Hello to all!

Wow, seriously just...wow. I'm surprised this is story is getting so popular as of late. Really, it makes me feel all warm and tingly inside...I hate that feeling but love the fans who like story. Anyway, there really isn't much up here that I really need to say. The word count's longer than the other two since its the whole combat scene. I tried my best to keep the paragraphs tame in terms of length, but if walls persist than I'll assist once it is addressed.

But, enough of this, enjoy chapter 4 of A Certain World of Darkness.

Academy City, from facts centered around it, was a curious place to live in as it was to hear about from safe distance. From the outside, the city was only known for only its major and most compelling facts which made nearly everyone worldwide wish to either become apart of or envious of it. The technology which was available exclusively to the city, the Espers that make up its inhabitants, the scientific breakthroughs which baffled the minds of researchers outside the walls, and the substantial funding which was provided to key research facilities to further develop all three of these major factors. It wasn't a secret that many countries, from Japan all the way to America, had all felt intimidated by the exceedingly large gap that had been established between Academy City and the rest of the world. For that reason, many countries had done their absolute best to try and catch up with the city; causing government spending to skyrocket as they amassed funds to at least find a way to improve their own technology to match up with the city of science. It was a fruitless effort really, which made it all the more insulting to those outside looking in. It never took less than a year for previous equipment, devices, and machinery to become obsolete and replaced with something significantly better.

This was a city of science, science was constantly evolving, growing, and expanding with each passing moment. Academy City may have raised the bar in terms of 'next generation' technology, but that was to be expected at this point. Trying to match this place in that sense was an impossible feat for anyone to ever hope of achieving and there was no shame in admitting that.

But within this city of science, technology, and Espers, there were other factors which made it a curious place to inhabit. For example; the matter of construction was something worth mentioning to say the least. It wasn't rare to see large buildings being either constructed or being decimated as time went by. There was limited space in Academy City, little room for meaningless construction to be made, and yet the sight of a partially constructed building was just so commonplace to people here. But that was something that could be explained quite easily really; a building that loses its value or is deemed excessive is simply demolished while someone else comes and claims the area for their own purposes. Dependent on the person who bought the property, construction wouldn't last longer than a day or two; leaving a new building in the steed of the old one. Basically, it was just a matter of how much the property value was worth and how one can profit from the property's location.

This was a rather common practice that was seen everywhere, hence why it was never commented on.

Still, Mugino Shizuri had seen much more curious and odd things in her time here in the city. Too many to questionable things occurred in both above and under the surface of this city that she couldn't ever possibly hope to recall or mention. Once upon a time, like many others new to the city, every little thing that she saw fascinated her, made her wonder, made her nosy, and made her normal. Somewhere along the line, however, such thoughts began to fade and eventually die away in a small corner somewhere. Everyone within the city was like this; the oddities that one see's are so common and so ordinary that it truly needed to be impressive for someone to give whatever it should be a second glance. The saddening fact was, this kind of mentality wasn't restricted to things displayed on the surface of the city to Mugino and the rest of ITEM. In the underground world hidden away in the darkness of this city of lights were more dangerous and jaw-dropping things that would make a commoner's jaw-drop. Yet, to her, they were as common as a microwave oven that could be found at any retail store.

So why was she so curious of the boy, this ordinary high-school student, who was standing across from her? What intrigued her so much that she was going to this extent to not only find him but also challenge him to something as pointless as a comparison between abilities? Perhaps it was the ability itself in which he possessed that interested her so much? Maybe it was the personality and the display of morality that had been noted the following evening? Hell, maybe there was a certain appeal that was present in him that had subconsciously attracted her to him? The latter of which was unlikely given the girl's taste and previous observations, but it was still well within the realm of possibility if one thought about it; though minuscule.

One thing was clear though; this conflict was definitely going to yield some rather interesting results.

Said conflict, however, wasn't taking place where the two had previously encountered one another not long ago. The chances of someone somewhere getting hurt were too high in the area for them to proceed any further. That had been the second condition which the Ordinary High-School Student had listed to the Level 5 standing across from him. If he was to accept her petty challenge, than it would be in a place where no one could get caught up in the crossfire. Said Level 5 didn't even need to ponder his words before she agreed to the condition; on the grounds that using her ability out in the open streets wasn't the best way to avoid unwanted attention. So, with the ground rules established, they moved locations to somewhere which Touma felt would be the best place to avoid everyone whilst still not being too far away from his own home. He didn't once think of using the change of location as a means to escape this pointless quarrel. He couldn't afford to given the circumstances that went beyond his control; that and the girl may as well have been holding his hand with the proximity between them as she followed him.

With all that being said, we now find those same two individuals in an area devoid of buildings and concrete; a place still out in the open but isolated enough for few to notice them. The location itself the bank of a small stream which flowed below the bridge which acted as the gateway between District 7 and District 22. The patch of land they were standing on was filled with patches of grass scattered around, more dirt and rocks than anything else really, while the slope to their immediate right was completed covered in the green plant. Why Touma had chosen this place, Mugino didn't know nor care; as far as she was concerned this place had few tactical advantages for him to exploit nor was there anything which he could use for cover; even if the latter was useless against her.

"This will do, right?" Inquired the boy, his tone still a bit too lighthearted for her tastes but still baring enough of an edge to keep her amused. "Nobody else will get involved while we're here, so long as you don't start blasting up at the taller buildings over there."

In regards to that, Mugino briefly turned her gaze away from the boy and towards the higher structures that loomed over the slope which separated this area from the road. She wouldn't need to worry about hitting them so long as the boy didn't try to use the hill as a means to avoid her attacks. That was probably the only real advantage he could exploit in this place; but something as clear as that would be futile for someone like her who used her ability at a safe distance away from her target. So long as she could keep him away from that hill then all forms of resistance would ultimately be futile.

"Yeah, this will do just fine." Responded the girl, once more resting her left hand on her hip whilst her other hand brushed away a few loose ends of hair away from her face. After performing this action, the same hand reached into her purse to fish out her cell-phone and, with a few moments of her thumb, set the timer for ten minutes as agreed. She didn't have any real reason to abide by his rules, but neither of them had been aimed to give him an advantage. She could deal with him in this time frame maybe even finish it in five minutes if she really had the desire to do so. For that reason, she went along with it and that was the only purpose behind fulfilling her end of the agreement. Shifting her attention away from the screen on her phone, she stared at back at the boy opposing her who's expression was similar to that of someone waiting for a bus or a tram to arrive. It irked her, but it also spurred her to not show him any sort of compassion or sympathy the moment she began the timer. "You ready?"

"What about your purse? It looks kinda expensive; I'd feel bad if it got messed up or something and got ruined."

"Oh, how thoughtful of you~" The tone she had used, attest to her last statement, was filled with so much artificial sugar in it that, if it had been a canned drink or something, one would get multiple cavities after the first sip. "Here's your reward for your thoughtful gesture!"

She didn't even complete her sentence before two sphere's of green energy phased into existence before sending the familiar streams of energy towards the target in front of her; her thumb having already tapped on the enter key to start the timer. Both beams soared like bullets towards the startled youth in front of her, which was quick to vanish as he pivoted his body in a manner that exposed the right portion of his body towards the blast coming from that direction. As he performed this action, his right arm rose up to meet the offending attack and, of course, stop it once it connected. The second blast that had been fired, opposed to the one he had stopped, simply soared past him and continued back behind for a few seconds before dissipating into thin-air.

"WHAT KIND OF REWARD IS THAT!?" Honestly, what was with this girl and trying to blast him every single time he tried to be nice or helpful!?

She didn't even bother to make any sort of retort to that statement. Instead, the same sphere's of green energy once more faded into existence; this time the number created had risen to three. Shortly after these sphere's formed, the beams fired in the same linear path as Touma had come to expect and thus made his move. She, of course, knew better than to send them all on the same trajectory every single time she fired. While the sphere's themselves were appeared along each of her shoulders and above her own head, that didn't necessarily mean they all traveled in only a straight line in front of her. This meant that, while the beams of energy couldn't curve away from its original course, it could fire in any direction so long as it was on an linear path. Meaning she could fire from any angle she wanted, and since the raw energy discharged could penetrate any defense, going around an object wasn't a problem since her attacks would merely melt through everything in her way.

It was arguably the most powerful pure offensive ability produced by Academy City to date.

But, even though it held unparalleled offensive capabilities, it was still an ability with flaws. For instance, once she assigned a trajectory for the energy to travel; there was no way to alter the course in which it travels. Another flaw was that, while powerful, the beams overall size and diameter would become lower in scale when firing multiple blasts at once. That was due to the fact that she had to divide the amount of power exerted in order to maintain the power-output; otherwise it could potentially backfire on her. That was what tied into the greatest drawback of her ability; the fact that it was just too powerful to control, thus she needed to hold back a majority of the time to avoid harming herself just from exerting too much energy at once.

These factors, though hindering her, had not stopped her from using her ability to its limited extent. Some wouldn't call having an ability like hers limited, but she wasn't so thoughtless or overly confident that she would deny her own faults when it concerned her own well being. If anything, having restrictions had done well for her as it only made her attacks more precise when it came down to where to attack and how to predict where her target was going.

Such was the reason why, when Touma had began moving to his left, she had already determined where to send her next attack. Two of them had purposely aimed high with only a small gap in the center, while the third had aimed quite low towards the area between his calf and shin. She had been assuming that, with the presence of two frontal attacks being aimed at him, he would neglect to put much thought on the lower one believing that it wouldn't connect; thus mixing up his priorities in terms of what to block and neglecting the less obvious threat. She had been correct to a degree, as his right hand had risen to negate the one that had obviously been closest to him; but not in the manner which she had been anticipating.

Obviously, Touma wasn't as simple-minded as most tended to believe he was. As stated before, dealing with espers was something he was used to doing on a semi-regular basis. That being said, even if he wasn't aware of it himself, his mind had already processed and determined the best course of action that would prevent him from receiving any sort of harm when dealing with the supernatural. That being said, Touma's actions to avoid this attack was to simply leap forward with his hand outstretched towards the attack closest to his person and, upon coming into contact with the stream of green energy, negate it. Almost instantly, the beam his hand had come into contact with dissipated into thin air whilst his body continued to travel before tucking in his shoulder, rolling along the ground briefly once he landed, before adjusting himself into a crouching position. As he re-evaluated his opponent's location, his right arm instinctively raised in defense as another barrage of energy was fired at him, this time the number fired being two and both being considerably wider in scale compared to the tri-barrage she had used previously.

While one of the two blasts had been effectively negated, the other blast had skimmed past his crouched, the intensity behind the attack burning away a portion of his left sleeve and causing the skin beneath it to turn an angry red color. The attack had briefly caused a flicker of pain to display on his features before it was pushed aside as he quickly made his advancement towards the girl facing him.

Judging from what he was able to take note of so far, she had to calculate the trajectory of her attacks before they fired. This was obvious with most ranged abilities he encountered in the past; obviously you couldn't hit something if you weren't looking it. There were exceptions of this little rule of course, but from what he was seeing right now she wasn't among them. The knowledge that her blasts traveled on a linear path was something that had already been determined prior to this, so he had already come to that conclusion. The problem which presented itself, however, was that getting close to her was difficult since, the shorter the distance between them, the easier it was for her attacks to hit their target. The negation factor that he held wasn't applied to the rest of his body, unfortunately, thus if she chose to shoot at his midsection as he advanced whilst simultaneously aiming for his head, he'd be screwed since he couldn't negate both at the same time.

This meant he needed to observe further and determine the time frame between each set of attacks she made. If he could find even the slightest bit of a gap in-between her attacks, he could possibly enter her guard and effectively end this whole thing by getting a hold of her. That being said, after her last attempt, Touma had already been mentally counting down the seconds between then and now; having reached three-seconds so far since his advancement.

To the woman whom was only gazing at him from her peripheral, this frontal assault mentality was like an ant heading towards sticky-tape. Not long after this thought entered her mind, two familiar spheres vaporized around her person before firing towards the incoming target. Unlike before, however, these blasts had been launched in a manner different from before. As opposed to the one's before, these two had been shot out to where one would over-lap the other, forming a cross in the area Kamijou was soon to approach. Having seen this, the boy did his absolute best to skid to a stop before he ran right into the deadly green pillars of energy; his midsection reeling backwards as he did so. He had been lucky that the rocks and dirt at his feet provided enough traction for him to keep him from both slipping up and slowing him down enough to stop him only a few inches from being cut in half from the waist. But it was a too early to feel relieved, as a third sphere that wasn't present there prior had suddenly made itself noticeable as a third blast of green light shot out directly towards his chest. Normally he would have ducked to avoid it or used his right hand to negate it, but there was a problem with either of those options. If he crouched, the beams a few inches away would come into contact with at least some part of his body as he descended and for the latter he wouldn't be able to raise his hand fast enough to counter the attack before it hit him.

Going left or right to dodge wasn't an option either, so what choice did Touma have left?

Simple, he let Newton's Law take over and allowed his body to fall straight back onto the unforgiving earth below him. Since his upper body had still been reclined slightly backwards, it had only been the support of his back leg which had been holding him up. This, however, meant that his fall to earth had not been a pleasant one since his back leg had been forced to bend in a manner which left the rest of his body's weight baring down on it as it remained bent underneath him. The additional fact that played a rather painful part in this awkward maneuver was that his heel was still sticking straight up while his toes were still pressed down on the ground below.

Over-all, it was painful as hell and he was sure something was going to be sore tomorrow; but at least he avoided the attack; having watched it fly over his head as he gazed up at the darkness of the night. He didn't have much time to enjoy the view, however, as his gaze instantly returned towards the girl as she prepped her next assault; this time arming herself with four blasts. Now Touma began to panic, realizing now that she could fire even more than just three at a time. With little time to act accordingly, he began to roll around in the dirt and grass as if he was demonstrating what to do if you were caught on fire. While incapable of seeing the attacks directly coming at him, he knew very well they were and thus continued this action for a few rotations. Had he been looking, he most likely would have soiled himself with how close he had come to certain death just then; as the thin pillars of green energy tore away at ground he had previously been located just seconds ago. Hell, two of which had barely missed him, though the effects were still felt as a great burning sensation erupted from his lower back. At the very least, however, it still wasn't a clean hit and meant that there was one less beam he had to worry about.

It had been surprising how quickly and easily the boy had sprung to his feet despite pretty much being level with the ground below him. Still, he managed to do so quickly enough to raise his arm and negate one of the freshly crafted streams of energy coming at him. That didn't stop the other two which followed after it from skimming his sides and creating more stinging pain to spread further throughout his body. By this point, Touma was a panting and sweating mess; his shirt bore multiple singes around the edges where exposed skin was located. His upper body was completely covered in dirt and grass-stains, his breath was coming in faint but still heavy pants as he tried to regain his bearings. To simplify, Kamijou was a wreck and it wasn't helping that Mugino was looking at him with a mixture of boredom and amusement.

"I expected more from you." Stated the girl out of the blue, her slightly narrowed eyes and amused smirk making it rather difficult to determine if she was either angry or pleased with how things were progressing. "Is this the best you can do? You made it seem like dealing with Espers are so easy that I overestimated you."

Still panting, Kamijou took this moment to try and find the means to best approach the girl; and so far coming up with nothing. He had been wrong in his assumption that the stagger-time between her attacks being within the range of his abilities to get through. It was, but with the amount of fire-power she had at her disposal made doing so dangerous as hell. Not only that, but from what he saw she could either delay or even prepare another blast at any point in time should she need to. Adding to the fact that he wasn't aware if she had a limit to the number of beams she could fire left him with few options to utilize in this situation. What he was able to determine was that she had to be looking at him in order for her to exploit her ability; having to plot a trajectory for her attacks made actually seeing the target necessary after all. But aside from that, there was little else he could use to really exploit that weakness, with few exceptions being what he had listed off in his mind already and the knowledge that her attacks traveled in a straight line.

If he could just get close to her, then he could put an end to this entire thing pretty damn quickly and go home.

The problem was that just getting close to her was a task in itself.

"Well?" Continued the girl as smirk on her face became noticeably more pronounced than it had been before. "Is this really all you've got to show for? Come on, at least let me enjoy this more after taking all the time and effort to find you!"

He didn't have any more time to think as three more beams of light burst from around her person and towards him once again. Having no strategy, no direct weakness which he could exploit to the fullest, Touma simply chose a more reckless method than what he normally would in the face of something as threatening as this. Instead of putting focus on negating the attacks, he chose to do his best to weave between them whilst approaching her head on once again. The three attacks that had been made just now were quick to fade away, only to be replaced with three more in different angles. Still, Touma remained persistent and only negated whatever direct attack was heading in his direction. That didn't imply that his advancement forward had been at a quick pace, rather it was more cautious opposed to before when he rushed in blindly. Each step, each time he maneuvered around a blast speeding towards him, the gap between Mugino and Touma gradually became less and less. It was done in a sluggish pace, not something that could be done without caution as he had learned from before.

To Mugino, who was witnessing all of this with the same expression of mixed boredom and amusement, could only watch on as this boy steadily grew closer. Such a sight was what she had been waiting for honestly, finally witnessing the same determination and courage which had been present in his gaze not long ago. She wasn't one to have high expectations of others and her opponent now was no exception to that in the slightest. She knew from the beginning that she would inevitably dominate him in this situation, but she still held onto the sliver of hope that he would prove her wrong. Why? It was for the satisfaction that came with beating someone who truly gave it their all only to eventually realize they had no chance from the very beginning. With each streak of energy she discharged, the more she saw the courageousness this teen held.

Safe to say that Mugino was, finally, getting the enjoyment she desperately wanted to gain during this conflict.

But, in exchange for receiving her enjoyment, she also became increasingly aware of another factor which she hadn't taken into account. Bold and foolish as it was, Touma's approach became less about dodging her attacks and more about negating whatever entered his path. It had been a conclusion which Touma had came to be aware of as he moved forward, and that same factor was making it much easier to move once he was within a certain proximity. While the preparation time between blasts was short, it was still present enough for him to exploit. That had been the major reason in the beginning as to why he had focused on dodging and evading the beams of energy opposed to just negating them all. But, when at a close enough distance, it became less about creating an opening for him to move through and continue unhindered and more about just negating them altogether Adding to this was that, the closer her got and the closer the beams were located, the easier it was to negate all of them since he was much closer towards the base in which the attacks were coming from.

Basically, it was similar to how people can determine where a bullet from a gun is going to go through observation of the gun barrel's movement and the timing the fire-rate after each shot. Sure, there was a high possibility of getting shot in the process, but it was still possible to determine where you're going to hit opposed to not knowing. Such knowledge is useless if your still got hit anyway, sure, but if you had a thick enough materiel to block it then at least you could brace yourself for the impact. Though, that analogy wasn't best suited for this situation; as the 'bullets' in this situation were instead lasers and the 'barrel' is replaced with the very base of the beams originating from the spheres around Mugino.

That was why he had been so cautious in his approach, why he wasn't rushing in as boldly as before and why he had only now been more reliant in using his right hand opposed to just dodging attacks. Because the closer he got, the easier it was to predict where the attacks were headed. Additionally, should one of those streams of energy be too close together with another, than he could negate both of them at once and merely avoid the remaining ones. Overall it was a reckless, yet effective, tactic; one he more than likely wouldn't like to ever implement again if he could help it. These beams were too fucking dangerous to be dealing with, as even the slightest misstep or mistimed move would be the end of him.

But it seemed that there was another miscalculation that had been made over the course of this conflict. As he had avoided the incoming barrage of energy once more, Touma come to realize that his opponent, the girl whom had still kept her identity from him, was rapidly approaching him. The sight of her actually running towards him with no spheres of energy hovering around her had succeeded in astounding the teen to an extent. If memory serves, Espers with a ranged ability typically didn't try to get close to the target. They maintained distance between themselves and the person against them and rarely got close unless they were assured the opposition could do nothing against them. Mugino, however, was not maintaining her distance any longer; leaving him to believe that, if she had, than she would have been a sitting duck. Contrary to popular belief, though, Mugino wasn't your typical Esper in the sense that she didn't attack her foes at close range.

She had enough experience under her belt to know when and where to strike someone. There had been a reason to her continued barrage before; and that was to wear the teen down enough to where she could get close enough and beat him senseless herself. That wasn't to say that she was just going to run straight at him without any sort of plan. With that, a single sphere of energy emerged beside her and fired towards her target as she moved, which prompted the boy to raise his right arm and negate the blast head on. In doing that, however, he had left himself open as the tip of her boot dug itself deeply into his abdomen. Thanks to her minor distraction, this unexpected attack had caused the boy's body to coil up a bit from the jab which had temporarily robbed him of his precious air supply.

As the boy's head lurched forward, she took that opportunity to quickly retract her leg whilst bringing her hand up to grasp at his neck. Using her own momentum, she had easily been able to slam the boy's body back onto the ground with enough force to possibly give the teen a slight concussion due to the being choke-slammed into the dirt. The fact that he was already winded from her preemptive strike and the tight grip she had on his throat made receiving any air at this point very difficult. Mugino's fingernails digging into this neck weren't helping much in dealing with the pain that was flowing through his body at this point either. Out of instinct, though, Touma's hand's rose to try and pry himself free from the girl's grip, only to meet with resistance along the way. As things currently stood, she was on the ground with him, her legs bent over his left arm and putting all her weight down on that area whilst her free hand was pinning down his right at the wrist.

At this point, it really didn't need to be said that Mugino's expression continued to display the malicious intent that was less fitting of someone of her appearance. It was a look he was sure didn't belong on such a face, but the fact of the matter was it was present there. She was still smirking triumphantly down at him, her eye-lids still narrowed, but the look in those lightly-brown shaded spheres was something he hadn't been able to see until now. They were void of any real thoughts, no clear emotion was displayed on the forefront of her mind as she stared down at him. It wasn't something he could just classify as being bored or angry; it was a look of someone who was devoid of any sort of compassion or sympathy.

A look of someone who had did not care at all for life of others.

"Well, you were a disappointment." Mumbled the girl as she increased the pressure applied to his throat, her gaze never once leaving his own even for a second. "Guess this was all just a waste of time after-all. Oh well, at least now there's one less pest in the world."

As those words flowed through her lips, a familiar green sphere surfaced over his head; causing him to squint as the brightness that it created blurred his vision. His options were practically non-existent at this point; his arms were pinned, his body was aching all over, and his consciousness was waning due to lack of air. Even still, the options were scarce, but they were still there for him to use now that she was up close to him. While it was true that his arms had been successfully pinned down, his legs were still capable of doing something.

Which was precisely the reason why, for the first time in this entire fight, Mugino's expression changed to one of pain as she felt the boy's right knee connect to the small of her back and hitting the precise spot of her spinal cord in that area. It wasn't all that painful really, just surprising enough to allow her the strength of her free hand to lessen briefly. That concise moment of lost strength was all Touma needed to slip his hand free from her grasp and quickly grasp her own wrist in response; effectively causing the sphere of energy above him to vanish before the attack could follow through. With that same right hand of his and using what little remained of his strength at this time, Touma took another gamble and tugged her down as hard as he could.

Effective immediately, Mugino lost her center of balance she had and thus fell horizontally onto Touma's torso, providing the lad with enough time to remove his left arm out from under her legs and use that same arm to harshly pull the girl's hand away from his neck. As he took that moment to finally grasp for air, he hastily brought the same left hand back onto the ground and used it, along with his legs, to hoist his body up off the ground. Shortly after this action was accomplished, he twisted his entire body to where he would roll out from beneath her form, having long since released his grip on her wrist with his right hand. However, once he was out from under her, he didn't try to get distance away from her and instead re-adjusted himself and practically tackled her to the ground as she too hastily tried to return to her feet and try to attack him once again.

This time it had been Mugino who was left winded as the boy's shoulder slammed into her and sent both of them back onto the ground. With the situation now reversed and Touma on top of her, she had no means of getting him off her. For as soon as the two of them collided with the ground, his hands had already acted on his thoughts and reached out to gain a firm hold on her wrists. Once he had both of her hands secured in a vice, he raised both of them over her head; leaving her pinned underneath his body while his shadow loomed over her entire frame. Though neither party knew it then, but the current position that they had found themselves in was a rather…intimate looking that would normally leave the two rather embarrassed about being in due to how intimate it appeared.

Between the two of them, however, Touma appeared the most fatigued. Mugino was winded, sure, but he had been trying to recover his breath during the entire course of this moment; thus why he was still a panting wreck while Mugino appeared to have no problems at all. However, from the look on her face and the intensity in which she was struggling to break out of his grasp, it was easy to misinterpret the situation. Her face was flushed, but not for the reasons one would normally suspect. Her face was red out of anger, not out of embarrassment, for no matter how hard she concentrated on her ability; nothing appeared. She wasn't weak in the physical sense, but in comparison to Touma's weight bearing down on her combined with his own strength meant that getting out wasn't going to happen unless he let her. She had gotten too confident in herself and had didn't put into account that the boy's stamina and endurance far surpassed what she typically saw on a normal basis.

That had been her downfall, that had been what had gotten her stuck like this; but at the same time it meant that neither party could really do much. Touma, despite the obvious fact that this girl was basically trying to kill him, felt no real desire to do anything to physically harm her now that she was detained. With her abilities temporarily locked away by the right hand pinning her arm down, she could do next to nothing to harm him with. He could still beat her senseless right now with his left arm, but he wasn't the type of person to utilize such brutally on someone who was powerless to defend themselves. Besides, if he were to release her arm to attack; who knew what she would do to try and change the situation into her favor once more?

And so, Kamijou Touma decided that this was more than enough to put an end to their little conflict; even if the girl below him didn't quite feel the same way about it.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME YOU COWARDLY LITTLE SHIT!" Yeah, she was pissed alright.

"You lost as soon as you got close to me, just accept it." Groaned out Touma, wincing slightly at the level of volume she was using to get her point across. "Keeping your distance would have been a better choice for you in the end; I'd have never gotten to you at the rate I was going."

"SHUT THE HELL UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP AND GET OFF ME YOU DAMN PISS-STAIN!"

Why couldn't she use her powers!? Why was she stuck under this brainless weakling who was obviously inferior to her!? Yes, it was a dumb move on her part to get close to the target, but again she didn't think he would still have enough strength after spending so long under direct fire of her attacks. Most people struggled enough just avoiding them, and they weren't even nearly as successful as this guy was. So why was it that he still had strength left to put her down like this? Why couldn't she summon the strength to peel him off her?

Some of those answers would remain unanswered, some she would come to realize later on down the road. One such answer had become clear once she recalled precisely how he had survived this entire time; causing her to struggle twice as hard to remove her hand being held down by his right hand. That same right hand had been negating her attacks this entire time; but she had simply assumed that it negated only the external forces. Apparently the negation factor applied to internal forces as well, meaning it didn't just stop her attacks from hitting him but could also stop her from forming them entirely. Perhaps that was why he was so determined to get up close to her rather than constantly defend. But how could an ability like this have existed and yet remain so unknown to her? Why wasn't something like this being examined further; why was it so far under the radar? A possibility behind that was probably due to how the boy didn't particularly like using it, or certain VIPs in Academy City chose to deny its existence; but that was knowledge Mugino was privy to knowing.

"Are you done yet?" Asked the boy who, to further add insult to injury, sounded rather uninterested and exasperated with the current development. "Or are you gonna scream at me some more?"

"Fuck off!"

"What are you so angry for this time? You won this stupid challenge anyways."

"You call this a victory!? How the hell did yo–"

"Listen!"

Intense silence followed for only a few moments before a low hum and rattling was heard between the two of them. A mere jerk of his head was all that had been needed for her to divert her attention towards her purse, which had slipped off her shoulders at some point during their struggle. She knew what it was, and it was the alarm on her phone which was rattling up against most of her bag's contents. She obviously hadn't heard it, having been paying too much attention to the boy above her than to the mobile device. After making his point, Touma figured now would be the best time to try and quell her anger at least to a point where she wouldn't blast him the moment he released her.

"I heard it once you got close enough to me." He wasn't making this up; he really had heard it yet had been, literally, breathless and unable to inform her of that little fact. Even if he had, though, he severely doubted she would have stopped anyways; which was why he was detaining her so that she could hear it herself. "So, technically, you won since I wasn't able to hit you until after the alarm went off."

"Does it look like I give a shit!?" Responded the girl, her expression still clearly livid while her efforts to release herself from the boy's grasp persisted.

"Well, um, yeah; it does."

She ceased her resistance long enough to level the boy with a glare as deadly as her ability; the intensity put behind it possibly being capable of matching or even out-doing her own Meltdowner if she continued long enough. She couldn't help but find his bluntness infuriating to the highest degree, even if it was true to an extent. Of course she wanted to win; what person did anything with the incentive to achieve success in this world? Nobody ever did anything with the intent to fail on purpose; there wasn't a single person she knew of out there in the world that did not at least try to triumph. Even the weakest at least tried despite knowing that they wouldn't succeed, which possibly the only thing she could really give such people credit for. Anything less than that was something she would not accept, she refused to acknowledge it and do whatever it took to redeem that failure and achieve the results she desired. Those brave enough to admit it would say she was obsessive, a perfectionist who took things too far out of proportion over matters which people would considered petty or trivial. Mugino herself was aware that such a side of her existed, she couldn't afford to be ignorant about it really. But, at the same time, it was through that side of her which had yielded such great success in the underworld of Academy City, what made ITEM so reliable, and why they were a valuable asset to someone up at the top of the ladder.

Kamijou Touma, however, wasn't someone who really cared about winning or losing; at least from her perspective. Her assessment of him was still firmly in its place as someone who was easy to notice yet still just as easy to lose track of. The way he carried himself, his appearance, his state of dress; all of these things screamed 'commoner' and 'ordinary' which would have had him written off as yet another pointless existence in the world. Except that wasn't the case, he hadn't been written off, and his normality wasn't what had driven her to find him tonight. His right arm was what called her, what interested her, what made her ponder, what made her plot, what made anxious, and what led to this pitiful conclusion of their duel. The Meltdowner had every intention to win, had every intention of ripping the look he still had in those eyes of his from him and make him realize just how small he was in the world of giants. That was what she wanted, that was what she fully intended to do, and yet she had been incapable of doing so and all this guy could do was half-assly try and say that she had succeeded? The duel didn't matter, the victory was an empty one, and this pest still had that same look in his eyes that still sent chills down her spine as he peered down at her.

Honestly thought, the thing which annoyed her most was the fact that he was taking all of this in stride. It really appeared as though dealing with situations like these was something so normal, so ordinary, that he had grown accustomed to it to the extent that, even when faced with an obvious threat, it was like an inconvenience to him rather than a matter of life or death. He was calm, yet bored. He was determined, but lethargic. He was confident, but hesitant. All of these traits, all of which she had witnessed firsthand, were things that both puzzled and infuriated all the same. Did he really not view her as a threat to his life or did he simply not care? She didn't know the answer to her own musings, but really wasn't given much time to ponder further before the teen in question spoke up once more.

"If I let you go, can I leave without getting shot in the back this time?" Again, the way he spoke made this whole thing seem like nothing more than a giant hassle that he would rather not deal with. Given, that was precisely how he felt in regards to their little scuffle, but she wouldn't have been too pleased if she found that out right now.

In that moment, Mugino allowed herself the decency to turn away as she deliberated on his inquiry. She could do just that, wait for his back to be turned and kill him when he wasn't looking. It had failed once before in the alleyway though, so the chances of that succeeding were even slimmer now that she didn't have the element of surprise. She could still persist in performing her previous actions and just not repeat the same mistake of getting close to him. He obviously wasn't your typical everyday student in regards to physical combat; but she wasn't precisely the most adept in that criteria herself either. Still, she could block off his escape routes before he could get a good running start. At least then she wouldn't have to chase him all throughout the night in the streets.

But, again, her interest in Kamijou Touma dictated that letting him live wouldn't be a bad option either. Let it not be said that it was fear of Anti-Skill or Judgment coming after her which dictated this thought. She was pretty much immune to the law once darkness fell. There were no witnesses here, no security; and even if there were a few tugs on some strings could easily have the whole thing swept under the rug like it had never happened. Losing a promising ability like his aside, nobody would miss a normal high-school student for very long. However, what had dictated that sort of thought wasn't as much of the ability displayed as opposed to the person who had it that was steadily caught her attention. His ability still played a much larger role in his significance, but now she grew more intrigued in the boy who had it in his possession rather than just the ability itself like before.

"..." After several moments of careful thought, the girl merely clicked her tongue before turning her attention back onto the boy who was still gazing down at her in wait of a response. "Fine."

"Good," Responded the teen, the relief in his tone and the slumping of his shoulders acting as clear enough indicator that he was happy for this whole thing to finally be over. "I was starting to think you wanted to continue."

"Don't say that when you practically have me in a missionary position."

"Eh?" Having just heard this, the boy re-evaluated his current placement over-top of the girl to find that was indeed how it appeared. After coming to this realization, the teen reacted in the typical manner of someone with at least some sense of modesty; his face flaring up and a rather hasty retreat off and away from her person. It would have been amusing if she wasn't so pissed off at him for them being stuck in that awkward position for so long. "S-sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Just shut up at leave before I change my mind." Grumbled the girl; though she was oddly calm about the whole thing, unlike the boy in question who was now across from her on the ground. Hell, she didn't even look embarrassed about it; thought that arguably due to her irritation being the most dominant emotion at the present time.

"Y-yeah, I'll go ahead and…do that."

She didn't even watch him as he departed from the scene after retrieving his bag of supplies he had been forced to take with him since he wasn't willing to allow Mugino to find his home. As it was, she was busy dusting herself off from all collection of dirt which had found itself on her attire. Of course, clothing was easily replaceable and just as disposable to her considering her own bit of wealth. Still, it wouldn't do for someone like her to be seen with debris covering her from head to toe. Once the task was completed and she had collected her purse off the ground, she rummaged through her assortment of items inside before removing the still vibrating phone from the bag. After silencing the alarm, however, she noticed on the display that there had been a missed call from someone; most likely someone from ITEM. Flipping the phone open, she did the standard procedure for missed calls and located the source number. Her assumption had been correct, as the missed call had come from Frenda's phone not three minutes ago…

Three minutes couldn't have passed during the time frame in which she and Touma had fought for dominance on the ground. Time flies, sure, but that little scuffle couldn't have passed that quickly. So, keeping this in mind, she recalled what the boy had told her in regards to him hearing the alarm on her phone going off prior to her approaching him at close range. Recalling that, along with the time she had started the timer, she reviewed that knowledge with the current time. The clock on her phone told her that it was eight forty-eight, and the time they had started was eight thirty-six; meaning Frend's call had been at eight eight forty-five. If Touma had indeed heard something, then it wasn't the alarm which he had heard; rather it was the sound of her phone receiving the call…and what that meant was…that…

"You son of a..."

...in that one minute of struggle, Touma had won their little duel.

"BITCH!"

In the end, Fate still found a way to create misfortune for poor Kamijou.

Alright, this chapter is done and, if your here right now, then that means you were able to make it through this fight. Good to see that you at least read through it all, even if the fight was kind of repetitive.

Now, I want to make something clear while your here now to explain this fight. From what most of you can take note of, this isn't a fight that was strongly one-sided on Touma's part and, for that, you must understand certain things. This isn't Mikoto, the Level 5 Touma was fighting an this time around does have the intention to kill him. That means its not a fight he can win easily, especially since Mugino's Meltdowner is the strongest ranged ability out there in terms of power. Touma is normal, and I'm stressing that factor here to an extent. That means, unless he's close to her, she has the upper hand against him; even if he can negate her power with the Imagine Breaker. At that same time, however, Mugino isn't someone who's afraid of getting her hands dirty, she can and has beaten the crap out of people without having to use her ability. You don't believe me then go review the Railgun manga and see for yourself or review back to her first fight with Hamazura. It's not her forte, I'm sure, but she's far from helpless without her ability to a degree.

And I know the ending was a little cliche, I know it so don't mention that little factor to me. But Mugino is arrogant, she too can make mistakes that can later come to bite her in the ass. She underestimated Hamazura in their previously mentioned fight above, and that cost her an eye and an arm. Touma's not that different from our Skill-Out friend over here; the only huge difference in terms of combat ability being his IB. Add to it the assumption that his ability only worked on outside forces written in the scene; you can rightfully assume that Mugino would have gotten a bit cocky with herself and just came to the wrong conclusion; which she paid for.

I'll understand if this fight is less than appealing to some of you guys out there, I'm a critic to my own work and I'm not largely happy with how this turned out, but I never once said this would be the last conflict we see between these two. There may be another, may be multiple times they clash, who knows? All I do know is that the difference between now and then is circumstance and is for this reason that I've decided to get there fight done now so you, yes, you the reviewers, can tell me what it is I can do to make this fight better in the future.

No real theme this time around unless you count "I'ma firin' ma-bwaaah!" as a theme...and don't take that too strongly to heart.

Phew, with that done, please do as usual in terms of reviews. If there are any inquiries, thoughts, or concerns that arise in your mind, feel free to address them to me and I'll do what I can to answer them. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed my little piece of work.

Goodbye for now.