Uiharu trembled.

What was this guy?

Why was he holding her arm and dragging her to a coffee shop?

And why couldn't she scream, run away or refuse?

Was he going to sell her?

"I'm not a weird person, first of all," said the white-haired Japanese. "I'm not going to harm you in any way. Actually, I may harm you indirectly, but I'll stop anything from happening."

Uiharu wasn't listening. All she heard was I may harm you.

John sighed. "Just come here."

"Coffee?" said John. "It's on me. I'm not paying though."

Uiharu carefully observed the man. She currently had no device with her, so she couldn't research who he was or call for help. Her cellphone was resting under the man's hand.

"Um…" started Uiharu.

"John Smith." John sipped on the coffee and started digging on the donut. "Before I go into details, go ahead and get your food. It'll get cold. If you don't want it to get cold, you can just hold it though."

Uiharu's brows knitted. He must've been at least a level 4 mental out or any variation of it.

John smirked. "You're far off if you think I am just some mental out, Ui-chan." John put down the coffee and brushed his hand on his hoodie. Uiharu was trying to debate whether his calling her Ui-chan was ruder or his brushing his hands off his clothes in a public area was ruder.

"Um…why did you bring me here?" asked Uiharu.

"First, let me confirm something," said John. He flicked his hand and passed the phone to her. "Go ahead and do your thing."

Uiharu's eyes narrowed. What was his plan?

"Go. I'm serious."

Uiharu bit her lips. She opened the cell and quickly pressed Kuroko's number.

But then—

"The caller you're trying to reach is busy right now. Please call back—"

Uiharu glared at the smirking old man and clenched her teeth. She turned her cell off and started emailing Kuroko.

However, when she pressed send, this message appeared—

This is a non-existent email. Please try again.

Uiharu twitched. With just his thoughts, this man hacked into Judgment's email and changed its address!

Uiharu's heart started beating faster. It was a hack-counter game.

She thought for a while and went to preference. She changed the whole system's code into omega code.

Omega code was virtually unbreakable. Even if this man's brain was as good as Tree Diagram, he could take millions of years before he could break this code.

Uiharu smiled and looked at the man. How was he going to counter this?

But then, she froze.

He was just smiling, as if enjoying the morning coffee.

While it was true that John was having a beautiful morning coffee, he was not slacking. He knew that he couldn't break the Omega code on the spot.

If that was so, he could just do the next best thing.

Keep her from breaking it as well.

All she could do was change the original message into omega code. If he got the original message before the cellphone changed it into omega code, it was job well done.

Uiharu, after a while, understood this and stopped changing messages into omega codes. It was useless after all. Even if she could send it to someone, if that someone couldn't break the code, it was futile.

Uiharu changed back the system. John sipped the coffee.

Uiharu clenched her teeth again and started hacking into the monitor nearby. It was pretty easy. All she had to do was use her judgment id to log into the system and use it to broadcast this criminal into Academy City.

But, her net connection died. People in the coffee shop also started murmuring.

Uiharu glared at the man again. He killed the whole net.

Now, what are you going to do, goalkeeper? John thought. He had no solution to this problem. If Uiharu could clear this, she was fit for the job.

Uiharu thought for a while and sighed. She couldn't do anything if there was no connection—

Wait, Uiharu thought. There was still one connection.

Her phone used different net from the internet. If she could somehow send bugs into the broadcast using her phone—

She already had her bugs programmed just in case something like this happened. She quickly attached the bugs into the message via photo and clicked send.

In a short while, the satellite was on her command.

Uiharu smiled. Now all she needed to do was use the satellite to—

"That's good enough," said John, now with a reassured smile. He tapped his finger on the dining table. The cellphone died immediately.

"Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" yelled Uiharu. Then, realizing that she's in a public place, she quieted down and fidgeted.

John looked outside. He felt 10032's EM wave being merged with Misaka's. They met up. It was about time to go.

"Okay, I'll keep this simple," said John. "I need some privacy, so…" He pressed his temples. The people in the café suddenly twitched. They all glanced left and right, then, as if remembering something important, ran out of the café. Yet, their faces were all smiling, as if they were fully aware of what they were doing, not like how Shokuhou would do, completely hijacking their brain and getting them under her command.

Why do that when John could simply say that there was a movie star outside the café?

Being efficient, even though John could easily control 6 billion population, was better.

"First of all, what do you think is the extent of your power, Ui-chan?" said John. Uiharu, only concerned that this stranger was calling her Ui-chan, pouted and didn't answer.

John smirked and grabbed Uiharu's hand.

"Wha—"

Before she could finish her sentence, two images appeared in front of her. They were two distinct images, and quite a complicated one, but she could comprehend both without any time delay.

First was a girl with long hair walking on a deserted Earth, magma bursting everywhere.

Second was the same girl walking on a frozen Earth, pillar of ice forming everywhere.

John retracted his hands. Uiharu silently stared at John, her eyes widened.

"Your power, when fully developed, can do that. Your power is not containing heat. It's controlling heat. If you were to expand the field of influence and reach even just five meters around you, you'll be invincible. Say, I had, oh, I don't know, the strongest power right now is Vector Manipulation, so let's say I had that. If you were to suck out all heat from me, I'll change the vector and burn myself to death. Say I had Dark Matter. Seriously, as the one who created Dark Matters, it can only neglect one physical rule, and if that rule was something other than 'all matters freeze', you can crisp me to death or freeze me to death."

Uiharu blinked.

"But…that's not why I called you."

This time, Uiharu really blinked.

"Then why did you call me?! I have my friends waiting for me! We were supposed to meet Misaka-san!"

John sighed and smirked. "This is why."

John touched Uiharu's hands.

Five images flashed before her eyes.

"So, this is the first event," said a voice in the darkness. "After I leave, this will happen."

The darkness vanished and a light flashed. A giant black cloud roamed on the top of Academy City, and there were several people who were fighting. Uiharu recognized some of them—there were the six Level 5's, someone who looked like Misaka, Kuroko, and, to Uiharu's surprise, a Level 0.

They were fighting something. Uiharu couldn't tell what they were fighting or who they were up against, but she could tell that few of the enemies had flowers on their backs.

Then, darkness shrouded Uiharu's vision.

"This is the second event," said the voice. "After long fights, this will happen."

The darkness vanished again. It was an unknown place. A boy with black spiky hair, white hair and brown hair were standing in front of a tall, windowless building. They charged at the windowless building, and Uiharu felt a chill on her back.

She had to stop them.

Something unfathomable was inside that building.

They could not face that being.

But, with Uiharu's silent screams not reaching their ears, the scene was shrouded with darkness again.

"This is the third event," said the voice. "These three will get captured and have their memories erased. They will become puppets for that being inside the windowless building."

The darkness vanished yet again.

Uiharu gasped. The white-haired boy was standing on a pile of corpses. His hands were clutched on a young girl with brown hair. If Misaka was younger, she would have looked like that girl.

And, her hands were lifeless.

Uiharu, with teary eyes, continued to look at the brown-haired boy sitting on a giant tank, all bloodied and dirtied. Its tires were too red that Uiharu couldn't even tell if they were tires or part of the ground, the cannon was smoking and darkened, as if it was used countless times.

And, there were three people who were present at the first event. One was the Number 4, and the other two were alongside her.

But, they were already gone.

Uiharu wanted to stop watching, but she couldn't close her eyes, as it turned towards the black-haired boy who was clutching at a nun's neck, who was barely alive but still barely, as she lifelessly called to the boy's name.

Uiharu tried to get the image off her, but she couldn't.

She couldn't even avert her eyes.

She only could watch as the nun breathed her last breath.

Uiharu started crying. This was all too cruel.

But—

The darkness rose again. "This is the fourth event," said the voice yet again. "This is the final battle."

The darkness faded. It was a deserted island, but Uiharu could tell somehow that it was Academy City. Standing against the three boys and two holistic men was no one but Misaka. Uiharu could only watch as tears rolled from her eyes, and glance at the 9,000 copies of Misaka.

She stared lifelessly at the black-haired boy as he, without a speck of guilt, clenched her neck.

She didn't even twitch.

The world was in a great rain.

The two holistic men gestured at the black-haired boy. He twitched and let Misaka go. Misaka, confused, looked at the holistic men with a blank expression.

One of them pulled out something that looked like a staff. On the end of the staff was a grim combination of what looked like a part of a hand, tissue cell, red seed and a brain tissue. Uiharu wanted to bring her hands to her mouth, but her body was frozen. As such, tears just rolled continuously out of her eyes.

One with the staff then threw it to the sky. A big tapestry appeared on the sky and started to eliminate the Earth. It was dumping the physical essence of the world and leaving only the spiritual essence, literally creating Heaven on Earth.

But, everything froze.

It froze.

It didn't get clouded by darkness.

Everything just stopped.

A figure appeared on the right end of the scene. He waved his hand at the sky and the whole tapestry disappeared. The two holistic men raged in anger and told the three boys to go kill the men.

However, all five of them froze. The three boys knelt and crushed on the ground while the two holistic men barely kept standing.

Then, the vision was shrouded in darkness.

"And this is the final event, assuming that all four happen."

Uiharu was looking at a string. It was constantly vibrating, creating multiple universes. She, against her will, held the string. The string, from the point she grabbed, started coming to a stop. And, little by little, the string came to a complete stop.

No vibrations.

No universes.

Nothing.

Everything was erased.

Nothing existed, nothing will exist.

It was over.

Uiharu coughed. It felt like forever, but John had only taken one second to show her everything.

"What…was…"

"That is my plan," said John. "I cannot allow our Earth to be ruled by a lie. Worst comes worst, I'll just destroy everything."

Uiharu's eyes widened.

"But…but! That's wrong! We still can make it!"

"I said in the last vision that if all four events previous to the event happen, I'll execute the final event. If the fourth event happens, I will not hesitate and start the fifth event. However, if only up to three events happen and the fourth is prevented, I will join the Science Side and bring everything back to order."

"You have power to stop all these from happening! Why don't you just do it?"

"I am not on your side, if you haven't realized," said John. Uiharu trembled and tried to find a comeback to that, but she couldn't.

He was right.

He didn't have any reason to save Academy City.

It was their fight.

"I am already being as generous by planting four seeds into the system. With these seeds, if the worst comes, the plan can be stopped. If the plan cannot be stopped even then, I will execute the final event and stop everything. And, I will restart the world and eliminate everything—science side, magic side—"Uiharu tilted her head—"all the sides, I'll eliminate it, and I'll be the rule. If someone acts outside the rule, no question—eliminated."

"I…I thought you were not ruthless!" said Uiharu, who was basically making a judgment on someone she had been talking for less than ten minutes.

John smirked. "I'm not anything. I simply gave hope, because how things are going, the plan will be executed without fail. So, I decided to play nice and give the children a little hope."

Uiharu's eyes started to fill with tears. How did she get into all these?

"Why me?" said Uiharu. "I'm just a useless—"

"Uup!" said John, raising a finger in front of Uiharu's eyes. "You're the goalkeeper. You can think of things I never thought of. If you use the right information and gather the right resources, you can figure out anything. Anything at all. If you researched into me, you might be able to figure out some things as well. So, I gave you the resources."

"Then…"

"If you want to, you can train all you want, but that's not a smart plan. If I were you, I would search into the system and learn who that black-haired, brown-haired and white-haired boys were, then learn on why there were 9,000 copies of Misaka-chan, then learn who the two holy men were, then finally, who I am."

Uiharu no longer was crying.

"So, here's the game plan—I'm going to leave the town and take a girl with me. I was thinking of taking you, but that's out now that you need to plant the seed and nurture it. I thought of taking Misaka, but then she needs to plant the seed and nurture it. So, I thought of another girl who was also in the shadows and was invisible, had an unfathomable power but doesn't realize her potentials."

Uiharu listened patiently. Who could it be? Was she someone she knew? Could it be someone she was friends with?

Who fit the description?

"Saten Ruiko," said John.

Uiharu's legs hit the table. The whole table shook, but John didn't move. His smirk was gone as well. His eyes were dead serious.

Uiharu trembled. She stared down at the spilled coffee. It wet her clothes but she didn't care.

"You're…going to take…Saten-san?"

"I'm not going to kill her, you know," said John, still with a serious face. "She has a power that even the plan masters didn't realize. She herself doesn't know it as well. I'm going to plant the fifth seed into her."

"BUT—"Uiharu stood. The table tipped John's coffee off, but John froze its kinetic energy without even looking at it. It froze on mid-air. "But, what if she doesn't want to? This has nothing to do with—"

Uiharu paused. What was she going to say? That this was not her fight? That she had nothing to do with this?

John silently looked at Uiharu with his hands calmly place on the table.

Uiharu was wrong. This was her fight. This was everyone in Academy City's fight. If the whole city was going to be involved, there was no way that only Saten would magically stay out of the issue.

Uiharu slowly sat down. The coffee soaked into her skirt, but she didn't mind. It wasn't hot anyway.

"I'm not in the position to make the history," said John. "I have no way of stopping myself in that case. And, on top of that, what if I'm wrong? What if the ideal I am concerned with is nothing but empty?"

John grabbed his coffee from mid-air and put it properly on the table.

"So, I'll let the children fight. If their ideal is blissed by God himself, I'll dump the fifth event. But, if you lose, I'll stop everything with them. That way, you have nothing to lose."

Uiharu didn't say a word as John stood up.

"This is everything I'm going to tell you. If you decide not to interfere, then forget about all these and just pursue the crimes in the alleys."

"I'll fight," said Uiharu.

John stopped. He looked at Uiharu's burning eyes. They were no longer the eyes of a bystander.

She was already a hero.

"I'm going to prove that justice always prevails," said Uiharu. "I'll never let our world come to stop by any of you."

John smirked. He tossed his coffee to Uiharu's table and walked towards the exit.

"Good luck with that."

And, with a sound of the doorbell, John was out of the café.