3 Weeks Later
Excitement was building over the Academy City Gladiator Tournament as the date of the tournament got closer and closer. Matches were set up and details were finalized. The tournament would take place over the course of one month; with matches taking place across the city in various arena's and fields. This was necessary because of the sheer amount of schools that were participating; everything from middle schools to universities had matches. Everywhere you went you could see posters advertising the event.
Touma still wasn't certain how he felt about the whole thing but everyone seemed to be excited so he had pushed his worries away, it wasn't like he would be fighting anyways, none of his teachers knew about his Imagine Breaker and they wouldn't expect a level zero to fight against Espers.
Touma found himself spending more and more time thinking about the Railgun; Misaka Mikoto. She had been displayed on several posters advertising the tournament and every time he saw her face he ended up thinking about her for the rest of the day. The fact that she knew about his memory loss was eating at him and he felt that at the rate he was going it wouldn't be long before he would just be a husk. As much as he didn't want to admit it he needed to talk to her about it.
The only problem was that he had hardwired himself to not talk about his memory loss under any circumstances. He couldn't even imagine approaching her to talk about it. Touma could have ripped his hair out in frustration, what was he supposed to do? Touma pulled his attention back to what Komoe was saying with difficulty, the last thing he needed was a detention since he was already walking on thin ice from missing a day and a half of school and then sleeping though another half of a day.
Komoe was talking about Esper trigonometric calculations that needed to be done in order to develop their abilities, Touma was certain that it must be important but it might as well have been English to him. He sighed a little into his hands; why did he have such a hard time understanding the calculations that were involved in Esper abilities? He knew that he would never develop an ability of his own and his right hand would cancel it out even if he did. Still, they were a major part of the curriculum and if he ever wanted to go to a college he would need to figure out the equations.
Touma started to try extra hard to concentrate on the lesson but since he started listening half way through and didn't hear the vital information that was required to do this type of math at the beginning of the class he didn't stand a chance at deciphering what was said. The class ended with his utter defeat and disillusionment.
After School
Touma packed up his school supplies, feeling depressed. On top of his worries with Misaka he had tried his best in his afternoon classes and had precious little to show for it. Now he had a homework assignment that he didn't have the knowledge to complete and a test coming up in the future that he didn't know how to prepare for. Not for the first time Touma thought how nice it would be to go to a normal high school somewhere else in the country, where you didn't have to know Esper equations to further your academic studies.
"Oi, Kamijou!" Touma turned at the sound of the familiar voice. Fukiyose Seiri was standing at the front of the class, along with several of his class mates including Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Touma's other friend, Aogami Pierce, who was the self-proclaimed Pervert King and had somehow become the class representative.
Tsuchimikado grinned and did a little half wave at him. Peirce smiled his usual carefree smile. Fukiyose however seemed irritated by the mere presence of Touma, which now that he thought about it seemed to be her normal state of being. He wondered why that was, what did she have to complain about?
He ignored the sullen thoughts and tried to greet his friends with a smile "what's up?" he asked nervously, hoping he hadn't done something to invoke Fukiyose's anger.
Fukiyose rolled her eyes "don't be so nervous, the tournament starts in less than two weeks so I thought we should decide who would be participating."
Touma frowned "do we even have any level 4's in this school? Shouldn't they be the ones participating?"
Fukiyose glowered at him "they will be, but our school only has four level 4's. Not enough to just rely on them for the whole tournament."
Touma sighed "that few?" He said out loud, and then realized what he had said. "um, I, uh I meant to say: I guess that means we'll just have to work extra hard!" He tried to put as much false enthusiasm as he could into his statement in order to keep Fukiyose from hitting him, which she had the habit of doing when he said something negative.
Fukiyose smiled "good to hear Kamijou! So you won't mind being a substitute will you?"
Touma's jaw hit the floor "eh!? Are you crazy? You want to have a level 0 participate in a combat tournament along with Espers?!"
Fukiyose shook her head "not participate, we just need enough people to make up the team and we couldn't get enough level 3's to agree. Something about not wanting to get crushed or some other bullshit excuse."
The classmates behind her smiled painfully, making Touma think that Fukiyose's method of recruitment had been to make them more scared of her then they were of fighting in the tournament.
Peirce chimed in "as class rep I of course will be participating as well."
Touma thought that was a little strange, he hadn't pegged Peirce as a fighting type. Or the type that would take his position as class rep seriously for that matter. He shrugged the thought away; he was facing the much more important issue of him being enlisted into the Academy City Gladiator Tournament.
Touma shifted uncomfortably "I really don't know if I'm comfortable doing this, I…" Touma trailed off as Fukiyose treated him to her best death glare, causing him to shrink back. "um what I meant was, I would be happy to support our school in any way that I can!"
Fukiyose smiled "I knew we could count on you, Kamijou!" She said in a confident voice just before abruptly doing a 180 by threatening him "you better not flake out on us!"
Fukiyose ruffled his hair once and left the room before Touma could protest. Some of the other students that Fukiyose had bullied into joining gave him sympathetic looks. Tsuchimikado threw an arm over Touma's shoulders consolingly "man, you really do have shitty luck," he said cheerily as Touma slowly processed what he had agreed to. When he had finally processed the information he didn`t freak out, this kind of thing had happened to him way too many times for him to be particularly surprised anymore. Touma simply hung his head in defeat "such misfortune," he said in a resigned tone and everyone else nodded in agreement. Touma left shortly after, he needed to go shopping for food or else Index would chew on his head again.
Tokiwadai Middle School
Misaka Mikoto, Shirai Kuruko, Kongou Mitsuko and Shokuhou Misaka were gathered in a classroom along with several other student that were high level esper's to discuss the upcoming ACGT, or Academy City Gladiator Tournament.
"Like I was saying, you should only participate as support in team matches, Shokuhou-san; since your ability isn't combat oriented you'll be the most useful that way."
Shokuhou Misaka, the other level 5 Esper in Tokiwadai middle school, shrugged and tossed her thick blonde curls over her shoulder carelessly. Her star shaped pupils sparkled "that's fine with me, I detest fighting anyways."
Mikoto had her head propped up with one hand as she stared listlessly at the wall opposite from her. She didn't see the point in all this planning: it seemed like a better idea for them just to send out whoever was best suited for each battle.
"And obviously we'll send out Onee-Sama whenever we can." Kuruko's words caused Mikoto to sit up and pay more attention.
"What are you talking about? Mikoto asked her perverted roommate.
Kuruko looked at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world "the rules say no-one can participate two battles in a row. So we can just send you out every other time and guarantee a win for us!"
Mikoto shook her head "sorry Kuruko, an organizer told me I couldn't participate in the round robin part of the tournament."
Kuruko stood up, enraged "what!? How can they not let their best fighter participate in a fighting tournament?"
Mikoto though about pointing out that she wasn't the 'strongest' but there would be no point "from my understanding they're going to set up pre-organized fights with esper's specifically chosen to make that fight as entertaining as possible. I'll probably get a few fights to fill the bleachers and attract attention but other than that I won't be participating."
Kuruko was fuming "that's not fair!"
Mikoto smirked "actually, it's completely fair."
Kuruko pouted some more "will you at least come to all our matches?"
Mikoto smiled "of course I will."
Kuruko's expression turned lecherous "and will you wear a skimpy cheerleader uniform?" Kuruko pulled said uniform out from thin air. Why she had it on her person Mikoto did not want to know.
ZAP!
Mikoto sighed, "I'm going back to my room. Whatever you guys decide will be fine." Mikoto left them to their discussions and Kuruko unconscious on the floor.
Mikoto had said that she was going back to her room, but she was feeling restless now that she had escaped from the classroom. Plus it was a warm evening so she decided she would walk around for a bit before she headed back.
The normally bustling streets of Academy City were beginning to empty slowly as the millions of students that made up most of the city's population hurried back to their dorms because of the strict curfew that was enforced on all the students.
She said strict but Mikoto had yet to have been reprimanded for staying out late, it's not like they had Anti-Skills roaming the streets at night looking for rule breakers that would seem a little too much like a prison for many of the parents that had children going to Academy City.
Oh, there were plenty of Anti-Skill out and about at night, but nowhere near enough to provide a significant barrier to moving around at night, at least not for her.
Mikoto decided that as long as she was out and about she might as well go visit her old friend: the vending machine. Yes, that vending machine. The one that had stolen her 10,000 yen bill from her years ago and since then she had been extracting revenge from it.
For Mikoto nothing was quite as therapeutic as kicking that vending machine as hard as she could and watching the drinks spill out of it. She briefly wondered how close she was to getting her 10,000 yen's worth from this vending machine before brushing the thought away as she picked up the five drinks that had fallen out of the machine. She knew that she would never be able to forgive this stupid machine for taking her money.
Mikoto straightened after collecting her bounty, only to nearly drop all of it in shock. Kamijou Touma was walking past holding two grocery bags and was completely unaware of Mikoto's presence.
Mikoto blinked a couple times in surprise, what were the odds that they would meet at this time of night? Now that she thought about it, they did seem to meet here a lot. She opened her mouth to call out to him but hesitated, the words sticking in her throat. She watched Touma walk away, unable to turn away but unable to do anything to stop him. Her heart was pounding; the satisfaction she had felt just moments ago was a distant memory, replaced by despair. She stood frozen in place as she watched the man she couldn't get out of her head turn the corner and disappear from her line of sight.
Mikoto crumpled onto a bench, the pounding of her heart slowing down but the sense of despair did not. 'What the hell is wrong with me?' She thought to herself as she clutched her drinks to her chest, more confused than she had ever been in her entire life.
Biri-Biri…. :'(
