It's a normal sunny day, I was walking to my friend's house on the northern side. I passed the supermarket. I saw a guy in a Gekota costume giving out balloons to little kids, I thought Misaka was there, as before I managed to observe her obsession with the frog character. She was there alright, I can see her clear, and I can tell she looked quite unusual. Let me explain: she was in the same Tokiwadai uniform, but not wearing her usual "safety" shorts under her dress. She was carrying a shopping bag, but looking away. Not paying attention to her favorite frog. I saw her turn around, her eyes was an unusual shade today, and she wore something on her head, like a pair of some sci-fi goggles. Maybe she was going swimming? No. They were night vision goggles. She turned away and walked into the supermarket, I decided not to follow her. The weird thing is, as I went up north, I ran into Misaka again. She wasn't carrying the shopping bag, nor wearing the night vision goggles. Her eyes were back to the usual shades, and she was clearly wearing shorts. Was I hallucinating when I saw her at the supermarket? We greeted each other, chatted for a short while and I brought it up.
"Do you have a sibling? Like a sister or someone?"
"What? No." She replied.
That's weird, I thought I saw you at the super market."
"What? But I never went there so far." I need to get more sleep and drink less coffee, because I was definitely hallucinating.
"Okay, bye Misaka."
Jump to five days later:
A giant "CRASH!" was heard outside my apartment, something was happening at the Academy City port. Lightning striked, steel beams clattered and soared through the air like spears. This was followed by more explosion sounds. Fire can be seen, and a column of smoke was illuminated by a light beam from a watch tower. Something happened, I hope they are okay.
It suddenly got quieter, steel beams lay there and returned to their inanimate state. Sleepiness rushed back and got the best of me, I fell asleep again.
8 days later:
Turns out I wasn't hallucinating, thinking back to the day I thought I saw Misaka at the supermarket. I started to believe I actually saw Misaka, okay not herself, but her clone. It happened, my fear was proven to happen. Esper troubles. Everyone started spreading rumours about a mass production of Railgun clones as part of a plan to control level fives and weaponize them. I got the informations from my conspiracy theorist friends. Misaka was looking more worn out, I saw her only two days ago in rugged clothes. She looked like she slept on the park bench. I asked her what had happened. "I fell asleep while looking at the stars." Was her answer. Suspicious right?
Today is the day. I've always told you about the real dark side of Academy City, mad scientists. I never liked them, starting from Big Spider, a Robin Hood-like group who turned bad. Now discriminating against Espers. I chose to fight for my kind, and what I believed. That's the fancy way to put it really. Anyways, I never liked those people. We are not guinea pigs. The experiments are supposed to be humane. They were before. No, don't get me wrong. I don't hate this place as a whole, I actually love it. Because in this place, I also met people who helped me with my past worries. They are the people who helped me be comfortable here. I really can't just despise, feel disgust towards Academy City as a whole. Sure, there are definitely things that disgusts me, but this city is not evil. Only some people here are, so that's why I deal with it. We deal with it. Maybe the bad will eventually be stopped, so those people will understand? It probably just needs time.
I talked to when I found my chance Misaka:
"I know about the experiments, you know how I hate people like that. We are the same kind of people, let me help, please!" She looked stunned, and not wanting to talk to me.
"Go away. I'm sorry, it's just too... personal."
"At least let your other friends know. You can always trust them."
"Why didn't you tell your friends?" I asked, as her confirmed my suspicions on such a plan. Yes, I actually wasn't so sure. Clones were only rumors.
"Shut up! Okay? What do you know? I can't get them killed. I can't... get you killed."
"I hate people like that too, I'm also an Esper, how do you think I felt when I heard of this experiment? Last time I helped you guys with the Big Spider incident, I'm more willing to help again this time. I've always feared my powers bringing me trouble, you know that about me right? This time those guys are the problem. Not our fault. Let me help. I'm willing, you are not dragging me into this."
I've always wanted to be just normal, normal as in general, not completely normal, because that would be boring. The thing is, what I can do about it? I'm still myself, I can't choose not to be an Esper, there's not the technology nor enough studies. It's undecidable. That's why I hate those people, they can't just do that. I'm an Esper too, I am that kind, so I can understand how bad it is. It's not like I wanted to be in the experiments. I only decided to fight for my own kind, I'm not trying to be all perfect, no one really is, not at all. I'm just trying to help someone out. Getting frustrated from the thought, I decided to tell her:
"Those people are the evil ones, and they are doing it to my kind, us. That's part of why I chose to stick my nose in it and helped, last time. You do remember right? Those mad scientists with all their crazy, inhuman studies, or doing it for their benefit are all the same." I can tell she is either needing help but can't find someone, or is charging boldly alone. I continued:
"Why do you want to go in alone? You do realize you might get yourself killed! That's what friends are for, you are taking to much of it alone. Even if you have an idea, you can't guarantee you don't die, I just want to help."
"Fine..." She replied, almost in a crying, desperate voice, seeing that I care about her.
"Thank you."
"What's the plan?" I then asked. Less and less reluctantly, she explained to me:
"We are attacking the experiment facilities directly, their computer defenses cannot be breached, otherwise I would just hack into their system and delete their files. I will tell you more about it tonight. We are attacking at midnight. Meet me at 7:30 at the hotel downtown. Actually, I will text you "
"Cool."
