Red leaves scattered around her.
Misaki took a seat under one of the trees. All the trees around her had red leaves. What a beautiful sight seeing the red leaves falling from the trees as if it was raining.
It was autumn.
She felt the soft breeze caressing her face.
Where did you go?
November 16th was a special day to her. It was the day when she finally had the chance to close up the distance between him and her... even if she had taken over another girl's mind as a proxy, but at least she had a chest comparable to her own chest.
When Misaki first met Touma during the Daihasei festival in person, an upset feeling lingered around her at being unable to say 'It's been a long time.'
This Touma in front of her wasn't that Touma she knew anymore.
The doctor told her that his memory was destroyed with zero chances of regaining his memory back. It was different from amnesia where Touma lost the ability to recall his past memories. Even her Mental Out can't do anything.
When she heard that, Misaki cried.
To her, Touma is as good as dead. All the things she wanted to tell him, she could no longer do so anymore. He may be 'alive', but there was no more meaning in telling him.
From the day when she found out about his memory loss, Misaki had been constantly observing this new Touma. This stranger who had taken over Touma's body.
But I think I'm might be falling in love with this stranger.
Would things be different if I met that Touma instead?
Misaki smiled as she thought about the very first encounter with Touma.
"Oh man. This is getting boring."
Misaki was in an alley.
In order to bring some fun and excitement into her life once again, she started going to alleys to seek out that mysterious person who could nullify other esper abilities.
This ability was so rare that only one person in Academy City has it.
Could he be that hidden Level 5?
Endless possibilities awaited Misaki. What secrets would she uncover if she met that person?
People say it's an urban rumor, so this person definitely doesn't exist. That's not true at all.
With her handbag full of remote controls, she continued deeper inside the alley.
Maybe I should just mind control people to search for that person, I'm so tired.
It felt like cheating to Misaki, and there was no fun and excitement in cheating.
Misaki rested her body against her wall, and took deep breaths. Her legs were burning due to the walking for the whole morning already.
The sun was shining overhead, the heat inflicting a stinging pain on Misaki's exposed skin.
It must be noon already.
Her stomach began to growl.
It's time for lunch.
Misaki clenched her fist, and pumped it high into the air.
Food will increase my people searching ability by 9000 points. I'll definitely find that guy! Don't give up, Misaki, your cake and tea can wait.
After saying that self-motivational speech which never succeeded in motivating her, Misaki turned left to the exit.
This place is so dirty, I wonder what they do here.
Beer bottles were thrown everywhere. Rubbish was overflowing from that small trash can to her right. A black cat appeared out of nowhere and ran past her.
A cold, sharp blade pressed against the back of her neck. Then, an arm wrapped tightly around her neck, and the blade was now on her face.
"Give me your handbag."
Thugs started appearing from the various pathways in front of Misaki.
One of the thugs said, "Yeah missy, drop that fucking handbag. If you do anything funny, we'll just draw something funny on your face with that blade."
Misaki threw away the handbag.
Her remote controls that enabled her to mind control people was gone.
Like sharks, the thugs ransacked her handbag for anything valuable.
They fished out a wallet, and swiped the 200k yen inside.
"As expected of a rich missy from Tokiwaidai."
Because Misaki was wearing her uniform, the thugs could tell. Not only that, she was a girl with a well-endowed chest that could put many other girls to shame. Her other features were equally attractive... but whether one would call having literal starry eyes as attractive was dependent on the individual.
One girl and six guys including the one behind Misaki inside an alley with nobody around can only mean one thing.
"Hey missy, why don't you help us out?"
They started fiddling with their pants.
Misaki could see what was coming. It was so painfully obvious.
If I wasn't wearing gloves, I could just touch one or two of them and escape.
She grimaced at her only way to escape.
I hate alleys. I'll never come to an alley ever again. To hell with that mysterious person shit.
Misaki panted heavily.
"I don't know why, but it's tingling down there."
She reached inside her skirt.
"Oh my, it's getting wetter. I need... someone to remove that tingling feeling. Please?"
Misaki took off her uniform top, revealing a black bra underneath.
To see such an attractive girl like Misaki acting like a slut from a porn movie shocked the thugs. Lust clouded their mind, and without suspecting anything strange, one of the thugs dragged Misaki into his arms.
"When you're done, it's my turn okay?" The thug who was behind Misaki said.
"Yeah, yeah."
Misaki took off her gloves and touched that thug's face.
Just two more to go.
She gently pushed aside that thug already under her control.
Using one hand each, Misaki touched the arms of two more thugs.
The thug behind Misaki just now felt that something was wrong.
For a moment, he was momentarily blinded by lust, but after calming down and analyzing the situation, this girl must be doing this to activate her esper ability so that she can escape.
There's no way a girl will suddenly act so slutty unless she had an escape plan in mind.
The problem was her ability. What was her ability?
It must be telepathic based because if it was something like Telekinesis, she wouldn't have to resort to this.
Shit.
"Run away from her!"
Five thugs with stars in their eyes looked menacingly at the last thug with a knife in his hand.
It was too late.
Misaki picked up her handbag, and took out a remote.
"You scums are better off cancelling Father's Day off the calendar... if you get what I mean."
With a cold smirk, she pressed the button.
The thug with the knife slammed his foot into Misaki's abdomen.
"Wh-What the hell? How is it possible?!"
She dropped her remote and clutched her abdomen in pain.
The thug waved his knife as he stomped down on Misaki, keeping his foot planted firmly on her.
"Signal Distort. It may be Level 3... but it's enough to deal with mind controlling espers like you."
The thug's ability allowed him to distort any incoming waves such as telepathic or radio waves. Since he distorted Misaki's telepathic wave, her Mental Out would not work on him.
"Have you forgotten one thing?" Misaki said.
"What?"
"Those five thugs under my control."
Nothing happened. Misaki couldn't understand what was going on.
Fear filled her body from the inside, sucking all her strength away.
The thug shook his head, "Your telepathic wave won't reach them. That's because I've distorted the signal. I can change my ability to Signal Conversion if I reached Level 4... but I can't seem to break that barrier."
Damn it!
Misaki cursed her luck.
Why did she have to encounter an esper with an ability that can counter her Mental Out.
"I wonder how should I dispose of you?" The thug said, looking at his knife.
Putting on a longing and desperate expression, Misaki said. "Maybe you can penetrate me and then spray your load all over my slutty body... like hell!"
Taking advantage of a half second delay due to that thug fantasizing over her suggestion with its effectiveness enhanced by her facial expression, Misaki grabbed his leg, pushing it upwards. Losing his balance, he fell hard on the ground.
The thug sprang back on his feet, charging towards Misaki with his knife.
She hurled a beer bottle at the side of his face, and Misaki sprinted towards the exit.
If this was a 100m race, her speed would definitely at least defeat Misaka Mikoto, who always came in 2nd or 3rd in running.
When Misaki escaped that nightmare alley, people were looking at her with strange faces.
She realized that her bra was exposed from taking off her uniform top just now.
I'm going to die of shame! And I don't have my remote to erase the shame.
Halfway into Misaki's sprint towards a nearby clothes store, she knocked into a passerby.
The coffee that the passerby had in his hand spilled all over her hair and face, with some trickling inside her bra as well.
This passerby who had black, spiky hair, instead of looking apologetic, or maybe aroused, he looked at Misaki with a bored yet slightly annoyed face.
"Such misfortune."
Wearing only a bra with her skirt still on, and with coffee all over her, this was how Shokuhou Misaki met this guy named Kamijou Touma for the first time.
Author's Note: Instead of writing AU, I'm now trying to write something that tries to fit within canon. This is basically my interpretation of how Touma and Misaki met in canon. Beyond Friendship is my AU version of the two meeting, and this is my canon version I guess.
This is actually something I'm writing for fun, so... I may not update this story as much, but we'll see.
It's also a story inspired by a song called Late In Autumn by fripSide. I wonder if you've listened to that song before, it's a really nice song. If you understand the lyrics, you'll probably know the direction of this story.
Though it's a short chapter, but hope you like it all the same :)