Prologue


July 19th

'And to think, all I wanted was some lasagne,' thought Touma Kamijou as he ran down the sidewalk. "Fukoda!"

"Will you quit running!? What are you some kind machine!?" Yelled one of the reasons Touma was running.

"If I told you I was and that there'd be hell to pay for damaging me, would you believe me?" Touma called back.

"Like hell!" Replied reason No. 3.

"Your owners can send us the bill!" Reason No. 9 said.

"Well it was worth a shot," Touma muttered under his breath. A few more minutes of running, ducking and weaving had Touma wondering just why the hell he didn't go to town on these assholes.

That's when he remembered that his mother didn't like it when he got into fights and that he should only fight in self-defence or defence of others. Thinking about just who he was supposed to be protecting had him stay his hand.

But not his feet as even more dashing, sprinting and leaping pulled him further and further away from his pursuers. He had let them keep up so as to fool them into thinking that they didn't need to call in backup in the form of bikes and cars and such but now that they were tiring enough that he could jog and still outrun them he decided it was time to cut and run.

He made it all the way to the bridge before he finally slowed down to stop and take a little breather. He leaned onto the railing and looked out to sea. 'Whew, I thought I was never going to lose them,' he thought. 'What a way to kick off my vacation. Fukoda. Still though, I suppose it could have been worse.'

He supposed right. After all, in a city of 2.3 million people, in which 80% of the population possessed amazing abilities it was all too likely to meet someone who could blow your head off with single gesture. These were the Espers.

That's 1,840,000 people that you messed with at your own peril. Fortunately only 40% of those people could actually use their abilities to any practical degree which left 1,104,000 people that one might call a D-list superhero. These were the level zeroes.

On the other side of the spectrum you had the level one's to four. These people could use their abilities to some significant degree, thus pushing them out of the level zero caste.

And on the far, far side of that spectrum there were the level five's. The best of the best, the crème de la crème, the apple of Academy City's metaphorical eye. They were the strongest, smartest and most powerful Espers out there. If a regular Esper could kill you with a gesture these ones could kill you with a thought.

And to Touma's fortune one was coming towards him right now. To his misfortune that is. "What's with you?" A young, feminine voice called out. "Luring those delinquents away from me, what, do you think that makes you a Good Samaritan or something?"

"Or something, I suppose," Touma replied, still looking out to sea.

"You should look at someone when talking to them."

Touma just sighed and turned around, back still resting against the metal railing. "And what would you know about manners?" he asked. "The only reason I stepped in was to get those guys away from you."

"Wha-? Now who doesn't have manners? What are you trying to say?" The now flustered Mikoto Misaka replied indignantly.

"Oh nothing. Just that it's a cruel man that just stands aside while some poor fools piss off the Railgun," Touma said with a shrug.

"So you do know who I am. I realize I never told you my name during our last few encounters."

"It's hard not to know one of the seven most powerful people in the city," Touma said while turning back around to once again look out over the sea.

"So you know who I am but clearly you don't know what I can do, otherwise you wouldn't just turn your back on me," Mikoto said, while fishing around her pocket.

"Oh I am more than famil-"

*BOOM*

"GAH! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Touma cried out angrily while spinning around. "This! This is exactly what I mean when I say you have no manners! You could have blown my damn eardrum out!"

"Oh spare me," Mikoto huffed petulantly. "Ever since I became level five you're the only person who's tied with me in a fight. If you can't handle a railgun that doesn't even hit you I'm embarrassed to have to say that."

"Well whatever," Touma said, rolling his eyes. He once again turns from the ocean and makes to leave but before he could-

*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt*

Touma quickly turned around and brought up his hand to intercept the lightning bolt that was coming his way and after a few, brief moments the light finally faded.

"Ugh! Just who are you!? How can you negate my attacks so easily?" Mikoto cried, frustrated at the lack of any visible damage.

"I'd say that I'm the luckiest person in the world," Touma said. "But I don't really like lying so I won't. I'm just the Level 0 that's unlucky enough to have to deal with you.

"Why you little-" Mikoto growled. Whatever else she was going to say, however was drowned out by the veritable storm she summoned to strike down our misfortunate hero.

However Touma managed to evade the lightning she called down and heroically made his escape. Mikoto, whose attention was focused on summoning the lightning, couldn't muster the concentration needed to split her focus between the controlling the storm and giving chase. So she just had the storm chase Touma for her.


A/N: So this is a thing. This is my first fanfiction and hopefully it takes off because I've actually been thinking about this for a while and in anticipation for RWBY Vol. 4 what better way to celebrate?

For those of you upset about the lack of change or the lack of RWBY elements, be patient. It will all come together soon.
And one last thing; I'm not that great at Japanese suffixes and honorifics so don't expect to see too many of those.