"You're nothing special."

That's what I have been told since I was five. Not just by bullies, either; my friends, my teachers… even my own father said that to me. I wanted more than anything to prove them wrong. But I had no chance. When would I have my chance to shine? I was upset by the thought of losing, so I kept struggling. That's when I heard about it: a chance to prove them wrong.

When I was nine, my father was talking to one of his associates at a formal party about a city that was so famous for its "special" students. All I needed to hear was "special" and I asked my father immediately.

At first, he laughed and said, "Son, please. That city is far above your abilities."

However, a year later, I was on a train bound for the city of special people. While on the train, I had time to think. I had just signed my life away to a strange place that I was unfamiliar with, as well as the fact that I wouldn't be living with my parents anymore. Somehow, I was more enticed than ever. That is, until all these rumors started going around the train.

"Did you know? They say that He was finally defeated!"

"Did you hear? Some guy who's a Level 0 beat the Rank One Level 5!"

Level this and level that kept being thrown around by kids the same age as me, and even stranger words by the older students. Things like "AIM" and "Personal Reality"… it was all Greek to me.

The train arrived at a platform about an hour later. According to the letter my father had given me before I left, I was the third platform.

I went to the conductor with the sheet of paper, and he told me, "That stop is about ninety-four miles that way. It'll be about another hour." I looked in the direction he was pointing, but all I could see was trees. So I bit my lip and went back to the seats. I was so curious about this "special city" that I could hardly sleep at all on the way there. At the second stop, the conductor and some engineer told the passengers that there was going to be a delay. Bored, I decided to go look around to see if there was anything of better interest. Being only ten, many things could've interested me.

I found a shop that sold cellphones, of which I would buy later. I decided to browse the shop, looking at all the different accessories to go with the most up-to-date phones: headphones, Bluetooth, and lots of home accessories. I laid my eyes on an iPod with 16 gigabytes of memory.

One of the store clerks must have seen me looking at it, because she came over and said, "Would you like to buy that?" I snapped straight up and turned to her, startled by her sudden appearance. As I calmed down, she seemed to just realize that I was a kid. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry," she said. "Are you lost?" I leered at her. Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I don't have money. Of course, I didn't say that aloud.

As I left the store, an announcement from the station stated that the train would be leaving in ten minutes. Realizing that I had just enough time to rush back, I did so. Around this time, however, there were lots of people crowding the streets, making it even harder to get back to the station. As I entered the platform area, I bumped into someone – a middle-school girl with brown, short hair who was wearing a high-class uniform.

I quickly got up to apologize, but the girl grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. "If you're in a hurry," she said kindly, "don't worry about apologies." She ran towards the train, still gripping my wrist. I tried to break free, but she was very strong.

As we boarded the train, she let my arm go (which, mind you, had a red mark on it from her monster grip). The girl caught her breath, and then she turned to me.

"Now then," she stated. "Where are you headed?" I looked at her. She looked back with a sort of glow, as if she was really glowing.

I snapped out of my trance and said, "I'm going… here." I pulled out the map my father had given me, to which she looked at and smiled.

"What a coincidence," she said. "I'm headed back to Academy City, too."

That name stuck with me: Academy City. It had a good ring to it.

The girl scanned me, as if to see if I had an ID. "Which school are you going to?"

I told her that I would be arriving at Academy City for the first time. "I wanted to become one of the special people here," I told her proudly.

"You wanted to become one of the special people?" She repeated. She sat down and took a deep breath.

"Listen," she started, "Academy City isn't all just studying and shopping. There are times when your life can be on the line because of a simple comment."

I looked at her, puzzled. She apparently didn't notice, though, because she gasped and said loudly, "Introductions! We haven't introduced ourselves!" She stood up again, and said, "My name is Mikoto Misaka." She extended her hand in greeting.

"Nice to meet you…" I extended my hand in return, and said, "My name is Akari Tsukiyume. It's very nice to meet you."

As she shook my hand, she stated, "You have really good manners." She turned away and made a face, then added, "Unlike someone I could name…" I politely ignored the last comment and sat down. She turned back my way and sat down next to me. "If it will be your first time in Academy City, do you need a hand finding places?"

I shook my head. "The lady my dad was talking to told me that she would set everything up for me." Misaka-san nodded, and then leaned back in her seat.

When we finally arrived at the station, Misaka-san waved as she dashed off of the platform. "Sorry," she yelled, "I'd love to hang out, but I'm meeting some friends at a diner!" I nodded and waved back as she disappeared into the large crowd of people. Since it was getting crowded, I decided to also rush off the platform.

When I got outside the platform gates, I was amazed. All around me, probably for miles across, there were tall buildings and bustling streets. Most, if not all of the people seemed to be in some sort of school uniform; the obvious differentiations in the school uniforms would be easy to remember. I had already memorized Misaka-san's high-class uniform.

As I walked into the streets of people, I heard someone calling my name.

"Tsukiyume-kun! Akari Tsukiyume-kun! Over here!"

I turned to the direction of the voice to see two people; Karizaki-senpai – the woman that my father had been discussing about my arrangements – and an unfamiliar man. I walked over to the two and asked, "Who are you?"

The man smiled warmly and bowed to me. "Nice to meet you, Tsukiyume-kun," he said lightly. "I'm going to be your teacher, as well as your dorm's vice headmaster."

I bowed in return and introduced myself. "My name is Akari Tsukiyume. It's nice to meet you too, Sensei."

Karizaki-senpai smiled, and motioned for me to follow her. "There'll be time for other introductions later," she said. "For now, let's go get you what you'll need to survive here."

As we were walking, I asked Karizaki-senpai, "What are we going to get?"

She smiled. "The basics for a student, of course," she said. "Let's see… for you, we'll need paper, pencils, a laptop…"

I sighed. It was the same as it was back at home. She glanced at me, and then added, "…as well as a cellphone and a PRD."

I looked up to her. "What's a PRD?" I asked. She shook her head and said, "You don't need to know for now."

The first building we went to was a large shopping center. I think it said "Seventh Mist" or something… What a strange name. Anyway, we walked about four minutes through the store before we came across an electronics store.

It seemed like the one I was at earlier and this one were similar outlets. As we entered, I noticed that this outlet was much bigger than the other one… much bigger. I stood in awe of the mass amounts of electronic devices: cellphones, modems, computers of all brands, and many other things that I couldn't name.

A clerk walked over to me, along with Karizaki-senpai. He showed me the differences between the models of computers and cellphones that they had. All of them had the same basic features, like call, text, and touch-command. To me, it was all amazing.

"For future caution, I recommend these," the clerk said. He held out two cellphones: one with a holographic touchscreen that cost $200 and another one with a regular touchscreen that was $50 less. Of course I chose the cooler one.

He then showed me the best laptops, of which I actually chose carefully. The first choice was a blue-lined laptop with 2 terabytes of space. It seemed good, but the weakness annoyed me- that is, it seemed like it would break on a dime. The second choice was the same, except that the hard-drive was sold separately. I disregarded that one completely.

However, when the clerk went to the back and returned with a thin, 48 gigabyte laptop encased in a stainless steel case, I completely forgot the other computers. The electronics department was now done with.

Before we left, Karizaki-senpai bought two more items: an mp3 player with 32 gigabytes of space, and something else, which I concluded was the "PRD" from earlier.

"I expect that you'll be wise using these," she said, handing me the items. I put the items in one of my bags. "Next," she said, "would be school supplies."

Karizaki-senpai started walking towards another part of the store. As I started to follow her, I noticed that the whole building was getting more and more crowded. Without really noticing, I bumped into someone about three feet taller than me. I must have hit him hard, because I landed on the ground as he turned to face me.

I looked up quickly and began to say "I'm sorry", but he picked me up with one hand by my collar. His red eyes glared at me, as if I just attacked him.

"I'm so sorry," I said, my heartbeat quickening from the fear. He said nothing, but his face growled "Don't touch me".

For a second, I thought I saw a spark come from his silver hair, but I was too scared to really notice.

He threw me back to the ground without so much as a word, then turned and walked away.

Karizaki-senpai helped me get up after seeing the guy throw me to the ground. Her glare followed him as she said, "What a rude boy!" She turned to me again, and asked, "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "He only picked me up," I said.

She looked at me, and then sighed. "Well, then let's go get those supplies."

We hurried to the next area to get the supplies, being careful to avoid another dangerous accident. Supposedly, the best school goods store was four stores away from the electronics store. I was hoping that we wouldn't run into anymore unfortunate figures – to my luck, there were no more dangerous people or creatures of the like. In fact, by the time we could see the store, the crowd had died down a lot.

Unlike the last store, which seemed full of futuristic devices, this store was just like a supermarket at home. There were a couple electronic items, but none as high-bred as my new cellphone.

We were in and out within twenty minutes. Everything was in one place because of the new trimester starting, and because it was already getting late, there weren't many people around. I looked around. The few people left in the mall were students from the same school and employees… and one other person, whom I recognized immediately.

"Misaka-san!" I yelled. I ran toward her, not even hesitating to ask or tell where I was going. However, when she turned around, I couldn't tell if it was Misaka or not. Her eyes seemed lifeless, and she didn't seem to recognize me.

"'Who are you?'" she said, "'and how do you know Onee-sama?' asks MISAKA as she looks at the odd little boy."

It was obviously not Misaka-san.

"Um, are you Misaka-san's twin sister?" I asked hesitantly.

The girl's eyes seemed emotionless compared to the Misaka-san that I knew; also, she seemed slightly shorter than her.

The girl stared at me as she repeated, "MISAKA repeats herself: 'Who are you, and how do you know Onee-sama?'" I stumbled over my words for a second or two, but I quickly tried to recompose myself.

"Uh, I'm Akari Tsukiyume."

She stared at me with an almost glare-like expression. I didn't know what else to say.

"Misaka-san helped me out in the next town over."

This made the girl's expression change to a calmer look. "' MISAKA will believe you.' MISAKA trusts the strange boy's words, and walks away," she said as she walked away. I was completely stupefied by the strange act that Misaka's… "sister" displayed.

"Tsukiyume-kun, please don't run off like that." Karizaki-senpai walked up behind me as I watched "Misaka" walk away. I turned to Karizaki-senpai. "I'm sorry," I said. "I thought I knew that person."