. You should be fine unless your power's destructive or something."

---

"I gave you nothing of the sort," Kuroko refuted, "It was a perfectly innocent mix-up when getting drinks, which has nothing to do with spilling it."

Annette frowned as she listened to the explanation that Misaka provided about what had happened to her clothes, before Shirai rebuked that. It was hard to determine who was telling the truth, and she had the feeling that she never would at this point. Not that it mattered either, since things seemed to be perfectly fine without it. But she did add her input once Kuroko had finished. "I certainly hope so," she replied. "Such illegal actions are things that an upstanding Judgment Officer should not engage in."

Little did she know of the full extent to which Kuroko went past the bounds of reasonable behavior for an officer of the law.

With that said she turned back to Misaka, taking on a smile once more as she addressed the true matter at hand. "Well, if you would like then I would be willing to come with and offer an opinion on whatever you might pick out. I would hate for someone of your status and reputation to embarrass herself in public." Little did she know of the extent that that went as well, or if she did then she did a good job of hiding it.

Still, she didn't mind either way, and if Misaka refused then she would not object. But it seemed courteous to offer, even if her help was not needed. It would be up to the Railgun in the end.

Eventually, the girl's directions through the various alleys led to what appeared to be just another door--one that opened at their approach into a clinical, and apparently deserted, waiting room. A plotted plant appeared to be slowly wilting in one corner, and their captor shut the door behind them, sealing the lock.

"Since nobody's in, there's another experiment going on right now. You can ask any questions you want, now; you'll forget the answers by the time you leave."

She leant on the door, watching them.

"Yeah, sure, that's hat you call an innocent mixup," Mikoto said with a frown, folding her arms and giving Kuroko quite the look. Sure it was. SURE it was. That drink was totally not laced with any kind of weird plant extract designed for perverse purposes, or... Well, it's not like Mikoto had drank anything like that before. She wasn't going to chance it! It was a moment later that she heard Anette mentioning the whole 'status and reputation' thing. The brown-haired girl shifted gears, giving the foreign girl a smile as she turned to face her.

"You don't have to worry about all that stuff," she said, waving her hand, "But if you really want to, you can come along."

There was no harm in it, right? She was just going to pick out something nice to wear.