9.30 pm,One Week before Summer break
Touma got a fist right at his face before he could cry out 'Such misfortune!'
He had a knack of running into Level 0 street thugs and this time he couldn't get away.
They had him cornered in a dark alley past curfew and two of them held him firmly and the leader gleefully prepared to land more hits at his victim.
"You better pray someone drags you to the hospital when I'm done with you,punk"
Slammed his fists at him a few more time and Touma could only cry out in pain.
They throw him to the ground and the leader puts his foot on Touma's back as he grunts.
He leaned and grabbed Touma from back of his head.
"I'm going to enjoy beating the hell out of..."
He never got to complete his sentence.
"That's enough!"
Someone said with a hissing,lady-like voice.
"That's enough."
They couldn't process who else was there when something in Touma's schoolbag started moving and immediately came out and rushed at the gang-leader.
I moved like lightning and he didn't react until it opened it's mouth and bit his hand. Hard.
"Ahh!"
He yelled out in pain and terror as a snake sank it's teeth into his hand and let go after a moment.
He and his gang shuffled away from it which now laid on Touma's back.
The leader looked at his hand and clearly had red spots made by a row of teeth biting into it and started bleeding soon.
Colour drained from his face when he realised what position was he in now.
"It bit me! I gotta...I gotta get to the hospital!"
The snake raised it's head and threateningly opened its mouth wide,displaying a row of sharp teeth and eyes with black slit pupils which unnerved the living hell out of them.
"Hiss!"
Thinking it was poisonous,they ran in fright and left Touma behind in the rhe dark,empty street.
Touma groans and tried to get up.
"Sila"
He said and the snake got off of him.
It turned it's head in direction of main road.
"Someone-sss coming. They'll take you to the hossspital."
It hissed and slid back into his bag.
"I'll ssssee you later."
Some passersby approached him on seeing his beaten up shape and called an ambulance.
The frog-faced doctor sighed on seeing his star-patient at his hospital again.
Touma laid on his bed in sitting position feeling awkward about his yet another visit,his wounds bandaged and all.
The Doctor looked at Touma's school bag placed on the table next to his bed.
"You can come out now."
Slowly the snake which protected Touma slithered out his bag and eyed both the Doctor and kind of friend/guardian Touma.
"I wouldn't keep sssaving you boy. Hiss!"
She looked like a regular Boa constrictor with brown scales as well as black and red patterns,length slightly greater than Touma.
But just like the students in Academy city her circumstances were far from normal.
She was used as lab animal and experimented upon,her brain was messed with.
Just one of many animals used to understand potential of ESP in animals and gathering data to create more human Espers.
She escaped using her vastly increased intelligence and even picked up some of the human language.
Now call it fate or coincidence,she eventually met Touma and without any real reason decided to intervene and saved his life.
She,who named herself Sila which was a word used by the Scientists in her old lab and was an arbitrary decision,became Touma Kamijo's 'unofficial' roommate when she briefly told him her story and he pestered her to let him hide her in his dorm room from the authorities.
She never thought she'll ever trust a human after what they did to her but they've been living together for over a month now and was satisfied with her current arrangement. The boy really kept his word.
She couldn't dare imagine if she got caught. They'll definitely turn her over to a lab to be further experimented upon over even put to death and work on her corpse.
Until she had learned to hunt and fend for herself the boy was her only chance.
The doctor,Heaven's Canceller was for now the only person they had confided into and he was sympathetic and advised Touma on how to take care of her.
Although often times,his bad luck meant Sila taking care of him,forming an interesting dynamic.
"You didn't have to bite him."
Touma told her but she shrugged it off.
"I'm not venomous. It ssscared him away. I...sss wouldn't apologisssse."
Heaven Canceller saw this as his queue to leave.
"Well I have to check on other patients. Be careful that no sees you."
He said that last part to Sila and walked of the room,closing the door behind him.