Just so everybody knows, I'm writing this fanfic under the assumption that everyone reading this has watched the entirety of To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. With this in mind, I understand that not everyone watched TAKnR, and that a few people here might not have even watched TAMnI. Regardless, I'm writing under the assumption that everyone has watched everything that has happened up to this point in the story.

As a second note, this fanfic takes place 4 years after the end of the anime, placing Mikoto in her final year of high school with Kuroko and the others still a year behind her.

Chapter 1: And the Story Starts Once More

Reimu kicked a small rock in his path, shooting it down the road and watching as it attempted to curve, though it suddenly hit an invisible barrier and bounced directly back in front of his path before stopping and getting kicked further down the road.

Of all the dumb shit to be shipped off for, why did it have to be school? Reimu suddenly found himself holding another conversation within his mind, something that happened frequently when he had nothing else to do. It's not like I need the training or anything, and I have to force my powers to their lowest limits to get them all tested without blowing a hole in the facility… Reimu laughed softly, remembering the expressions on the face of the scientist who was in charge of recording his results the day before he left. He had been testing a new power and thought he'd get it tested along the others like every other time his power adapted, but ended up tearing through nearly a mile of concrete and titanium when he forgot to hold back. Maybe that's why they were happy to ship me off… Meh, Japan's not a bad place for espers, and it's not like the girls in Academy City are ugly…

Reimu's train of thought stopped suddenly when he slammed into a moderately soft object and found himself staring at the sky with a slight pain in the back of his head.

"Sorry about that…" He quickly apologized, not even bothering to look at who he had bumped into.

"You should watch where you're walking." A girl's voice rang out.

Reimu looked up to find himself staring at a short girl with brown hair that ended near her elbows. Reimu instantly recognized the uniform and armband she was wearing, as he'd be wearing a similar set of clothes once he figured out his living arrangements.

"You're from Judgment, right?"

"I am." The girl replied, looking moderately irritated.

Reimu took a moment to reach into a nearly overflowing bag that had fallen off his shoulder when he fell, withdrawing a map and small set of instructions.

"I'm looking for Toukuugawa High."

The girl took a step back and looked at him with a mixture of surprise and irritation before regaining her composure and walking toward him.

"If I might ask…" The girl started speaking as she traced over the path the instructions gave on the map for him. "What year are you?"

"2nd year." He replied almost immediately, looking slightly confused about her question.

"I see… Anyway, follow that path and you'll be there in twenty minutes." The girl continued, her irritation appearing to be rising by the second.

"I didn't get your name." Reimu said, putting up an innocent looking smile.

"Shirai Kuroko."

"Kouji Reimu." Reimu's smile brightened to an impossible degree. "I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."

"Of course." With the blunt reply, Kuroko walked off in the direction she had come from, turned the nearest corner and teleported away.

Reimu laughed softly and followed the path she had drawn, wishing she had at least drawn it with something other than her finger.

Upon arriving at the school's dorms, Reimu was immediately escorted in by an elderly lady and placed in his room just as fast, making him seem like he was being hidden from the rest of the students.

At least the girl from earlier was cute. And she was wearing the 2nd year uniform too, so it's not like it'll be difficult to find her. And even if I can't find her at school, she's in Judgment. I'll just need a decent enough excuse to find out which branch she's in, then go talk to her.

Reimu laughed softly, thinking that he was starting to sound like a stalker now.

Reimu's first day of school started off just like he expected. He went to the staff room to introduce himself, then headed to his homeroom. What he didn't expect is for Kuroko to knock her desk over as he began writing his name on the board and introducing himself to his new classmates.

"If I might ask, what exactly are you doing here?" Kuroko didn't waste any time assaulting him with the question when he sat down.

"Am I not allowed to go to school now?"

"I meant, why are you in my class?"

"Because that's where I was sent."

"And you're prepared for today's System Scan?"

"I don't ever prepare."

"You're going to have quite the fun time then."

"Is your System Scan stricter than most schools here?"

"No, I just meant that you're going to have a hard time if you haven't prepared yourself."

Reimu merely rolled his eyes and continued listening to the announcements the teacher was giving.

"Kouji Reimu, Misaka Mikoto, Shokuhou Misaki, please report to the special testing grounds for your System Scans."

The message relayed over the intercom gave Reimu a good two minutes worth of laughter before he started choking and coughing, still pointing at Kuroko's surprised face and looking like he wanted to continue laughing at it.

"You're a Level 5?" She blurted out, not waiting for him to stop coughing.

"Let's go with that…" Reimu managed to reply before coughing again.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Reimu merely waved dismissively at her and headed to the special testing grounds. The first things he noticed were that he was indeed the only boy being tested here, and the two girls also being tested seemed rather irritated at him.

"So you're the 'new danger' the teachers were talking about earlier today?" Misaki stated bluntly, not even attempting to be subtle.

"Why does everyone here have a problem with me today?"

"Because you showed up on the day of System Scans and were revealed to be a high level esper that nobody had heard of." Mikoto chimed in.

Reimu shook his head slightly and bowed to the girls in front of him, surprising them slightly.

"Kouji Reimu. It's a pleasure to meet you Misaka-senpai, Shokuhou-senpai."

Before the two surprised girls could respond, a small group of researchers had walked toward the small group and began explaining their System Scans.

"Blast radius: 57 meters. Plume height: 179 meters. Overall level: Level 5." A woman's voice read off numbers over an intercom after Reimu's power blew a hole in the pool, ripping through water and concrete alike with relative ease.

"I have to admit…" Mikoto began speaking as she walked toward him. "Instant destruction of a given point in space is pretty cool, but it doesn't explain your nickname…"

"It was a choice between Adapter and Blower Upper, so it wasn't hard to make a decision." Reimu replied bluntly.

Of course, the girls didn't need to know what his real ability and level were. It would scare them far too much if they found out. That's why he only tested one ability today, and he made sure it was an ability he could use on a daily basis while working for Judgment too.

"Something just doesn't seem right about your power though." Misaki stated, pulling up a long list on her phone and showing it to them. "These are all the recorded level 5s in the world, but Kouji-san doesn't appear anywhere on it." She scrolled to where Reimu's name should have been in the list, giving her words some proof.

"That's because I'm not registered under level 5." He quickly replied before walking away, leaving the two girls to stare at his retreating figure as he returned to the dorms.

There are only so many vague things you can say before intelligent people start piecing together what you're talking about. That's why I don't like people asking questions about my powers. There's no way I can hide my power level, but I can still keep my true power a secret if I'm careful. That's why I hate other level 5s knowing each other. It makes keeping my level a secret pretty difficult.

Reimu woke up drenched in sweat, a particularly bad dream still fresh in his mind as he got out of bed and began preparing for the day. After getting his uniform on and stuffing his Judgment armband in his pocket, Reimu walked out the door and walked the 50 feet to school, aware that all eyes were turned to him as he marched forward in determined silence.

I didn't think high school students were this spiteful to people they don't know… It was taking all of Reimu's concentration to not blow a chunk of the sidewalk up as a warning, but he somehow managed to stay calm despite picking up on a few of the insults and rumors directed at him. If only they knew what I can do with my full power… Reimu shook his head slightly, trying to rid himself of the thought.

As Reimu continued to walk through the halls of the school, he heard an alarm in the distance, followed by nearly 3 dozen Judgment members flying out of their classrooms and racing around to find their partners, some of whom were already helping to keep the other students from panicking.

"Today's gonna be busy…" Reimu muttered to himself, happy that he didn't need a partner assigned to him. Not that the 177th division had any people to spare, but the higher ups knew he would be fine by himself after working for Judgment in America for 10 years.

"What are you doing Kouji? You're coming with me until I can find Uiharu." Kuroko appeared out of nowhere and dashed off just as quickly, teleporting every so often and leaving Reimu happy that he was more in shape than the average person.

Don't cause problems, don't reveal your level, and don't let people find out about your power. I'm going to regret promising those three things, but for now I've got to help people as much as I can. With that simple thought, Reimu pulled his Judgment armband from his pocket and ran after Kuroko, using his "Instant Destruction" to propel himself using small mid-air explosions. But the people who will regret those promises the most are the fools who don't realize that my power keeps evolving even when they aren't watching me.

I know this was pretty short for an introduction chapter, but I wanted everyone to get a sense of how Reimu gets treated due to his sudden appearance in Academy City (not that Kuroko is the most helpful person in the first place) and to begin to highlight the circumstances of why he is so vague about his abilities.

As Mikoto explained, "Instant Destruction" is an ability that collapses an area of space upon itself (similar to a black hole), then forcefully ejects that space to create explosions of varying degrees (small space, small explosion, etc.), making it rather similar to the graviton manipulators but with more room to work with. I'm sure it was pretty simple to tell, but Reimu doesn't just have one power, and as he put it, his ability constantly evolves even when others don't know about it.

If anyone bothered to do the math, Reimu had been in Judgment since he was six, and the specific circumstances behind his enrollment at such an early age will be introduced at some point later in the story.

I'll leave Kuroko to finish the rest of this for me.

"Honestly, you shouldn't leave other people to clean up your mess when you can deal with it properly by yourself… A-anyway, please review this idiot's work and wait patiently for the next chapter when he feels the urge to sit down for twenty minutes and type it out."