Tomoe Ibiki frowned was frowning as she looked down at the bench she was standing behind, an obvious expression of confliction on her face. Lying spread out across the bench was a young brown haired girl in a pink and white aodai. The Vietnamese clothing resembled more of a pair of pajamas on the girl as she was apparently asleep in it.

Tomoe Ibiki was a member of Judgment, the school run organization that corrected errant students. This girl on the bench was clearly a high school student somewhere between fifteen and sixteen. As a Judgment member, Tomoe had an obvious job to do. But the people passing through the park only saw Tomoe frozen in place as she dithered. A child even pointed in her direction to catch his mother's attention, but Tomoe ignored them.

Finally, the brown haired girl shifted and cracked one eye open, taring at Tomoe with her brown iris.

"…You can keep staring, but your body won't grow to match Misaka's proportions."

Tomoe's cheeks reddened immediately at that and she puffed her chest out indignantly.

"I am the top student of Shiragakuen, a school nearly at the same level as Tokiwadai! I have perfect grades and a bright future ahead of me! J-Just because my body isn't as developed as yours doesn't mean I go around staring at others in sheer jealousy!"

"Oh…? Then why were you staring at Misaka's sleeping form? Don't tell me you were admiring Misakas proportions for…other reasons?"

"No! Stop assuming such things without any shame on that face of yours! And is referring to yourself in the third person supposed to be cute? Illeism is certainly no way to become popular!"

Tomoe took a deep breath to calm herself as she brushed her dark braids back behind her shoulders and displayed the Judgment band that was around her arm.

"I am from Judgment. The park is not a place where you can sleep as you please. Academy City has lots of spare dormitories and boarding homes where you can go, especially since your school probably provides one. This is nothing short of loitering."

"You say this, but you didn't wake Misaka up."

"I was just stunned that there was anyone so brash as to sleep on a bench in plain sight dressed like that! It's nearly ten in the morning, you know!"

"But this Misaka has a night life. I didn't go to sleep until about two in the morning and I didn't feel like returning to my home where there is a pleasant aura. Misaka figured she'd make someone worry for a bit before returning so he can show his compassion in a tsundere manner. Thinking that, Misaka can hardly help herself!"

Tomoe pinched the bridge of her nose as the high school girl grinned sinisterly at the thought. Seeing that the girl was no longer paying attention to her, Tomoe drew out a pair of handcuffs from her belt and reached over for the girl's hands. The sound of pedestrians and people riding by on bikes suddenly vanished from the air and the high school girl blinked in confusion as she hit one of her ears with the side of her palm, wondering why she could not hear anything. It was at the last second that she noticed Tomoe slipping the cuff around her wrist out of the corner of her eye, but it was too late for her to withdraw her hand. Had sound been working, a loud crack would have been heard along with a spark that sent Tomoe flying back on her butt, her fingers tingling from the shock. Tomoe frowned as she looked up at the girl smirking heinously down at her, now standing on her feet. That clearly hadn't been static. Purple electricity was fluttering around the girl's bangs as if she were charged like a battery. Tomoe pushed herself up as sound returned to their ears.

"So you're an electromaster, huh?" Tomoe said as she clipped the metal handcuffs to her belt. "I guess I'll have to subdue you."

"Misaka should warn you; she's a level 4." The high school girl's smile widened as she licked her lips hungrily.

"Funny." Tomoe smiled slightly in anticipation as she stood up and brushed the dirt off of her skirt. "I'm a level 4 as well. Call me Tremor Noise."

The two prepared to clash in spite of the surrounding bystanders now gathering in order to clash, neither looking interested in backing down.


Inside a building camouflaged among Academy City's countless facilities, a group of men in lab coats sat in front of computers, tapping away on a keyboard. A single man in a suit was pacing among them, eyes focused on the large glass window overlooking a massive room the size of a hangar below them. Inside this room, countless 'pods' existed, though there was no way to see inside them.

"Preparations have been complete." One of the men in lab coats spoke as he turned his chair around to face the man in the suit. "We've been given the green light to continue."

"Where is Kihara?"

"He said that he prefers to work on the field at this point of the operation and is going to be contacting Antiskill. He says he's excited to begin."

The man in the suit sighed. He'd expected as much. The Kiharas were geniuses and their success partly came from their willingness to be directly and physically involved in their experiments. He'd heard a rumor that a group of them had even been sent out of Academy City to use their superior technology against actually people who were supposedly rebelling against the city of technology.

"Let's begin accessing the Misaka Network, then."


Misaka Worst's eyes bugged and Tomoe paused in mid-motion. They had been about to begin trading blows when the high school girl had suddenly froze in place and began to jerk around as if she were having convulsions. Tomoe wondered for a moment if the girl's electric abilities were going haywire before Misaka Worst suddenly collapsed to the ground and moaned audibly.

Tomoe stared at her for a long moment, considering whether she should take the chance to arrest her. But something felt off about it. Somehow, Tomoe doubted that the girl had just fallen unconscious without any injuries. Tomoe looked around to see if a doctor was convenient passing by, but rather than being disappointed, she was shocked. There was no one in the park now—no pedestrians or otherwise. Even the unmanned cleaning robots had vanished, strangely, leaving the two alone. Tomoe had been sure that there had been people waiting to spectate the fight. Where had they gone?

Rather than worrying too much about it, Tomoe hurried over to the girl's side and knelt on the ground to feel her pulse.

"Please step away from her."

Tomoe's shoulders jumped as she was startled by the sudden voice. She looked up to see several people in military-like padding and helmets marching toward her. They didn't have their shields or guns with them, so it was unlikely that they came to subdue an esper.

"Antiskill?" Tomoe murmured aloud in confusion. Had someone called them? "This student is injured. She should be brought straight to a hospital—"

"That's exactly why we're here." One of the Antiskill soldiers assured. "We'd received a call that there was an unconscious ability user who needed to be attended. This is a job for Antiskill, so as a member of Judgment, you can leave it to us."

Tomoe struggled with herself as she watched the Antiskill members pick up Misaka Worst and take her to a waiting ambulance by the street before driving away. Antiskill was a volunteer group of teachers who basically did the same thing as Judgment, but on a more extreme level, such as if an esper went wild and destroyed everything with his powers. They were not all-knowing, so how did they know that there was an unconscious girl with enough time to arrive just a few moments after she actually collapsed? Had someone assumed one of the girls was going to get hurt and called them? No; even if that were so, there wouldn't have been enough time—Just two minutes ago, Tomoe had be staring at a sleeping Misaka Worst. No one would have predicted this. It was possible that an esper with some sort of clairvoyance was present, but that was far too unlikely. That means the only people who could have called Antiskill—"

"It's a pity that your show was cut short. For what it's worth, I can apologize for you."

Tomoe whirled around to see a young man, probably in his junior year of high school, standing behind her with a calm expression as if he'd been there the whole time. He had dirty blonde hair, emerald eyes, and wore a sweater vest and tie. He stood with her arms folded behind his back as he bowed his head slightly in greeting to Tomoe.

"Good morning, Ms. Ibiki. Are you disappointed that you could not finish your skirmish with the level 4 electromaster? I am afraid that I cannot offer you much consolation. After all, I did little to prevent this from happening."

Tomoe's eyes narrowed slightly. This person had a vague accent that told her that Japanese was probably his second language, or that he had at least grown up learning a different language along with it. His knowing tone and slightly rapid speech pattern told her that he was obviously no innocent bystander.

"Who are you?"

"Me? I am nothing but a ghost. A ghost who appears when needed but is never around when looked for. You may call me Alexander if you like."

It was him.

Tomoe could tell that he had something to do with this. As she thought, this had been orchestrated. The only people who could have called Antiskill with such wonderful timing could be the people who caused her to faint.

Tomoe's face hardened as her hands gripped together.

"How did you do it?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Knock out that girl. How on earth did you knock her out without touching her?"

"Oho, so you've grown curious, have you? I'd been happy to divulge to you the secret if you behave yourself—"

Tomoe snapped her fingers and a shockwave flew through the air, smashing into the ground at Alexander's feet. Several cracks appeared in the ground, spreading in all directions, and the sound in the air stopped for a moment before continuing once more. Alexander smiled serenely as he observed Tomoe's piercing glare.

"By behaving, this is the opposite of what I meant."

"A student was hurt right before my eyes. I'm not patient enough to hear you talk in circles."

"Heh. I see." Alexander spread his arms out in front of him as he spoke casually. "So you'd use violence to make our conversation progress faster? Are you that desperate to save a girl you hardly knew—?"

Alexander was in the middle of speaking when Tomoe shot forward suddenly by sending a shockwave directly through the air behind her, propelling her body forward at the speed of sound at the cost of toppling several trees and benches behind her. Her fist was positioned to ram into Alexander's gut as she was unable to control her body against the g-force. The speed was too much for a normal person to evade and Alexander was still in the middle of speaking as her fist approached with an inch of impact, so blocking was out of the question.

Even so, Tomoe's fist passed through empty air.

Alexander had completely vanished from sight in order to evade Tomoe's attack. Tomoe's eyes widened as she skidded to a stop and turned around to see Alexander reappear a few feet away from where he had been standing and a few inches in the air, his Pikolinos tapping on the cracked ground as he landed softly.

Tomoe's gaze narrowed as Alexander's shoulders shook as if in anger. She was proven wrong as Alexander's laugher filled the air as he tilted his head back. Tomoe's body tensed as she crouched slightly, a strange fear gripping her chest.

"You'd introduced your ability as 'Tremor Noise', yes? From what I can see, you can control vibrations to create shockwaves and controls sound. It's a very interesting ability. Compared to that, I can only call myself one of many teleporting espers. My ego is suffering."

Tomoe clicked her tongue at this. Teleport-type espers were useful in countless ways, but their ability offered them little to no combat ability. Also, they had a limit to where they could teleport, especially if they didn't know the place that well.

Tomoe raised one hand once more and snapped her fingers. A shockwave shot forward toward Alexander's back, as he had yet to turn to face her. Tomoe waited a single beat before stomping on the ground and created an omnidirectional shockwave of vibrating energy that spread out from her as the epicenter. The ground shook along with the air, creating a minor quake over the surface of the ground. It had enough power to shellshock an animal with eardrums with pure sound. Predicting that Alexander would teleport to evade the first shockwave, she created the omnidirectional second one to hit him wherever he may teleport to.

It did not turn out the way she expected. The first shockwave, along with the second, passed over Alexander, but he showed no signs of being harmed. It should have thrown him several feet back, but he didn't even cringe. Several cracks appeared in the ground around and beneath him, so Tomoe knew that her ability had reached him, but he hadn't teleported to evade it. Tomoe was forced to hesitate as she struggled to think of a new course of action, which was difficult to do when she didn't have a clue as to how the attacks had passed through him.

Then she saw one of the pebbles that had been knocked flying from her shockwaves fly toward Alexander. Rather than bouncing off of him harmlessly, it passed through him as if he weren't there. Alexander's earlier words floated into Tomoe's mind at that moment.

Was he a ghost?

Tomoe shook her head to rid herself of that unscientific thought. His abilities must have had rules and limits. She just had to figure it out.

Alexander turned to face Tomoe with his arms still folded behind his back, smiling pleasantly as if the small scale destruction around him meant nothing to him. The fear that paralyzed Tomoe intensified as he raised one hand slowly in front of him, as if to attack.

"Hold on." Alexander said with a calm sigh. "If you destroy anything else, you'll call Antiskill back here."

"Won't you just manipulate information to prevent them from coming, just like how you called them here to begin with?" Tomoe demanded bitterly. Alexander's eyebrows rose at that.

"Ah; I see. You think that it was I who knocked out that sister and called Antiskill at a convenient time to take her away."

"Am I wrong?" Tomoe frowned at the term 'sister'. Was that girl a member of the Church? She certainly hadn't acted like it.

Alexander nodded.

"It is my intention to crush the egos of those who are behind this. I decided to speak with you since I suspected that you will pursue this event no matter what. I'm even more confident now that you've gone so far as to attack me. Am I right?"

Tomoe nodded as she carefully surveyed Alexander's expression. Alexander sighed, but his smile showed that he wasn't disappointed or exasperated.

"Very well. In that case, I shall offer you my assistance in saving that girl, so long as you go not as a member of Judgment, but as a fellow human being."

"Fine." Tomoe responded immediately. She wouldn't be able to freely act using the name of Judgment anyhow, so she'd already been planning on acting on her own. "But I can hardly trust you. First off, why don't you tell me your name?"

"Heh. I have already told you that I am a mere ghost. I am the protector of earth, Alexander Terrarium. Nothing more and certainly nothing less."