[District 7] - [July 11]
As the morning sunlight touched Shirou's auburn hair, his eyes gleamed with seriousness. Rather than patrolling, he was doing something different and investigating an Urban Legend instead. He wasn't a superstitious person, but this is Academy City. The line between reality and fiction often blurred together. Still, it was certainly a strange thing to suddenly be doing, but lives are at risk if he were to do nothing about it.
The Level Upper, a mysterious topic floating around Academy City of late, was a more real and dangerous than anyone could ever realize. It has the ability to artificially strengthen or awaken an Esper ability. From his friend, Misaki Shokuhou's descriptions. The Level Upper was apparently an audio file that somehow connects its user into a brainwave network. In turn, it allowed Espers with a similar ability to learn off each other. This description alone screams of the Dark Side.
The Dark Side or the Darkness is the underground world of Academy City. It's often the home of criminal enterprises, such as human experimentation, espionage, and assassinations. Shirou doesn't know how far its roots have entangled itself with the Level Upper, but that won't stop him from demolishing its nefarious plans.
The Level Upper, as it sounds, doesn't seem that dangerous, but there is always a risk when the Dark Side is involved. At this moment, thousands of Esper are being held as hostages at a metaphysical gunpoint. All dancing in the palm of the creator of the Level Upper.
He balled fist, his fingernails dug into his palm until it draws blood. The bitter taste in his mouth made him sick. The Darkness, it always came back to haunt him. Its existence was the duality to Academy City's portrait of a technologically advanced city, filled with being straight out of fiction. It was beautiful on the outside and ugly in the inside. Yet, its ugliness was unable to cleansed nor fixed, unless the entire city was to be destroyed.
Shirou had tried to put a stop to it, he really did. Days and nights without rest, he relentless tried. He questioned himself every single day. The things he seen left an unforgettable, burning image in his still naive mind. He wanted justice but was incapable of delivering it. Cold blooded murder was never the answer, he believed himself to be better than that, but what was he able to do?
He was powerless, tired, but not yet broken. He wanted to help everyone, and killing the one behind it was the simplest step. Slowly, he would become the very monster he was trying to stops. But he has to continues, his effort may be a temporary success, but it was by no means meaningless. Yet... in the end, he had failed.
Was it enough? He had risked his life on a daily basis to stops the festering darkness of a city he had barely known. He really didn't know. Perhaps it was the stubbornness in him talking, but he doesn't fell it was enough. It was never enough, especially when peoples are still suffering.
His life was saved in a moment of a true miracle and became the only survivor of a great fire that had killed thousands of peoples. Why wasn't be able to do the same? He still remembered that smile of his, and the miracle he had brought. Why can't he be like his father, a hero who helps others? Why can't he be happy with the fact that he was still alive?
Shirou was alive, he has a loving family, despite all of that, he sprinted into near-death situation just to save a person he barely known. Was it some sort of martyr complex? It was the right thing to do, but why did he feel so conflicted about it?
What would they think if they knew the truth? Kiritsugu would likely be indifferent to his action, but Shirou has a hard time understanding what his father was thinking. What about Iri, Illya, Sella, and Liz? Knowing them, they would probably lecture him about it, and then proceed to nail him to his bed, or something like that. They truly care about him, yet why didn't he stop?
Despite his conviction of ending the Darkness, Shirou Emiya had in fact, stopped his pursuit of it. He left it alone...
Shirou, despite the multiple instances of misfortune, had suffered in his life, was truly lucky to have what he have. He was glad that someone punched him in the face on that rainy day in order for him to realize it.
He understood it.
He was not a hero nor a martyr. He was just a good person going to extreme lengths in order to do the right thing. He acknowledged it, and in turn, slowly changing himself for the better. His current actions of investigating the Level Upper may say otherwise, but change is a gradual thing, and mustn't be forced.
He smiled at the sunny sky, it was clear, just how he likes it.
Unlike the hollowed smile he once projected, this one was genuine. He may not value himself that much, and may never will, but perhaps his existence can make someone else happy.
His new goals were to maintain peace, but at what lengths was he willing to do so? He didn't know. However, he now knows that joining Judgment was definitely the first step in the stairway to many more.
As Shirou began walking aimlessly, his mind started to wander back to the brief conversation he had with Yanagisako. He had understood her question and replied as such, yet Yanagisako seems rather agitated at his response. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why. He hates to make people upset, especially one of his co-workers and friend. He hopes Yanagisako will forgive him for whatever he might have done.
A girlfriend. That works lingered in his mind. Similar conversations pop up multiple time throughout his life, most of which was with Iri, whom forcefully encouraged him to find someone. It's a strange, if not normal concept, one which he never put many thoughts into. Besides, it not like anyone was interested in him.
Noticing that he was distracted, Shirou quickly willed himself back together and refocus on the task at hand.
Shirou had contacted the Board of Directors, but they were unwilling to lift a single finger. This alone frustrated him to no end.
Misaki's Mental Out was able to disconnect individual from the Level Upper's network, but it was one person at a time and there were thousand of Espers who is connected to it. Disconnecting everyone was an impossible task, but Shirou was thankful for her continues helps in saving whatever life she was able to. It was certainly more than what he was doing right now.
He was starting an investigation himself. Given his Structural Grasp psychometric properties, he was able to find a bread trail to the creator of the Level Upper.
Given the suspicious nature of the Level Upper, it's only natural for him to investigate the shadier part of town. Within District 7 resided Skill-Out, a gang made entirely out of Level 0. They have an incentive on acquiring the Level Upper to strengthen themselves, and it was the prime location for him to start his search. Their obvious hatred on higher Level Esper will make his investigation rather troubling, but it was better than nothing.
Casually strolling into a nearby alleyway and reinforced his legs. With a light jump, dust scattered about in the empty alleyway as he rocketed dozens of feet into the air, before landing perfectly on the rooftop. As if he has repeated this act a million times, he reinforced his eyes. With an enchanted sight akin to that of a hawk, he scouted for local gang members as he jumps building to building.
"Such misfortune!" A spiky headed boy complained as he ran. "This Kamijou's weekend was supposed to be nice and peaceful!"
"Get back here and fight me, you idiot!" Misaka yelled as she chases after the boy.
Her bang was sparking wildly with electricity as she manifested and throw a spear made out of lightning at the boy. Traveling at a speed faster than sound, sonic boom manifested itself as it blitz through the air. The expression on the boy's face paled immediately upon understanding what had occurred. Immediately turning around, he holds his right hand in front of the spear. It was suicide for a Level 0 to block an attack of a Level 5, but this boy was different.
Upon making contact, a sound akin to shattering glass rung out into the air as the spear of lighting fizzled from existence. The only evidence that had remained was the charred asphalt where the spear had passed through.
"Are you trying to kill me!" Touma Kamijou roared, dramatically swinging his arm into that air.
Mikoto Misaka didn't say anything, her eyes glued to the boy right hand.
'So that rumors were true.'
"Of course not, I was only testing a theory of mine," she casually approaches Touma, no longer sparkling with electricity. "To be able to negate something going at supersonic speed, what is your Level?"
"Me? This misfortunate Kamijou is merely a Level 0," he replied before slowly backing away as she approached. From his personal experience, nothing ever goes well when he said those lines.
"Do you seriously take me for a fool," her bang sparked with electricity.
"Do you honestly expect a Level 0 to be able to block my ability?" Akin to a storm, trail of static arced around her in a frenzying manner.
'Déjà vu,' he thought, recalling a recent encounter with another Level 5.
"It's true, my ability just can't be measured by Academy City. That's why I'm labeled as a Level 0," he replied with a deep sigh.
"I see, your ability is just that powerful that even with Academy City advance technology fail," obviously misunderstanding his words, Misaka had jumped to the wrong conclusion.
'What? No, well... technically yet, but at the same time, no. I'm just misfortunate, biri biri. I don't even have an AIM field, technically I don't count as an Esper. I'm more of a Gemstone actually if I were to think about it. I mean what else can I be beside an ordinary Level 0 high school student? Curse? Yeah, I believe that. I still need to lose biri biri, perhaps I can negotiations something to stop her. From my acute observation and our multiple unfortunate encounters, this Kamijou had noticed that this middle schooler has a strange obsession with that frog mascot...thing. Perhaps bribing her was a good way to stop this nonsense, being optimistic, I hope for at least a week of peace. Alternatively, I could report her to Judgment, but considering the multiple instances that I have evaded both Anti-Skill and Judgment after knocking out someone. Being caught out weight the benefits, even if it was tempting. Would she even stop if I were to report her to Judgment? Unlikely, she is an ojou-sama of Tokiwadai and a Level 5 after all, she probably wouldn't even listen to common sense. Why can't she be as reasonable as the other Level 5 Tokiwadai ojou-sama he knew. Sigh. If I were to get caught by Judgment or Anti-Skill, I would be forced to spend a large amount of time being interrogated for... reason. This Kamijou needs to do his homework still, this misfortune soul didn't want to repeat a year,' he thoughts.
"S-sure," too lazy to explain his inner monologue, Touma had unintentionally opened a floodgate of misunderstanding.
"I see. Fight me," she suddenly declared.
Mikoto Misaka wanted to beat this idiot in a duel. That was her goal from the beginning. After he somehow blocked her railgun, she wanted to defeat him in order to prove her status as the Number 3 and the Ace of Tokiwadai. A Level 0! She felt insulted that he blatantly lied to her face, especially with the fact that he processed an unmeasurable ability that could negate her signature attack. Despite that, every time she had challenged him, he -without fail- ran away, thus forcing her to chase after him for hours on end. To say she was mad was an understatement.
"What? No, why would I do that?" he asked.
'Wait! What am I doing just standing here, I need to hurry to the supermarket, there is a huge sale today. This could mean life or death for this poor Kamijou!' He suddenly remembered.
"Oh crap! I just remember I have something important to do!" Kamijou exclaimed before bolting away.
"Wait! Come back here you an idiot and fight me!" Misaka yelled, chasing after him once again.
"Such Misfortune."
Nothing.
It was abrupt, no sign of a transition had occurred. The world was simply silenced.
Quickly scaling a taller building, Shirou overlooked the city.
Nothing, not a single soul could be seen. The street was empty. There was no stray animal, nor bird in the sky.
What is going on? Magic? Could it be that?
Unraveling the layer of white bandage wrapped around his left hand, he revealed the red tattoo on the back of his hand. Sure enough, his tattoo was now a brighter tint of red.
Shirou had expected something to happens due to this strange tattoo, but dimension hopping wasn't one of his guests.
The existence of magic was an absurd concept to a technologically advanced place like Academy City, but from his adventure into the Darkness, the existence of such a thing wasn't as fictional as one's might think.
His first encounter with a magician was pure coincidence. At first, he thought that the magician was a delusional Gemstone, who has been drugged by the Dark Side in an attempt to stop him. Gemstone is rare, almost sacred to Academy City pursuit of knowledge, but this was the Darkness, they were willing to do anything in pursuit of them. Even if it means killing a few Gemstone. "You've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet," those words of the scientists sickened him.
Sure, the "Gemstone" chanted weird religious passage before using their abilities, but he was certain that it was a universal Gemstone thing, a catchphrase of sorts before using their power. Religion was used as his catchphrases due to his reliance on God, being experimented on is a sanity-destroying experience. It was, however, better than "guts" as a catchphrase.
He was quickly proven wrong of that when he suddenly said his "magic name", and identify himself as a magician. After some efforts, he was able to defeat the "magician", but that encounter had instilled him with the acknowledgment of an unknown magic side. He may not understand it, but it was enough for him to piece together the puzzle.
The two sides of magic and science are currently in a power struggle, and it was a matter of time before a huge fight broke out. He didn't know when, but he was willing to stop it from happening, in whatever way he could. He is a member of Judgment, after all, it's only natural to enforce peace.
As he stared at the clear sky, he lets out a tired sigh. It was irritating, this situation, in general, was irritating. Shirou wasn't one to complain, but why does it have to be him who gets transported into a parallel dimension.
With a light leap, he started his search for a way back. The sooner the better.
Resting his back against the shelf in the soup aisle. Touma let out an exhausted breath. He was expecting a peaceful day, but knowing his misfortune, biri biri just had to interfere.
Now in the coffee aisle, he eyed his prize. Touma was glad that he was able to make it before it was gone. This store was the only one that sells this brand of black coffee, not only that, there was a huge sale going on. With the limited funds he has on hand, Touma finally wasn't going to starve next week. Sure, half of the said fund was going toward coffee, but it was worth it.
Touma right hand swiftly approaches his prized black coffee, at that moment another hand was doing the same thing. In a sound of shattering glass, the two hands touched each other as they both grasp the bag of black. Surprised, Touma quickly turns to his right to look at the other person. A skinny teen around his age, he has pale skin, mopey white hair, and red eyes.
'What kind of person goes around with white hair, maybe stress was getting to him. Is that why he was gunning for this Kamijou prized black coffee. If this was any other coffee, this Kamijou would gladly allow them to have it, but looking at it, this was the only one left and waiting for an entire month until it was going to restock wasn't an option. Considering the fact that I had and will be dealing with biri biri in the future. This coffee was a necessity in order to maintain the fragment of sanity and comfort left in this poor Kamijou life.'
"Are you going to let go?" Kamijou asks with an irritated voice.
"What did you do!" The moppy white-haired teen yells at him, still unwilling to let go of the coffee bag.
"What are you going on about? Are you going to let go of the coffee bag or not? This Kamijou has evidently grabbed it first," he exclaimed, tugging on the bag.
"Stop diverting the conversation! What the fuck did you do!" Exclaimed the white hair teen as he grasps the coffee bag with a tighter grip.
"Dude, I have no idea what you are going on about. Let go of the coffee bag. I have to deal with biri biri this whole morning, and this is my last safe haven. I'm not about to give it up," he said as he grasps on end of the coffee bag, pulling it toward his direction in a game of tug of war.
"Do you fucking know who I'm?! I'm Accelerator, the Number 1 Esper of Academy City!" Accelerator introduced himself as he pulled on the other end of the coffee bag. With his hand free from the touch of Kamijou right hand, Accelerator was able to use his ability again. Manipulating the vectors beneath his foot, he accelerated in the opposite direction of the game of tug and war. Unlike what he had calculated. Kamijou grip on the coffee bag was steel glad, resulting in the coffee bag tearing in half and spilling the divine contents into the air.
Accelerator's eyes widened as he immediately manipulated the vector in the air in an attempt to save the divine content from spilling on the floor. In a sound of shattering glass, he lost control of the gust that he was manipulating.
The wind erupted, exploding the falling coffee into fine dust, covering the Touma in shred coffee bean, while Accelerator reflection simply bounced them away.
"Such misfortune." Touma Kamijou wail, dropping to his knees and grasped the divine content on the floor. His eyes were in tears. As he slowly stood up, now filled with rage, glared at Accelerator.
'That bastard did something! I'm going to kill him!' Accelerator internally screamed.
"Why didn't you let go!" "Why the fuck didn't you let go!" They both exclaimed.
Unable to control his anger any further, Accelerator quickly dashes up to Touma in an attempted to punch a hole through his gut. Unbeknown to him, Touma was an adept street fighter due to him spending most of his time street fighting, due to various misfortunes. Through fighting the various Esper of Academy City, Touma was able to develop Precognition as an ability along with his Imagine Breaker. Accelerator's lightning fast fist didn't connect, instead, Touma swiftly dodged it at the last second and retaliated with an attack of his own.
"Pathetic!" Accelerator taunted as he controls the vector underneath his shoe to launch a swift kick at the defenseless fool. Yet again, unbeknown to him, Touma had already predicted this and block it with his right hand. The familiar sound of shattering glass rings as the once powerful kick was reduced to a light tap. Seeing an opening, Touma quickly attempts to punch Accelerator's side. In the brief moment of Touma's right hand letting go, Accelerator skidded a few meters backward, completely avoiding Touma's fist.
"What the fuck is that hand of yours! What Level are you!" Accelerator exclaimed, now realizing Touma's power.
Accelerator didn't care much for Urban Legend, but he couldn't help it but recalled the words of that middle school student this morning. She spoke about "the boy who can negate other power". At first, he scoffed at that nonsense about some spiky haired gut fighting Esper at night, dislocating their jaw with an uppercut before disappearing. Could that Urban Legend be standing in front of him?
"Me? This misfortune Kamijou is merely a Level 0," Touma repeated what he said early to biri biri. Dusting off the bit of coffee bean from his white high school uniform, he cracked his knuckle before readjusting himself to face Accelerator.
"Do you honestly me expect me to fucking believe that! Do you think I'm fucking brain dead!?" Accelerator was mad, an ability that can block an Esper ability to access their Personal Reality was in the hand of a Level 0. Fucking lying sack of bullshits!
'Déjà vu,' Touma thought.
"I'm tired of repeating this again, so I'm not. Believe what you want, because I'm going to kick your ass" Touma said dryly.
"Answer me you fucker!" Accelerator was now feeling something he hadn't felt for a long time. Caution. With his reflection, he was invincible, yet the person in front of him was unaffected by his power. A small part of him was glad that he didn't harm people unnecessarily, but that part of him was largely overshadowed by his personal experience and the anger toward his lost coffee.
Due to this small caution, Accelerator swipes the shelf to his left and sending an array of canned soup at Touma. Already moving, Touma quickly dodged the upcoming projectiles and ducked into another aisle. Suddenly, Touma felt an echoing feeling in his mind, instantly jumping backward and escaping the aisle. Just as he does, the aisle was forcibly pushed together in a sudden burst. A loud screeching sounds vibrated in the air as multiple aisles were pushed, scraping across the floor and eventually collapsing in a pile of scrap.
Looking at the destruction that had occurred, Touma couldn't help but feel guilty about the destruction caused by the fight, but that didn't stop him. Avenging his coffee was a perfectly reasonable cause for fighting against a Level 5, especially the Number 1. Beside, Accelerator was trying to kill him. If he didn't punch him in the face once, then he fought for nothing.
Eyeing him, Touma saw a silver shine in Accelerator's hand. He was holding was… eating utensil? 'Shit!' Touma realized. Quickly grabbing multiple soup cans on an undamaged shelf. Just as Accelerator threw them at him, he masterfully tossed the cans in its path. The eating utensil was successfully blocked as the contents of the soup spill forth in a burst of green, covering his white uniform and pant in a mussy mess. Touma had covered his eyes prior to the soup can explosion, at the corner of his eyes he saw Accelerator flying at him before dropkicking him in the gut. Touma was too slow to block it with his right hand and was sent flying. His body impacted the shelf of the water aisle. The assortment of branded and flavored water burst as Touma crashed into them. The various bottled water did little to stop his momentum as his impact left a large dent on the mental shelf.
Accelerator smiled knowing that the idiot was dead, turning away from the now lifeless corpse, he began to walks away without the cares for the damages he has done. Noticing a slashing noise behind him, Accelerator stopped his footsteps and looked behind him. His eyes widened as he stares at Touma bloodied and soaking figure.
Akin to a creature of the dead, Touma Kamijou had stood up as if it was nothing. His hair was now wet and his trademarked spiky hair was ruined. Running his hand through his now mopey hair, he felt his life was now over. He tries to let out a light sigh, but he was too winded to do so. Bloods continues to drips from the wounds and slowly drying the water beneath his red, but that didn't bother him.
'Note to self: buy waterproof hair gel,' Touma reminded himself. Yes, hair gel. The essential part of Touma Kamijou, next to the coffee of course. He walks from hell and back on a daily bases, if he can't look cool why doing so, then what is even the point?
With each step, Touma ran at Accelerator in a mad dash. Quickly reaching him with his fist lowered for his signature uppercut. Touma Kamijou was no idiot, contrary to what others may believe, he had already figured out Accelerator's ability. And now, Touma was going to punch that shit eating smirk off him.
Faster than the normal human was able to react, Accelerator had already calculated his moves and dodged out of the way of Touma foolish attack. Seeing an opening, the arrogant Accelerator retaliates with a quick jab that had broken through the sound barrier. Unbeknown to Accelerator, Touma had thrown out his left hand in that uppercut instead of his right.
Using his precognition ability, his right hand was already in the spot Accelerator was going to strike before Accelerator has even thrown out his jab.
The once-booming air caused by Accelerator fist was instantly silenced by the Imagine Breaker as an explosion of glass rippled in the air. Without access to his ability, Accelerator was defenseless. Touma using his left hand grab Accelerator by the shoulder and his right hand now gripping to his side to launches his finishing move. With a jump, Touma uses all the strength he was able to mustered and knee Accelerator right in the stomach. Accelerator's body to drop onto the floor with a thud as Touma removed his hand.
"That was for the coffee, you coffee destroyer," Touma said, panting heavily.
"I'm not fucking done yet," Accelerator said weakly as he tried to get up. Trying to catch his breaths, he fails to push himself up. Heavily reliance on his ability, Accelerator neglected to build up any physical strength. Given the strength of Touma blow, it was a miracle that he was conscious. Perhaps, through pure force of will and pride as the Number 1, he refuses to get done in by a Level 0.
Suddenly a loud siren could be heard from the distance.
'Crap! Anti Skill. This misfortune Kamijou can't go to prison so soon, I still haven't finished my homework yet, and the sale! This Kamijou wasn't able to get anything! I'm going to starve! Should I take responsibility for this mess? No, of course not. I may have started the fight, but I didn't cause all of this collateral damage. Why am I monologuing in a time like this? I should be escaping!'
"Such misfortune."
Touma feeling slightly guilty, rush out of the destroy isle and quickly left the store, looking back a few times, before disappearing into an alleyway.
"Wait! You bastard!" Accelerator screamed. Regaining his mental strength, he quickly manipulates the vector around him in order to chase after him. Upon ending up in a dead end, he punches the wall, shattering it into pieces.
Accelerator had lost to him, what does the Level Shift project even matter when he lost to a fucking Level 0. What about all the Sisters he had a kill to achieve his ambitions? NO! It did matter, he will finish this Level Shift project and transcends to a Level 6. He will be invincible and get his revenge on that bastard. No one will dare fight him again... The next time he fights him, he will win. Slightly regretful over the loss of his coffee, Accelerator returns home with his body screaming in pain.
Within the windowless building a figure who looks like an adult, yet also a child; like a man, yet also a woman; like a saint, yet also a criminal. Aleister Crowley floated upside down as he observed the fight between the Number 1 and the Imagine Breaker. The wielder of the Imagine Breaker had the capacity to invoke a change within others, What possibility would he brings to the Number 1.
"How far will you go Imagine Breaker."
To be Continue.
AN: Ojou-sama means a young lady.
