A/N: From now on, any dialogue in italics are identified as a character's thoughts and any titles within the story are in bold. That's all for now. TTYL.

Chapter 3

"Excuse me?" Misaka asks.

The boy – Anon – turns around to face the two girls he recognized.

"Can I help you?" he asks.

"We were wondering if you're having trouble with something." She replies.

"Well you see, I kinda have gotten lost in this District and can't find the arcade I'm heading to."

"The arcade? Well you should be in luck because my friend and I are heading there too. Want to tag along till we arrive there?"

Anon thinks for a moment and then simply replies with a smile. "Sure, why not? I'd appreciate it. Wouldn't want to get lost again."

"Great! Hey Saten!"

Saten was a bit zoned out for the moment taking in at the boy's face. He appears to be Caucasian with jet black hair and brown eyes. And he appears to be cute looking in her opinion. Wait, cute looking?! It's not like she has an instant crush after all!

"Uh, Earth to Saten?" Misaka asks waving her hand in front of the long-haired girl.

Saten comes to her senses and lightly blushes in embarrassment. "S-Sorry! Just zoned out a bit, that's all."

The boy simply chuckles. "It's fine. No need to be embarrassed about it. Well, lead the way then, ladies."

And the three set off for the arcade together. As they were walking, the girls decided to introduce themselves.

"Oh, that's right! We forgot to introduce ourselves! I'm Mikoto Misaka and this is my friend, Ruiko Saten."

"As in the Railgun?" Anon asks with an eyebrow raised. "Huh. It's an honor to meet you, Misaka. I heard you're pretty famous in this city along with the other Level 5s."

Misaka was flattered by the compliment. He seems to be polite and not at all hyped for whatever reason.

"I-It's nothing! I get that a lot." She chuckles sheepishly.

"And what about you? Saten was it?" He asks the other girl.

"Who, me? Nah, I'm just a Level 0. Thanks for asking by the way." Saten answers with her own smile. "What's your story? You look like a foreigner. Are you an Esper?"

"Not exactly. I'm just visiting the city, that's all. I'm surprised the technology here is 30 years ahead even though the first iPhone was technically invented by Apple. N-No offense."

"None taken. To be honest when I first came to Academy City to become an Esper, I was surprised too." Saten says, not really offended at all.

"Same here." Misaka joins in. "I kinda feel bad for the outside world that came up with newer ideas first, but somehow Academy City always beats them to it."

"Or it could be the other way around. Like that one rumor about Academy City having spies steal the original creator's ideas and designs." The boy theorizes.

"Hold on, you read up on urban legends or rumors too?!" Saten asks with a hint of excitement, causing Anon to sweatdrop.

"Well… she seems a bit cheery about it." He mentally says.

"I think your scaring him a bit with your fangirling." Misaka butts in to calm her friend down.

"Well… I mean… sure?" he answers to her, albeit in a confused expression as Saten's face was a little too close to his.

"Awesome! I get to meet another person who actually has the same hobby as I have!" She exclaims as she moves her face away from his.

The boy was able to regain his composure and immediately change the subject as they have arrived at the arcade. "H-Hey what do you know! We're here!"

As soon as they entered the arcade it was time for them to part ways.

"Thanks for letting me tag along with you two." Anon says.

"No problem. It was nice to meet another rumor hunter like myself." Saten says.

"You too. Well, it was nice meeting you two. I hope you have a great time here." he says as he walks away to a different part of the place.

"See ya later/Bye!" Both girls said with a wave and a smile. Unfortunately, they forgot one other thing.

"Oh crap, I forgot to ask what his name was!" Saten panics after seeing the boy run off.

"Maybe next time, Saten. I'm sure you can ask him for his phone number if you know what I'm saying." Misaka teases.

"M-Misaka! It's not like that, I told you!" she blushes again. "Great. This is what I get for teasing her about being with Kamijou." The girl mentally says with a sigh.

"Wanna play that same game again? I'm ready for a rematch, and this time I'll win!" Misaka asks with determination to beat her friend's punching machine high score.

Saten snaps back into reality and accepts the rematch as they walk to their favorite game. "Take your best shot!"

2 Hours Later…

"Woohoo!" Saten exclaims with pride and joy as she beats Misaka's high score yet again. "And another win for me!"

"Again?!" Misaka groans in exasperation.

"Jeez, Misaka. I guess you have a lot of bad luck in winning one game today." She grins jokingly.

"Rotten luck." Misaka says, quoting from the unlucky boy she's dating. "Oh, come on! Now I'm saying that Idiot's catchphrase?!"

Just before she could have another go, the girls hear commotion going on near them. As they went to check it out, they see a small crowd of people watching someone play some very old game and he's beating the game's highest score which was 599,000 points! And now he's surpassed that! Can you believe that?!

"Hey, isn't that the guy we met earlier?" Saten wonders.

"Looks like it. He's got a small crowd to begin with." Misaka answers, noticing that the boy they ran into earlier is the same one.

The girls got closer as best they could, and they see Anon in the middle of the highest level of the game. From what they see, the gameplay looks old and appears to be a first-person shooter. However, Anon isn't playing as a character, rather a tank shooting down ships in some kind of retro-styled computer maze. The crowd gets excited as the boy's high score is climbing, and just as the last ship comes into his sights, he has difficulty shooting it but finally destroyed it as he has beaten the last level with the newest high score ever recorded on the game. The crowd cheers and everyone started talking about it.

"Awesome, dude!" one teen said.

"You're the best!" says another.

"2,800,000 points! Holy shit!" a third shouts. "How'd you do it?"

Anon simply grins and does hand poses to fit his family quote. "It's all in the wrist! All. In. The wrist!"

The crowd laughs with joy and soon, everyone disperses and went about their business. Just as he is about to leave, he immediately sees Saten and Misaka standing there with impressed looks.

"That was some fancy shooting." Saten compliments.

"Oh! It's you two again. I take it you're having a great time here?"

"Yeah. Though, Saten keeps beating my high scores for some reason." Misaka grumbles.

Saten chuckles. "Like what he said, it's all in the wrists."

Anon laughs at the joke she made. "Good one, Saten!"

"By the way, we never got your name." she mentions. Anon stops laughing and deduces that he didn't give them his name.

"Oh shit. Now that you mentioned it, I completely forgotten earlier." He outstretches his hand to Saten and shake their hands. "Anon. My name is Anon."

Saten gives him a funny expression. "H-Hold on, your name is Anon? Like the pun for Anonymous?" And then she snickers which turns into giggling and in turn becomes laughter. Misaka processes his name and suddenly gets it and joins in on the joke.

"S-Seriously?! A-Anonymous?! W-What kind of name is that?!" Misaka laughs harder and after the laughter died down, they stopped. "That was a good joke. But really, what's your real name?"

The answer they got was a deadpan glare that literally says, 'That wasn't a joke'. This got the girls to sweat nervously as they realized that they unintentionally insulted him.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry! I had no idea that was literally your real name!" Saten apologizes.

"Uh, yeah! Me too!" apologizes Misaka as well.

He simply chuckles at them freaking out a bit. "It's all right. To be honest, I find it funny too. But the name does sound badass, don't you think?"

They stop to take a moment and soon see that his name does sound like the name of a warrior.

"W-Well, it does sound pretty cool when you put it that way."

"Yeah. Thanks." Anon says. He then looks at his iPhone and sees it's almost school curfew. "Look, I gotta go now. Besides, you two must have curfew here in Academy City so I won't take up all your time. Later."

He walks out of the arcade, leaving the two girls alone.

"That was weird. It seems he was in a hurry or something."

"Well it's not really our business, Misaka. And he's right about curfew, so we should leave soon."

"Just a sec, Saten. I want to know what game he was playing."

Turning around, both Misaka and Saten looked at the title of the game with the background looking oddly familiar.

"Space… Paranoids? I never heard of that game before."

"Me neither." Saten says, not familiar with the title. "Wait… That ship in the background. Isn't that the…?"

"Hey, that's the same ship that took you away last night!" Misaka finishes her question. "But does that mean…? No, that's crazy! Something from a video game can't just magically come to life! Then again, magic could be involved. No, I highly doubt that would be the case and I don't know a lot about that side. Maybe I should ask that idiot for help. No, no, no! He'll just drag himself into this and get hurt again! Argh, I don't know what to do!"

"Misaka, take a look at this." She gets her friend's attention snapping Misaka out of her thoughts.

"Huh? What is it, Saten? Did you find something?"

"Kinda. Look at the name of the company that developed this game. It says 'ENCOM'. Do you know anything about a name like that?

Misaka could only shake her head as she doesn't know. "Sorry, I never heard of a corporation like that either."

Saten could only sigh in disappointment. Not at Misaka, but at herself because they still haven't found any leads to her kidnappers. Unless… "Wait a minute! What if were looking at this the wrong way?"

"Huh?"

"Think about it. What if instead of hunting down the kidnappers, we learn what we know about ENCOM? They might have some of the answers we need."

"Saten, that's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?" Misaka says, beamed with excitement that they might have a potential lead besides the vigilante, of course. Not wasting anytime, Misaka takes out her Gekota phone and contacts Uiharu.

"Hey, Uiharu."

"Oh, Misaka! Do you need something?" Uiharu asks on the other line of the call.

"Yeah. Hey, listen. I think Saten and I found another possible lead that might need to be look into."

"Really? That was quick."

"It sure was. Anyways, can you and Kuroko look up on a company called ENCOM?"

"Um, sure! Why?"

"Well you see, we're at the arcade and this really old game called 'Space Paranoids' had a background of the same ship that snatched Saten away and strangely, the game itself was made by that company."

"Hmm. Looks like it might take a while for me to get everything we know about ENCOM. Shirai and I are working late, so you and Saten will have to wait till tomorrow after the strategy meeting."

"That's okay. We can wait. Besides, it's gonna be curfew soon. Tell Kuroko that I'll let the Dorm Mistress know that she's working late again in Judgement. See ya tomorrow."

"G'night, Misaka." Uiharu says before ending the call.

Misaka closes her own phone and sighs before turning around toward Saten. "Well, looks like it'll be a while till they can get any information on ENCOM, so we'll have to wait till tomorrow."

Saten nods in understanding. "Right. Well, I gotta head back to my dorm anyway. See ya tomorrow!" She waves as she walks out of the arcade.

"Okay! Be safe!" Misaka replies, waving back at her.

(Time skip)

Saten had finally made it back to her dorm, and she was really exhausted after a long day.

"Oh man, all that fun made me tuckered out." she says out loud after taking her shoes off.

The girl then went to the kitchen to cook up some dinner. When the food was ready, she then gave thanks for the food and went right on digging. After dinner, she then took off her school clothes and entered the bathroom for a nice warm shower. As she showers, she recalls yesterday's events.

"When those creeps came out of nowhere, they immediately held me prisoner. I was confused at what they were trying to do to me and why they brought me to that former warehouse. Then, they began stripping me, leaving me completely naked. I was so scared, embarrassed, and humiliated. Suddenly, that mystery man saved me as he killed those men. It's like he's a knight and I'm an imprisoned princess, yearning to be free from evil's grasp."

She exits the shower to dry and comb her long hair. She was too tired to put on pajamas, so she put on a simple black bra and thong panties that reveal her attractive bottom and slender legs.

"But I have so many questions for him, and yet he doesn't want to be seen by the authorities or anyone else! So, whatever his story is, I want to know his identity and learn about him more. That is… if he'll ever appear at night again."

Saten then gets in her bed and turns out the light and moments later, she finally falls asleep.

A/N: Leave a follow and a review.

Next Time: The investigation officially begins! With Judgement supporting Anti-Skill in patrolling in teams all over Academy City, the Railgang is left to find the vigilante on their own and learn about ENCOM. Unbeknownst to them, Anon IS the supposed 'vigilante' and he faces the return of a forgotten enemy, connected to the sightings of the strange goo.

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