Academy City was supposed to be a city with technology 30 years ahead of the world, but it looked just like any other ordinary city in Japan. The car driving her and Touma to a research facility was being driven by an AI, but the same cannot be said for the other cars driven manually by humans.

"Is everything alright?" said Touma.

Misaki kept her eyes by the window, "Yeah."

Couldn't he just lie about not finding her necklace and accidentally viewed the contents within it? It was his fault for making things so awkward.

"You don't seem alright."

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone for a while."

Touma sighed resignedly as they left the car. He should really stop sighing. What did he expect from speaking the truth? Hug him with tears of gratitude for being the hero in her life? Start catering to his every whims and fancies like a love-stricken maiden hoping to win his love one day? Sorry if things didn't turn out the way you wanted it to be, you fucking imbecile.

A scientist led Misaki into a room where she would go through the Power Development Program. There were floating translucent panels filled with data and a chair equipped with very complicated looking machineries. A glimpse of what Academy City should be like as a technologically advanced city.

"I think I see what this city prioritizes the most," said Misaki.

The scientist introduced himself as Kihara Noukan. An experienced neurologist who sometimes does Power Development operations for fun.

Noukan inserted an IV line on her arm, "You have nothing to worry about. I take each and every operation I do very seriously."

"That's very reassuring from the guy who said he does those operations for fun."

Misaki would have loved for a female to do this operation instead, but she wasn't going to be a baby and scream for a replacement. Besides, who knows what sort of advantages she could... milk out from Noukan?

She slowly drew a circle on the back of the scientist's hand with a smile. "I understand that esper levels isn't something you can control, but I wonder if it's possible for you to give me a better ability?"

In Academy City, there were about 2.3 million people who are under the Power Development Program. Out of those people, 60% are Level 0s, which meant they were either powerless or had so little power that they might as well be powerless. The remaining 40% may not be a Level 0, but they might as well be a Level 0 if they have a useless ability.

Noukan placed a face mask over her, "Unfortunately, no. Rest assured that if you put in enough hard work, you will eventually obtain a useful ability."

He was either oblivious or being intentionally oblivious to her advances. Too much research and experimenting must have turned him into a virgin freak like Issac Newton.

"Fine."

Whatever ability she was going to get, it better be something so useless that no evil forces in Academy City would even think about bothering her.


Touma and Misaki made their way through a crowd before entering a restaurant for lunch.

"Good news, I'm cured," said Touma with a big smile on his face.

"You're cured? How?" said Misaki incredulously. No wonder Touma was willing to squeeze through the crowd with her.

"It's hard to explain… I guess somehow that thing in my right hand partially broke through the seal which resulted in a lot of misfortune for everyone. Now that it's properly sealed back in my right hand, everything should be okay now."

"You mean the power in your right hand? Or are you talking about a demonic entity that lives inside your right hand?"

"Demonic? I don't even know what- never mind, let's not talk about that anymore. The more I go on, the more crazier you think I am."

Imagine Breaker was a name Academy City gave to the power in his right hand which by the way is separate from that thing. Imagine Breaker apparently has the ability to negate supernatural phenomenons, such as esper abilities. For example, her esper ability was to transmit her thoughts to someone by touching them, but it would not work if she touched Touma's right hand while doing so. It would work if she touched somewhere else other than his right hand though. Maybe there was some truth in what he was saying.

Speaking of which, her esper ability was oddly labelled as Mental Out instead of Telepathy. It did kind of make sense though if you consider Mental as in thoughts in your head and Out as in transmitting those thoughts out of your head, but why not just name it Telepathy in the first place?

"Anyway," Touma raised his glass of vanilla soda, "Let's forget about everything in the past and start afresh in this new city."

Misaki giggled as she clinked her glass against his glass, "Cheers."

Guess he wasn't a complete idiot after all. See, it's not that hard to resolve the awkwardness between us.

After lunch, there was still some time to go sightseeing around the district before reporting to the boarding school at 5pm.

Misaki grabbed hold of Touma's hand. His face went red but chose not to say anything. What's the meaning of this? No response? Come on, at least say something to the super cute girl who just held your hand? I'm not going to embarrass myself by being the first one to speak.

Those jealous males hurling death glares at Touma should look at themselves in the mirror first. An ugly attitude is why they will and should remain single for the rest of their lives.

Misaki gave up when they reached the traffic light, "I'm holding your hand right now."

"Yes. I'm aware of that."

"Don't you think that it's because I really like you a lot?"

"What? So it isn't because you're afraid you'd lose me in the crowd? It'd be really troublesome if that were to happen because we haven't got our smartphones yet."

Misaki tightened her grip around Touma's hand. She wanted so badly to slap him for being that dense. It's okay, maybe he's just too embarrassed to admit otherwise.

They entered a phone shop to get their smartphones.

Touma looked intently at the various plans available.

"Let's go with the couple plan," said Touma.

Misaki's heart skipped a beat. Was that a- a confession?! Wait a minute… did he choose that plan because it was the cheapest plan available?

"I never thought I'd say this, but today must be my lucky day," said Touma excitedly. "I've never seen a plan that cheap ever in my life."

"All you have to do is take a picture together and you two will be eligible for the promotional pricing," said the smiling saleswoman with an instant camera.

Misaki hopped onto Touma's back and asked for the photo to be taken that way. What a lucky day indeed. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and her chest firmly pressed against his back. There are countless men who would pay through their noses for this experience.

After they were done with photo taking, the saleswoman gave her a leftover star keychain from the last promotion which looked good on her new smartphone. To complement her keychain, she also got a white phone case with starry patterns.

Before they left the shop, the saleswoman handed them a physical copy of the picture and sent a digital copy to their smartphone through the instant camera which had a built-in messaging function. It wouldn't be surprising if it could also be used to browse websites.

The smartphones in Academy City were so advanced that it was almost like a mini computer with the added functionality of an ordinary mobile phone. The Internet was now in the palms of her hands.

"If you beg me, I'll teach you how to evade the ban placed on porn websites," said Misaki.

"Don't ever underestimate men when it comes to porn. Our collective efforts can defeat any ban in Academy City."

Touma proudly showed off the first search result about how a legendary hacker known as the Goalkeeper gave up fighting the hordes of men who relentlessly defeated her efforts in banning porn websites.

"How often do you watch porn then? Do you have a favourite genre?"

"That's none of your business."

Misaki smiled, "Okay."

It was nice not to worry about this conversation turning into something perverted. There was a creep who- forget it.

Misaki noticed a bra that flew out from an alley corner. She tore through the alley and picked up a brick. There was a thug on top of a topless girl fondling her chest. She smashed the brick across that thug's head. A hand stopped her from dealing the next blow.

"You'll kill that guy!" said Touma.

Misaki dropped the brick, "I just… I'm sorry."

Forget it. He wouldn't understand that it was necessary for some kind of trash to be permanently disposed of.

The topless girl quickly put on her bra and her tracksuit top. Her face was bloody and bruised. She must have fought the four thugs lying unconscious but failed to defeat the last thug.

"Let's call Judgement," said Touma.

"No. Pretend you saw nothing, " said the girl before turning to Misaki. "You'd understand why right?"

"Take care," said Misaki before dragging a confused Touma out of the alley.

"But shouldn't we call Judgement to arrest that guy for assault?" said Touma.

"If she doesn't want Judgement to be called, then we should respect her decision. It's just as simple as that."

Touma sighed, "I guess you have a point."

They soon arrived at their dormitory owned by a boarding school which they will be attending bridging classes at for the next two to three years before advancing to high school.

For some reason, he seemed rather upset.

"Are you alright?" said Misaki.

"Must be tough being a girl if such things keep happening to them."

"It is, but that's no reason to just give up on life don't you think? Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

Misaki waved goodbye to Touma as she headed to her room.

If I told you that you're the only reason why I haven't given up on life yet, would you believe me or would you brush this off as a stupid joke? Maybe I'm the stupid joke who can only live because of you.


Kihara Noukan went through a report generated by the Tree Diagram with a metallic pair of extensions from his golden retriever body as a pleasant scent of bacon drifted from the kitchen. It said that the probability of Shokuhou Misaki achieving Level 5 was an impressive 97.9% given that the appropriate resources are allocated to her Power Development Curriculum.

Yuiitsu served a plate of eggs and bacon to Noukan, "Can't you believe it? That invisible entity from that boy's right hand actually said I lacked imagination."

Yuiitsu claimed that there was something nudging her to chop off Touma's right arm while doing the Power Development operation for him. She got curious and decided to do exactly that. An entity burst out of his right shoulder. It may be invisible, but you knew it was there facing you. It then said that she lacked imagination and retreated back into the right arm it regenerated for Touma.

"It's true," said Noukan.

Yuiitsu stared at him incredulously, "What? Do I really…"

"Lack imagination? Yes."

Most Kiharas like Yuiitsu never developed powers of their own because they are unable to accept that the scientific laws of this world are arbitrary. They can be modified like changing the settings in a software program. Simply put, they were too logical despite being geniuses.

"May I ask in what aspect do I lack imagination in?"

"Curiosity killed the cat, my dear niece."

Yuiitsu pinched off a piece of bacon strip with a sigh, "I get what you mean, but that is so very un-Kihara like. Are we just going to leave-"

"We cannot defeat the Chairman. If you're not careful, he'll end your life with just a thought. Forget everything you know about Kamijou Touma."

Yuiitsu fell silent and went back to the kitchen.

Touma's right hand was so important to the Chairman that whoever saw too deeply into its true nature will be eliminated without question.