The new Number 2 stared at the letter in something approaching horror. He knew things hadn't been going too well for a few years now, but he had never dreamed he would be… demoted like this. Yes, he was weaker now, but he should still have been stronger than anyone else. It didn't make sense. He crumpled up the letter and threw it in the garbage. He missed.
This… THIS was probably why he had been demoted. It didn't matter that he wasn't as strong as before. It was the fact that he could only use his powers for a few minutes at a time. That was it. Probably. Or maybe it was that the rankings were based on research potential and not strength, like someone had once mentioned to him. That didn't really help much; what kind of ability had better research potential than his?
He flipped through the rest of his mail, coming across a letter with "HELLO ACCELERATOR!" written on it in big friendly handwriting. Of all that had happened today, this was probably the most unexpected. Who would send him a letter like this? Opening it up, all of his confusion just turned back into rage.
"Hi! My name is Takeru Yamamoto and I'm the new #1 ranked level 5! Hopefully we can be friends! Maybe see you soon!"
Oh god, if Accelerator ever got his hands on this guy, he was dead. The double exclamation point was what had sealed it. He hadn't realized it was possible to hate someone you had never met or interacted with this much, but this letter was mocking him, and that would not stand.
That would not stand.
Mikoto Misaka turned over the letter in her hands. She had known it was coming; Academy City had recently promoted four more espers to Level 5, and as a result had had to rework the rankings. Still, she couldn't help but worry. What if she had dropped down? If Shokuhou was ranked above her, she wouldn't be able to stand it. She just couldn't.
Bracing herself, she opened the letter. She was ranked fourth now. Not so bad, she told herself, but it still stung a little. She'd probably find out who had bumped her down soon enough; people loved to gossip about the Level Fives.
The new Number 1 had hung the letter on his wall so that it would be the first thing he saw every morning. He had wanted to write home about it, but the man who had delivered it had said he should try to be as inconspicuous as possible. He couldn't help but giggle a little; inconspicuous was no problem for him. And he was fairly certain that man hadn't seen him since. And neither had the other man, the one with the offer.
That Accelerator guy was pretty scary, though. He really, really didn't want to get into a fight with him. Takeru doubted he could get through that always-on reflection field of his if it came to that. Or rather, it depended on exactly how it worked…
Still, if it came to that, he could definitely get away. Definitely. Probably. Almost certainly.
He fell asleep looking at the letter on his wall.