Chapter 2 Academy City's Strongest: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

By the time I had finished my maths work, Akiha had taken the initiative to sleep, her body curled up under the futon next to my bed.

She looks so peaceful like that... Looks like I'll have to sneak around for now.

Only when i crawled into my bed did I realise something was wrong, something was in it already. A pair of blood red eyes gleaming in the darkness looking right at me.

"Uhhh, Akiha, why are you in my bed?" I asked softly, my heart beating a little faster as a result of how close I was to her.

"Sorry, just used to sleeping in your bed when you're not around." Akiha said as she rolled off back under futon.

Wait, how did she appear to be under the futon when she's in my bed...?

Deciding to just let sleeping dogs lie, I fell asleep almost immediately, the fatigue I accumulated over the day taking its toll on me.

The next day was different from the norm as I instantly noticed the absence of any cooking, Akiha still curled up under the futon.

Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, Akiha started to stir and rub her eyes while looking up at me, "Morning."

"Morning. So... What do you want to do today?"

"You're asking me? Don't you usually have your own thing to do?" Akiha replied.

Ouch... Though I think I deserved that...

"Sorry for leaving you alone for the last few days, I'll make it up to you today ok? We can do anything you want."

This disgruntled look becoming less pronounced on her face, Akiha looked around before nodding at me, "Fine, but don't think that this clears you of everything."

Well... At least I'm on the path of forgiveness in her book...

As soon as both of us got dressed, Akiha going for a slightly boyish look in a t-shirt and jeans, we headed for the underground mall.

The smells, sights and sounds all bombarding my senses, I was instantly drawn in practically every direction all at once. Fortunately for me it seemed Akiha was experiencing the same thing.

"So where do we go first?" Akiha said, turning to me, her eyes eager for a destination.

"Ummm well this is the first time I'm here so..."

"What? How can you bring a girl to a place you haven't scouted out before...?"

"To experience the fun of exploring it together!" I said quickly, thinking the answer up on the spot.

Rather than getting mad at my on the spot answer, Akiha flashed me a snide grin before giving me a playful punch, "Well, then lead on. Slick."

Taking Akiha to a nearby arcade, I quickly exchanged some of my money into tokens and gave Akiha half of them, "Anything pick your fancy?"

"Hmm... How about that?" Akiha asked, pointing at a large machine which was running one of those old punching games.

Heyyyyy, the scores posted on this machine are pretty high! Who was the one who...?

... ... ...

Misaka. Please don't tell me it's... Somehow I have a feeling it IS the Misaka I'm thinking about.

"Outta the way!" Akiha yelled, running from the opposite machine, her hand already clenched in the provided boxing glove as she drew it backwards to punch the machine.

barely ducking out of the way, Akiha's gloved fist slammed into the machine with a loud "Wham", the bag shooting backwards and into the machine echoing the sound.

"500 points! Not bad for a first timer! Akiha laughed before tossing the glove to me, "You try!"

Unfortunately, I've already tried playing on these machines before, and my top score at the time was a measly 350. I didn't take a running start but I'm still quite sure even if I did I'd only push the score up to maybe 400, still below Akiha's 500.

Unless...

It is a general rule that abilities should not be used outside school but the long arm of Judgment and Anti-Skill can't reach everywhere in Academy City. An outright display of an ability would get me in trouble for sure... But what about a subtle use to give myself a little better odds? I'm always using them under wraps anyway and I'm not looking to win, I'm just doing it to not look so pathetic.

Standing where Akiha stood, I flexed my muscles in preparation for what I was about to do, the muscle flex actually a feint as I mentally did the calculations for an initial telekinetic burst forward, followed by a reflect that would only act on half the reaction force that my hand experiences when coming in contact with the machine.

I need to make it look realistic, not send the thing flying with a single touch.

As soon as the machine signalled to go, I shot foward from the burst, drawing my fist back like Akiha and thrust it into the bag, feeling the negligible push back from the machine before the bag shot down.

Looking up to see the blinking score on the screen, my heart immediately fell when I saw it: 486. Misaka's top score is over 600 and Akiha still sits above me with her own score of 500.

"Not a bad control over your abilities... But do you really need them just to score?" Akiha said, her eyes turning back to normal after taking on a familiar reddish tinge.

Before I could attest to how not in shape I was physically, a burning question left my mouth, "How?"

"Simple, you dashed forward with little to no physical effort and minimal blood flow to your legs after the exertion, and when you hit the bag, you didn't follow through with your strike. You'd fool most bystanders with that performance though." Akiha said with a snide grin.

Stepping forward to take the glove from me again, Akiha grinned as she put it on in one smooth movement, "Since you're using your abilities to boost your score, let me try."

I have a very bad feeling about this...

With a yell, Akiha took one step forward, her foot pressing so hard it left a small dent on the floor as that one large step sent her airborne, her arm blazing with flames as it swung through the air colliding with the bag at superhuman velocities, the bag arcing down back into the machine making a noise so loud that other people looked up at their games just to look.

742, a new high score.

Before Akiha could input a name into the machine, I immediately grabbed her hand and started to leave, before somebody came to investigate the dent in the floor or the smoking glove left on the machine.

"That was fun!" Akiha giggled as I led her off until she finally remembered, "Hey! I didn't get to put my name in!"

"With the obvious use of supernatural abilities back there I would recommend you didn't." I said, grinning back at Akiha as I led her past a few photo booths.

"Hey! Let's try that!" Akiha said almost immediately, pointing at one of the booths, making me regret taking this route away from the arcade.

"That? But it's something girly girls would..." I started to say, shutting my mouth as soon as I realised the company I was with, and how keeping quiet would actually prolong my lifespan rather than shorten it.

"Girly girls would...?" Akiha said questioningly, eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"Waste all their money on! One photo is fine!" I said quickly, walking towards the booth of doom.

"So... How do these things work?" Akiha asked, studying the monitor with interest.

"These things are based off the machines you find outside the city so operating them is the same as the ones outside... I guess these just have added features." I said as I slotted a coin in, the machine instantly starting up and displaying the menu.

"First you take a photo, the machine usually takes 6 while giving a 3 second pause in between frames to alter your pose... Hey!"

Climbing on my back and making an anime-girl like pose, Akiha held that position until the camera flashed, the first photo a complete disaster (for me).

Struggling to get Akiha off me, I grabbed her shoulders and started pushing her away while she stretched my lips, the camera flashing once again.

"Akihaaaa...!" I yelled, using all of my nonexistent strength on her, telekinetically forcing her off me as well, finally getting her in a noogie just before the camera flashed a 3rd time.

Our struggle continuing once again, Akiha broke out of the nookie as fast as I caught her in it, smiling at the camera as she gave me a knuckle sandwich in the 4th photo.

Momentarily stunned by the attack I turned to push her back off of me again only to touch a soft gentle part of her just as the camera flashed.

Oh shit.

"Ryuuuu...!" Akiha yelled, her anger rising as she conjured a fireball at close range muttering softly the incantation, detonating it in my face just before the camera flashed.

With less than a split second to react, I clenched both fists sending out a minor shockwave that sent most of the air out of the booth, the explosion becoming a large puff of smoke due to the lower than normal concentration of oxygen.

Smoke or not, both Akiha and I were forced to leave the booth coughing, my clothes slightly singed as well.

"Well, editing the photo is definitely out..." I mutter, dusting off my clothes as the machine printed out the set of photos as stickers.

"Do you want these?" Akiha asked as she retrieved the printout.

"Nah I'll get it like this..."

Tapping the outside console on the machine, I quickly sent myself a copy of the photos to my handphone directly. As I looked back at Akiha, she was still staring at the stickers in wonder, "You peel them off and..."

"I know what a sticker is you idiot, I'm trying to think about where to put them!" Akiha snapped.

"You can stick them to your phone." I said absentmindedly, checking the quality of the photos saving one as my wallpaper.

When Akiha did not say anything, I turned to see her look at me with a sad look on her face, "I don't have a phone..."

"No point moping about it, come on, I know a place you can get them cheaper." I said, heading for the exit.

"Where're we going?"

"To a friend's shop in district 11. I helped him when he was being pressured by Skill Outs so he gives me good discounts."

A short walk to the 11th district later, Akiha was the proud owner of a new light blue phone while I had a considerably lighter wallet. Though the ecstatic look on her face really made it worth it.

Just when I was about to call it a day, a group of punks turned the corner and started to stare at me and point.

I got a bad feeling about this...

"Akiha, we gotta go." I whispered, tugging her along.

"What? Why?"

"Those Skill Outs that were pressuring my friend? It's them." I said, nodding at the group before taking a turn down an alley.

Wrong move, they have thugs here as well. We're trapped!

"Akiha... I think we're going to have to fight our way out of this... Just be subtle about it ok?"

"Now that's something I can dig! Nothing like a little exercise before dinner. I needed to let of more steam after that punching game anyway."

In most of my experiences, a quick show of force normally deters a normal delinquint. But I'm not so sure how well it'd work on ones with a score to settle.

"Well well well. What do we have here?" the leader drawled, putting his hands in his pockets as he stalked over like it was a 'cool' thing to do.

"Just passing through." I replied calmly, preferring to talk my way out even though I was spinning up the Personal Realities of Vector Change and Telekinesis.

"We're just here to pay you back what you gave to us. Tenfold..." one of the thugs said, silenced by a glare from his boss.

"As Masahiro said, that's exactly what we want. But maybe if you give us a night with this girl here... I'll reconsider." he said, pulling one of his hands out of his pockets to touch Akiha.

This guy must totally fail at reading body language... With that glare she is giving him, I wouldn't even step near her.

Just before his hand made contact with her cheek, Akiha dug her back foot into the ground and slammed her fist right into his chest, winding him and causing him to stagger.

As he gasped for air Akiha followed up with a push kick to the same area forcing him to the ground.

"Subtle enough?" Akiha asked telepathically as she stared down the punk with a smug look on her face.

"What are you waiting for?! Get them!" the leader yelled, scrambling to get behind one of his mates and push him forward.

With the ten or so morons with five on each side coming in at us, and in such an enclosed space nonetheless, I couldn't help but grin at the giant advantage that I was given: Unintentional fratricide.

With the first thug screaming a loud battle cry as he unbalanced himself just to draw his fist back and punch, I leaned myself to the left and watched as he sacrificed his footing to correct the course of his fist.

Telekinetically guiding one of his friends who was attacking me from the other side, I made him miss his intended target while giving him a new one: his poor footed friend.

One down.

Feeling a large amount of pain from behind me I silently cursed as I forgot about the third idiot and made the necessary adjustments to my vector shield to force him to punch the wall next to me if he touched me again.

Finally rounding on the thugs 2, 4 and 5 who were staring at me and each other probably wondering whether to attack one at a time, simultaneously or just run like hell, I decided to give them a nudge in the latter, "Don't wanna end up like him right?"

Their gazes following my thumb to their fallen comrade, knocked out by none other than a friend, they turned and ran leaving me free to turn around and hope Akiha was alright.

"Done? I'm just about finished here." Akiha said, surrounded by 5 moaning bodies.

"What did you...? Nevermind, I don't wanna know." I saif quickly.

"Indeed you don't." Akiha said smugly.

-End of Chapter 2-

Hey all! Sorry for the delay, I've been really busy lately! Lost my iPod so a lot of this chapter was actually lost but here it is! A minor filler before the next arc begins, have to get some relaxation time every now and then right? Hope you enjoyed it! Leave any thoughts and comments in the reviews and I'll be sire to get back to you asap, ciao!