AN: (Parentheses and underline): ("Stock reader's comments", but it's actually me being a goof)

Underline: Actual author's speech

Italics: Foreign language in both dialogue and exposition (English. Unless it's stated otherwise or direct words in a different language present); regular Italics in written text

Normal text: Japanese and exposition

Bold: Flashbacks (speech and narration); the times of various events; regular bold in written text; Word emphasis in normal conversations; past memories; imaginary situations

This chapter was redone on: 18/02/2021. Out of all my stories this is a major 'fix' number: 2. At the time of writing, the number of chapters I redid for this story is: 1.

If you're reading this, please note that this undoubtedly the better version of the chapter and that some later chapters might feel 'off' due to not being redone yet.

Yeah... They'll probably feel 'majorly off' though. But oh well. I can assure you that they won't feel off soon enough. I'm planning on redoing the earlier chapters before proceeding with any future ones for this story at the moment. That IS subject to change though. Please be mindful of the discrepancies between this chapter and the following ones. If anything, this one is 'more canon' to the storyline at this point than a few following ones.


Chapter 1: the Isekai and the Material


[Roughly 3 years ago...]

"Are you doing alright, eh?" a 'not-so-bald' frog-faced doctor approached a 14-year-old-girl, sleeping on the side of a hill he'd just come across.

No response.

It looked like that girl was quite battered, and probably escaped from some horrible fate not too long ago.

The frog-faced doctor met many people like that.

Many people that needed his medical help and extensive knowledge of the field.

This one though...

...this one seemed like she'd need about as much help as the person with whom he cofounded a particularly famous city-state, but probably in a different way.

That's the nagging feeling that the doctor got.

Yes, this man who took her into the city back then...

"Let's get you back in shape." he said solemnly as he picked her up and started carrying her into his non-profit temporary hospital in the nearby (and quite rightfully) named city of Nakhodka. Note: Nakhodka (Находка in cyrillic) quite literally means "finding".

...was Heaven Canceller.


July 16th 2005, 14:34


It was around that time of year. The time of year when the 80% portion (that was the student population) of the 2.3 million residents of Academy City would get to experience the wonderful thing called "Summer Vacation".

On that day, a very familiar scene played out. Events of Uiharu Kazari's, Saten Ruiko's, Shirai Kuroko's, and (last but DEFINITELY not least) Misaka Mikoto's life had gone on as they would have normally without any outside intervention.

The newly opened crepe shop caused some discussion between the four with only one of them coming specifically for the "totally not for me, absolutely childish prize".

The two girls from Sakugawa Middle School were sitting on a bench off to the side from the two of their "soon-to-be-proper-friends".

The two from Tokiwadai on the other hand...

...were pretty much doing what they usually do.

That is to say, Kuroko being as perverted as she usually is, trying to get Mikoto to eat her specific crepe, and Mikoto trying her very best not to send a lightning strike down at Kuroko right there and then and trying to dodge the strange food she was being offered, probably because there were lots of children who came to Academy City on a tour around.

It wasn't as much about impressions as it was about public safety though. Even the Railgun could agree on that.

It was all calm and good until Uiharu felt a light elbow hit her side.

"Hey, Uiharu." Saten started telling her friend about something "I've recently heard a rumour about a rank 0 Level 5 in Academy City! Apparently, their existence has been kept a State Secret until now but a couple of days ago some files leaked to various urban legend sites. Of course, nobody has ever seen the leaked files, it's just that someone posted a detailed story of how they got their hands on the files and posted them 'somewhere'. Hey, hey! Wouldn't it be super interesting if it actually turned out to be true?! Such an esper might even fit the 'Judgment myth' we've had for a while! I'm willing to bet that they'd be even stronger than Accelerator!"

"Saten-san." Uiharu sighed, looking a bit drained from the information that's just been inputted into her head before giving her friend a patient smile "It's always you and your silly rumours."

And yet...

...the 'rumour' was neither silly nor a prank.

How can a 'rumour' be found sitting in person a couple of benches away from the group and observing Misaka Mikoto?

Simple: If the rumour is no rumour at all.

"So that's what the face of all Level 5s looks like when she's being herself, huh?" the rank 0 quietly mumbled, their voice sounding female but slightly cold, but not to the point of lifelessness.

"Still, her teleporter friend sure is perverted, isn't she?" the rumoured person thought to themselves.

"Does she know about the Level 6 Shift project? Or is she even better than me at blending in and hiding her true feelings? Not that I have any these days." she was dressed in a grey hoodie, followed by some jamaican shorts, some semi-short white socks, black sneakers, her hands in her hoodie's pockets.

The rank 0 seemed a bit apathetic about the whole situation. At least, that's what her 173cm tall, fit-looking figure and her well-developed C cup sized chest seemed to indicate.

A sense of slight apathy and similarly slight tiredness.

Could it have been a result of her losing sense of touch with reality? Or maybe she was someone who slept poorly for some reason?

"Probably. Yes, probably." she thought to herself, not mentioning whatsoever what she was thinking of.

The rank 0 observed the strangely happy Misaka Mikoto as if reminiscing about something.

"She couldn't know." the rank 0 confirmed her suspicions as she noted the distinct absence of any signs of mental health issues in the Railgun's behaivour. Well, apart from slight anger issues.

"If she did, she'd probably go on some sort of suicide mission against Accelerator and the Board of Directors." the rank 0 concluded, eyeing her target of interest from under the hoodie, not revealing anything about herself.

"I truly hope Accelerator has a good reason for doing this though. And not the reason I'm letting him go along with such a thing, but his own reason for doing it. The only time we met was when he did his usual 'killing the Sisters' business that one night. The facility was about as white as a sheet of paper. I wonder if I can call the architect of it 'scum' after that, huh? Whoops, wrong thoughts. Wrong direction. In any case, he really was surprised that I actually exist, and I was equally surprised that he hasn't gone mad while doing the killing business. Or maybe he's actually mad but hiding it well? Who knows. Not that I care for someone who can be of use in protecting the city once he completes the experiment. If he does his job at killing powerful bastards, it'd be good enough. After all, both he and the Sisters seemed awfully content with going along with it all so I guess it's all right. It's not like he, as a self-centered idiot, or they, as 'half-humans' whose humanity could only be properly proven if they'd rebel, are to be protected or something. If they want to call quits, they should hurry up and do so. Though I guess I did help the project at its start through 'that', huh? Oh, well. Unlike him, I can't see myself killing 'people', I only kill 'scum'. Those who don't really deserve to be classified as 'people' anymore." she thought extensively, not really paying attention to her surroundings, which honestly remained pretty static on such a peaceful day.

She quietly sighed again and continued thinking "I don't think he knows that I'm actually stronger than him, otherwise he'd probably spend most of his time trying to kill me for that instead of doing this 'Sisters business'. Accelerator is way too focused on being the strongest one, isn't he? Took me a lot of convincing 'that time' to prove to him that I am just 'versatile at phasing objects through other objects' and that I only am 'technically called a rank 0' because I'm more secretive about my existence than the rank 6. Even if all of that serves as a great joke, I guess I do use that subset of my abilities most often, huh? Welp, it'd be an even better joke if he'd learned that I can control more than 'electrical energy, heat energy, and kinetic energy', the total control of which he's so famous for." she looked on as Misaka Mikoto came to offer Saten a crepe as thanks for something.

Probably Gekota.

Definitely the limited promotional Gekota.

"Rank 3 sure looks happy though. I probably shouldn't be the one to break the news to her. In fact, it seems I'd have to hide my knowledge about the whole ordeal in order to have any chance to befriend her. After all, Misaka Mikoto... how can you resemble 'her' so much? Damn it..." the rank 0 thought to herself clenching her fist, the face still hidden

*Boom*

A decently big explosion could be heard from the nearby Isobe Bank and several men, who appeared to be robbers, stormed outside.

The Railgang and Kuroko split up with Kuroko going to confront the robbers and the others running up to the tour guide girl.

The rank 0 overheard their conversation and noted that one of the children was missing. "This might be an issue later if they don't manage it themselves. I guess I'll have to step up then. I AM the greatest guarantor of this city's safety after all." she thought, momentarily pulling her Judgment armband out of the pocket of her hoodie before putting it back into it.

She still sat at the same bench, hands inside the hoodie's pockets and her gaze being covered by the hoodie. Nonetheless, this seemed rather ordinary for no one to notice. So she sat on.

"Should I go and help?" she wondered as she saw that one of the robbers turned out to be a pyrokinesist. About Level 3 in terms of output at first glance.

"Nah, there's a Level 5 rank 3 Electromaster nearby and a Level 4 Teleporter from Judgement on the scene. I don't think they need any help and I do want to see them in action." she decided internally.

She looked around from the same spot to check if things were actually as simple as the-

"...What's that...?" She immediately noticed that a strange device appearing on the back seat of (presumably) the robbers' getaway car.

"Bad sign. Not good." she thought, going through about a thousand possible scenarios that could unfold and deciding the best course of action very quickly and all inside her own head.

"Could this be a bomb? No, this definitely SHOULD be one from the looks of it. I didn't study all the possible manuals about explosive devices for no reason." she clutched her Judgement armband in of her hoodie's pockets.

"This can easily get dicey." She thought and frowned, her black eyes and somewhat ordinary, yet elegant Asian looks revealing themselves for the first time.

Meanwhile, Kuroko was done apprehending the three robbers one of whom was a pyrokinesist. "His abilities were decent but somewhat average. A Level 3 probably" Kuroko thought, realizing her enemy's potential a bit later than the rank 0.

The fourth robber was promptly stopped by Saten from kidnapping a little boy...

"Oh, so that's where the boy was. Interesting." the rank 0 thought to herself, armband still in hand and her whole being on a well-concentrated standby.

...only for Saten receive a kick to the face from that fourth robber.

"Ouch." was the only thing that our rank 0 thought to herself. It looked painful, but she didn't want to step in if things turned out okay.

Misaka Mikoto's reaction, however, was not 'Ouch'.

She was actually pretty enraged by such poor treatment of her new friend.

The robber evidently was panicking about the whole thing, as he didn't notice the strange device in the back of the getaway car when he ran to get inside it.

From the look on Misaka's face, our rank 0 guessed that she would 'apply' her ultimate move in order to stop the unfortunate robber. (Good psychological analysis right there.)

"Yep, not good. Even if it's not a bomb, a coin going around Mach 3 might not be the best way to immobilize a car with such a device. Though I'm not gonna stop her from using it, I really want to see it in person and up close." mumbled the rank 0, while standing up and dusting herself, sitting under a tree sure made some leaves drop on her otherwise monotone hoodie.

Sure enough, the robber driving the car charged towards Mikoto, evidently hoping to run her over and get away or something. The latter, however, was standing in the middle of the street with great confidence and her signature move ready, not budging against the speeding-up car in the slightest.

Mikoto fired the coin via her signature move, while Kuroko was pointing out to the Pyrokinesist that that was indeed the Tokiwadai Railgun girl in her usual fashion.

The car was flipped into the air by the ultimate move and started spinning.

A victory.

Yet...

...Something started glowing white on the back seat of the car.

"Double not good." said the new face, who was wearing a grey long-sleeved hoodie and had a Judgement armband on her right arm near the shoulder, the hood was down. 'The new face' seemingly teleported themselves into the middle of the road between the spinning car and the rank 3.

The fourth robber suddenly appeared next to Kuroko and the other 3 robbers immediately after.

"Was he teleported? By who? This person?! How?! There shouldn't be any such powerful teleporters around! There may be one! If I'm not mistaken, there is one... Someone called Move Point can teleport others, themself and objects from afar and of great weight! Could that be...?" Kuroko thought through all the possibilities but still remained visibly confused just like everyone else around.

And yet, the spinning car was not 'teleported' away, it suddenly shot up into the air and started Accelerating towards the sky at an alarming rate. 'The new face' also didn't do any specific motions for such phenomena to occur. "Who on earth is...?" Kuroko was probably the most confused about it all as her prediction about the identity of the newcomer was blown out the window. Nobody knew who the person that could 'teleport' and 'guide matter' was.

The car started flying much faster than it did before, visibly glowing red from the air friction.

If someone had measured the car's speed, they'd find that it was going at the speed of around Mach 32 and still accelerating.

"Dual Skill...? But then what sort of ability could allow someone to redirect a projectile like that...? Even the one called Accelerator shouldn't be able to do it. Wait..." Kuroko's thinking process finally reached its climax. The identity of the 'grey-hooded person' was (maybe) understood by Shirai Kuroko.

Everyone apart from the mysterious newcomer was stunned by the display. At one point, the car stopped accelerating but it reached a great enough speed to exit the atmosph-

*KABOOM*

A couple of seconds later a big and very loud explosion could be heard. Strangely, it seemed to be so far that the flash of light and the sound reached the eyes and ears of everyone on the ground at different times.

"At the height of 80 kilometres, the car-bomb exploded. Or... that's at least what my 'highly advanced napkin math, based on real-world witnessable events' tells me." The rank 0 summarized the situation inside her head.

"Could it be that the first ranked had attained Dual Skill?!" Kuroko thought the only 'other' option for who the person in front of her was.

"Figures, whoever put that device in the back of the car knows how to make things explode." the newcomer girl said nonchalantly and whistled audibly.

"That was probably a good couple of megatons there. I'm guessing it's not an actual nuke though. If it was, everyone in Academy City would be blinded by the flash for a day." the girl continued, shifting her gaze towards the sky.

Her hood fell off as she did that.

"Whoops. Well, not really. I guess I'd have to show everyone here my face anyway." the dark-brown haired (roughly halfway between true black and normal brown) girl, who was the one hiding under that hoodie, said.

Everyone stood in place, still dumbstruck by what had just occurred right in front of their eyes.

They just stood and glanced back and forth at the mysterious girl and the place of the car's explosion.

"Now, that won't do" exclaimed a male robotic voice from above. Some sort of humongous robot appeared about a kilometer above the recently robbed bank. The body appeared sleek, albeit metallic. You could just barely see its blue... irises...? The colour of the body itself was pearl-white with ash-grey-ish arms and some sort of 'reddish helmet' on its head. Whatever this thing was, it was probably mostly its own thing but looked like some weird crossbreed between a transformer and a mobile suit from any Gundam series.

Nevertheless, the 'another newcommer' was massive enough to be seen from a kilometer away. 'The robot' (temporary name) appeared to be around 15 meters tall and was somehow able to 'project' its (or his) voice towards those standing on the ground. However, that was probably just through some 'advanced shouting' of some sort.

"So, are you the culprit behind this?" the newcomer girl questioned loudly with a semi-bored tone so she could be heard by… whoever the robotic voice belonged to.

Scratch that.

She did indeed say it loudly back where she was standing, but the 'robot-up-above' wouldn't be able to hear it.

Instead, he heard a voice behind his head and momentarily turned only to find absolutely no one there.

The robot appeared in distress, but upon regaining its compusure, it once again spoke to the 'surface-dwelling-peasants'. He never called them that, but it'd be highly likely that he would, given how he sounded.

"How dare you throw away my beautiful~ bomb~?" the male robotic voice started belonging to the robot talking… weirdly.

"Whoever it is, the guy's a creep." thought the rank 0 as she smirked and took out a… coin? (Is this what I think it is?)

"Hey you! You up above! How about a coin toss to decide your fate?! I swear that trope has gotten more popular lately!" the rank 0 exclaimed as she gave the robot up above a warm...

...smile...

It didn't feel warm at all though.

It was a smile like no other.

A smile someone has either when they are batshit crazy and are going to kill you any second or when they give you a compliment and want to make you feel better.

That smile...

...was probably not too scary on the surface, but the wide gap between the two polar opposite things...

...made it quite scary. Especially for the robot above.

The rank 0 took out a shiny coin from her hoodie's right pocket and held it up with her right hand, her elbow at 90 degrees, as if to show off to the robot.

"What is she using the coin for-? No..." Misaka Mikoto came to a sudden realization about what might turn out to be 'esper power plagerism'.

Sure enough, the rank 0 tossed the coin into the air and awaited it to come back. "It's funny, really. I can practically use electromaster abilities too and yet I never came up with something akin to 'the Railgun' that she has. Man... Am I really that bad at being creative? Probably. In any case, steel-314 would probably help my coin travel for a greater distance. Though I might need to spoil what it is later." the rank 0 thought with confidence as she awaited the coin to return.

The robot remained quite shocked and didn't move. If he was human, he'd have pissed himself by now.

The rank 0, however, did not exactly go for the same stance as the Railgun goes for usually. She readied to catch the coin with her right hand between her thumb and index finger, except she put her right arm on top of her left, the arms interlocking at the wrists.

Soon enough came the kicker. Electricity...? Or something resembling it started to form roughly around the right arm of the rank 0. It wasn't quite the same though.

It was somehow was navy blue in colour in some areas and was pure white in others. This was some kind of disturbing and disjointed electricity that was at play here.

The robot tried his best not to fret and to shake off any fears and chills he was getting from running into someone he had no data on "I am Piccario of the Metaloid Race! This world is min-"

*kchhhhh*

A 'Railgun' from someone other than Misaka Mikoto adorned the sky as it flew upwards at a tremendous speed.

""""Wha-?"""" Uiharu, Saten, Kuroko, and Mikoto (along with pretty much everyone else) had no other choice than to stare at the situation in complete disbelief.

He was very rudely interrupted by the small projectile going full-on 60 Mach.

He had no chance to react there.

"So, Mister Piccario of the Metaloid Race, who now has a neat decorative hole in the chest area, are you done?" deadpanned the mystery girl, while taking a look at her fingers with a bored expression and in a rather bored tone.

The Metaloid clutched his chest in pain, something blue is coming out of the wound.

"I guess it's now confirmed he's not a mech pilot but a full-on robot, huh? I kinda figured. But I guess it's good to know that we have... an alien...? SAY! Are you an alien?!" the mystery girl wondered out loud before proceeding to shout in the Metaloid's direction.

Piccario didn't seem like he was doing well up there. But...

He decided on it.

He wasn't going to go down without a fight and getting stage fright when an 'unexpected audience member' appears was not on his agenda.

"Name yourself, whelp!" he shouted angrily and while in severe pain, looking quite confident all of a sudden.

"Why?!" the rank 0 yelled out to him. Honestly, this was a good question.

"I will blow this city to smithereens! And I'll do it myself!" he shouted even louder and points his index finger at the ground, charging an attack of some kind, some sort of energy starting to gather around his hand 'Dragon Ball style'.

"Now, now that won't do." she calmly stated and moved her single extended index finger from side to side.

"If you're going down that route, at least let me tell you something first." she smiled warmly and looked up towards the Metaloid.

After she finished her sentence, the light in Piccario's eyes faded.

He'd felt a sudden and immediate pain in the chest, his energy that was collected around his hand dissipated in an instant.

"*ahem* Now that you've had your 'preemptive heart attack from what I'm ABOUT to tell you', it'd be nice to actually tell you that, right? Post mortem of course." she coughed to gain attention before proceeding to be really nice in her language and 'polite to the deceased'.

"My name is Suzuki Aoi. What do you know, I'm not called 'Shujinko Omo', though that'd probably never be a girl's name, right?" the Metaloid started falling after his death and Aoi started introducing herself. Rather cynically and mockingly.

Nobody around her got what she was on about with 'Shujinko Omo' though. Note: Shujiko means 'Protagonist'; Omo means 'main'; all in Japanese of course and I hope I helped.

"I'm the Level 5 rank 0." she finally stated who she was as Piccario started accelerating towards the ground unnaturally quickly. It was everyone's guess that the rank 0's ability was at play.

Everyone, except the now deceased 'piece of metal' gasped at that.

In their heads of course.

In reality, they just remained as stunned as before, but their eyes and mouths opened up wider.

The Metaloid accelerated even further as he continued flying head first down towards Aoi. She still maintained eye contact with her dead foe as a massive 15-meter robot flying towards her face didn't faze her whatsoever.

"Material." the Metaloid stopped right before it touched Aoi's face, decelerating instantaneously in a way that didn't feel like her power stopped it before contact, but it instead appeared like whatever made up the Metaloid had its velocity instantaneously adjusted to 0.

Aoi remained standing there for the moment and gave Piccario's face a good look. It was covered by various armour-pieces, similar to those found on mobile suits. It did appear that he was indeed an alien robot though.

"I wonder... Is Aleister going to be mad or secretly happy that I went ahead and revealed myself like that? We are 'partners in crime' to an extent after all. Though... He'd probably claim this to be the reason as to why some people insist on calling me 'God of Science'." She thought as she leaned away from the Metaloid's face as he swiftly flew up and landed on a nearby roof without much of a thud. Piccario was seemingly still suspended mid-air.

"That 'hand-beam' could probably blow up the entire city. Not that I couldn't stop it, but it's great that I could do it preemptively." Aoi thought as she glanced around her only to find different variations of absolute shock on the faces of everyone present.

"Welp, I sure can stop those Metaloids' hearts… or should I call them reactors?" Suzuki Aoi wondered out loud and stretched her head and arms, saying something neutral and somewhat trying to divert the topic from what just happened to something less shocking.

"Damn, it's totally not working. And also... Alright, I'll try saying it like this, I'll move if needed. It really feels uncomfortable though." Aoi thought.

"Please don't try to arrest me for killing a *uh*… otherworldly robot? I have special permissions for 'that' so..." She continued her attempt to 'break the ice', but it still wasn't working.

"Alright, I can't talk to people if I'm making some makeshift speech and they're outside of my field of view. It feels like either they are about to kill me or I'm showing them that I might be thinking of doing the opposite or something." She concluded in her thoughts.

"Never thought that I would have to use that special permission though *haha*." She said and smiled warmly. Seemingly with no possible ill intent present this time.

"*Uhm* Did you call Anti-Skill?" Aoi asked a rhetorical question. Anti-Skill was already called, but for a 'lesser threat' in a way.

Nonetheless, Shirai Kuroko found strength in herself to nod, despite still being in a state of shock from all sorts of things that happened.

"*Haaaaaaaaaah* God damn it. I guess I'll have to ask them myself." Aoi thought as she brought out her smartphone and dialed the contact at Anti-Skill she had. Nobody except that receptionist and a few others knew her after all.

"Hey, Anti-Skill, it's Aoi." She said tiredly.

"*Uh* Come on. It is one." She continued talking on the phone. The question was probably "is it an emergency?" or something similar based on her reply, since she did roll her eyes.

"Look..." She started off, sounding very annoyed. Perhaps the Anti-Skill official on the other end didn't believe her whatsoever. Most people would find that frustrating.

"IT. IS. NOT. A. JOKE. NOR. A. PRANK." She said each word separately, emphasizing the seriousness of the situation.

"A CODE CRIMSON." she replied about the danger level that is usually assigned by the Automatic Alert System.

"*Haah*" she sighed "No, there's no need. I dealt with it already, so just send me some people with proper gear. Can you bring something that can support a weight of around 100 tons? It's a body and it's right outside Isobe Bank. The dimensions are around the same as an Atlas mech. And before you ask, yes, it's an alien. Yes, it's a robot. And yes, there might be more of them because I heard a bunch of spouting about 'the Metaloid race', whatever THAT might be." she continued her explanation, sounding rather cordial, despite probably being in a position where she could get away with shouting and kicking people.

"*Haaaaaaaaaaah*" she gave out an exasperated sigh.

"Come on! Code Black is when the city is in absolute danger. Like... 5 seconds and then the Academy City goes *pop*. Code Crimson is more like 5 minutes. It's the one above Red, alright?! You were supposed to learn the codes, since you're the receptionist I worked the longest with so far!" Aoi said with great pain and disappointment at her 'Anti-Skill contact'. "I swear, I should just ask Aleister for a Task Force of 'Super Anti-Skill' someday. Though he'll probably assign it to me regardless if I ask him or not. Damn it." she thought.

"Just get this over with and send me a retrieval group, okay...?" Aoi sounded very tired and unhappy about the whole ordeal. Even if it was her obligation on many levels to do what she did, it was still SUCH a hassle.

"U-Understood!" stuttered the male voice coming from the speaker "We'll be on the scene in 20 minutes!"

"Did me living my life in almost complete apathy for the last two and a half years really do this to me...? *Haaah*" Aoi thought and sighed inside her own mind.

*beep* *beep*

"He even hung up on me first. Is it really not my day to this extent? Well, at least no people died nor got injured. That's an incredible plus on any day." she thought.

"Everyoneeee!" Aoi called out to the people that still seemed very very shook by what had just occurred.

"I'll be off to the side on the bench! Please don't come up and bombard me with questions! I'm pretty sure you'll get 'publically released answers' sooner than later! If anyone wants to come and talk, please wait until the 'early Anti-Skill arrive'! If I'm going to be doing explanations, I'd like to do them once and for all!" Aoi called out to the shaken up group of people. Even the children from the tour seemed quite afraid to speak.

Thus, Suzuki Aoi used her ability to somehow teleport away to the bench where she previously 'practically stalked' Misaka Mikoto and the Railgang from.


July 16th 2005, 14:42


After about 6 minutes the members of Anti-Skill that were initially called in for the robbery arrived.

They thought that the whole 'giant robot' thing was a joke too when they first received a notice from their coworkers.

It really wasn't.

Aoi sat at the bench and only 2 people came up so far.

She had previously 'pulled an Accelerator' by silencing all incoming noise, because she felt like she needed a break. Not really from the fighting but from the awkwardness.

It was quite ironic.

Neither the rank 0, nor 'the public' really knew what to say to each other and how.

Still, Aoi noticed that there were two people standing in front of her.

She knew both but it would perhaps be more curteous and less creepy to pretend that she didn't.

The amount of intel about people in the most top secret profiles was staggering.

"Seriously... Is something wrong with me and him? Though... I guess it's self-evident that both me and Aleister would be complete worrywarts due to our somewhat collective position." Aoi thought as she moved her hands from behind her head and put them at her sides.

It was time to listen in to Yomikawa Aiho and Misaka Mikoto's conversation about her (probably) and right in front of her (certainly).

"-and she'd dealt with the weird robot, Yomikawa-sensei!" Mikoto very impolitely pointed at Aoi direction while finishing some sort of explanation.

"Yes, I did." Aoi said very suddenly as she stood up and gave the two a slight yawn as a greeting.

"*Whahaha*!" Mikoto recoiled in shock. Suddenly having the person you were talking about enter the conversation was not something she was used to. Nor was anyone for that matter.

"*Whahaha*? Why are you surprised about something so mundane? Honestly, it'd be even worse if you were surprised that it was your Railgun shot that caused the bomb to start exploding and might have caused that robber to die even if there was no bomb. Granted, you did hit the car at a shallow enough angle that you'd probably not have to worry about the latter. You? The face of Academy City? Honestly, I'm quite let down. Not that I was expecting any better." Aoi quite literally stated her mind.

"What did you say...?!" Mikoto was starting to get very angry as electricity started forming around her.

"Honestly? I said exactly what I meant. You dislike that?" Aoi replied immediately, completely unfazed.

"Well then, I challenge you to a fight!" Electricity buzzed and whirled around Mikoto, whose face was frowning majorly.

"Yomikawa-sensei, is it? Could you please be the judge and the one responsible for both mine and her safety in case we go overboard? I mean... Misaka-san probably isn't going to back down." Aoi said casually and pointed with her left hand's thumb at Mikoto, while facing Yomikawa.

Yomikawa turned to face Mikoto for a second, trying to gauge if she can-

"Of course!" Mikoto confirmed the 'not backing down' part.

"*Haah*" Yomikawa sighed "Just this once. Anti-Skill isn't supposed to be allowing this but... I'll allow it. If anything, punishment will go to me." Yomikawa steeled herself and explained that they should probably be gentle about it so that Yomikawa won't lose her job.

"Don't worry, I'll get rid of any punishment if someone tries to impose it." Aoi gave Yomikawa a thumbs up and gave Yomikawa a confident smile.

"No offense but I'm quite a bit closer to the board than you are, Yomikawa-sensei." Aoi explained. "Now that I think of it... She's probably right." Yomikawa paused to think.

"All right! Spread out before you begin and don't damage any property!" Yomikawa instructed and the two did just that.

""Hai!"" Aoi and Mikoto replied with the 'yes/I hear you/I understand'. Honestly, "hai" is such a versatile phrase... It's a shame English doesn't have a counterpart to it.

"Alright then, please come at me, Railgun-san." Aoi winked at Mikoto with a smile, who was just getting competitive.

"Here I come!" Mikoto rushed in, electricity flowing in all directions and Mikoto getting ready for a fair-

It was a stomp.

As soon as Mikoto almost reached Aoi, she felt like her esper ability was completely nullified. No electricity was sparking anywhere.

Mikoto immediately found herself swept off her feet (not idiomatically) and falling down.

Straight after that, she felt her hands being swept behind her back and Aoi's arm tightening around her neck.

She was put in a chokehold via Aoi's right arm (at the elbow) and her hands were held in place by Aoi's left (also at Aoi's elbow). "Ohhh... To think that kids in our city knew how to fight like that."

"Please cough once for 'let me go' and twice for 'screw you, I'm continuing'." Aoi said nonchalantly, trying her best to not hold Mikoto too hard.

"*KHE*" Mikoto coughed once and was immediately let go.

"So, Yomikawa-sensei, is the winner clear? Do you think Misaka-san stands a chance in a rematch?" Aoi asked casually, rubbing her eyes and stretching.

"Yes, the winner is clear. And no, I do not believe so." Yomikawa gave out the verdict.

"See? Can I get to the part where I explain some stuff now?" Aoi said to Mikoto.

"*Haah* You're sure you're not related to that idiot? He seems to be able to make my esper power useless too." Mikoto huffed and puffed as she said it.

"I have no clue whomever you might mean by that. And I'm probably not." Aoi answered. "The first one's a lie though. Not knowing anything about Kamijou Touma, the Imagine Breaker, is about as much of a mistake as Piccario not knowing me." she thought.

"But before I begin, I'd like to tell you something, Misaka-san." Aoi said with some warmth.

"Go on." Mikoto replied, her patience slightly being tested. "Even though she seems much less fake than Shokuhou, I get uncomfortably similar vibes..." Mikoto thought.

Well then, I'd like to mention that the bomb that was in the car, which you thankfully didn't hit dead on but still managed to trigger, Misaka-san," Aoi sent a half-serious glare at Mikoto "was around 2 megatons. If I didn't step in time it would've blown up at ground level and the result would have been disastrous." Aoi explained.

"2 Megatons?! H-How...? No, how did you even estimate that?" Mikoto was aghast at both the estimation and the lack of understanding of how it could have been measured. Yomikawa was also rather worried that such a massive bomb was in Academy City.

"How? That's simple. Just a bunch of high-level napkin math. I dabble. Actually, I dabble a lot." Aoi explained as if it's the most common calculation and estimation in the world.

"Okay..." Mikoto seemed satisfied with the answer. She'd heard about how an esper's power is directly proportionate to their calculating ability. If the person in front of her was, in fact, the rank 0, such a result was obvious.

"So... How exactly did you do all of that...? From teleportation to using electromaster powers to making objects move as you want and even stopping that 'heart' that you mentioned..." Mikoto was completely perplexed as to how it was possible "Do you have Multi-Skill?" Mikoto ended on one of the most likely conclusions.

No, the only conclusion anyone could realistically come up with. Except me, *hehe*

"Good line of thinking. But no. See, I don't even have Dual-Skill, much less Multi-Skill. I just have my one ability and it happens to be more versatile than yours, than of the second-ranked Dark Matter guy and also of the first-ranked Accelerator." Aoi explained, causing both Mikoto and Yomikawa to not get what's going on even more.

"Then how-?" Mikoto started asking, looking a bit scared to find out.

"I'm getting to it, I wasn't finished." Aoi interrupted, raising an eyebrow at Mikoto.

"Anyhow, my ability is called Material as you probably already know. But... what you don't know is everything else. You see, my ability works by influencing the building blocks of the universe." Aoi started the explanation.

"And no, those are not atoms, not quarks, not strings, not some arbitrary 'building block' that you may think of. No. What I mean by that is what I call the 'base hyperrectangle'. Though there are of course endless amounts of them scattered all around us." Aoi continued. "Magic, Dark Matter, and everything/anything else is also bound by it. Damn, I sometimes forget how overpowered I truly am." Aoi thought.

"Base... hyperrectangle...?" Mikoto was quite puzzled about the name.

Aoi inhaled and exhaled "Alright..."

"I'll take the long route in explaining it then *haah*." Aoi said and sighed.

"First off, do you know what a hyperrectangle is? You probably do, but Yomikawa-sensei might not get it and it'd be rude not to explain it properly." Yomikawa instinctively blinked twice at that comment, partly agreeing and partly being extremely surprised that Aoi said such a thing "A hyperrectangle... Well, if my memory serves me right the definition of it as follows: In geometry, a hyperrectangle is perhaps more commonly known as an n-orthotope or sometimes known as a 'box'. It's the generalization of a rectangle for higher dimensions, formally defined as the Cartesian product of intervals." Aoi explained only to receive no 'Yes, I understand' from Yomikawa whatsoever.

Anti-Skill personnel were smart, but not 'esper-level-smart'. Mikoto seemed to understand it all just fine though.

"*Ahem* In layman's terms, we can take a rectangle, then turn it into a rectangular cuboid, and if we do it enough times we'll get the shape of the hyperrectangle I am thinking of. Though... I almost always envision it as a rectangular cuboid in my mind. After all, a hyperrectangle is a rectangle but at higher dimensions." Aoi explained and saw the "light of understanding in Yomikawa's eyes".

"Moving on, the 'base' part of the name is referencing how it's the smallest particle in existence. Pretty simple so far, right?" Aoi received two nods.

"So... I can control these exact 'base hyperrectangles' and make them do whatever the hell I want. For example..." Aoi started the explanation.

A bar of gold 'Materialized' in Aoi's hand, stunning the two people who were being shown such a thing.

"I thought..." Mikoto couldn't finish.

"Yeah, as you probably witnessed," the gold dematerialized "I don't exactly create matter, nor do I do anything 'illegal' with it. I just use the base hyperrectangles to 'restructure' anything I can calculate them to. Electricity appears via that phenomenon, hearts can be stopped like that, abilities can be nullified like that. Honestly, anything goes." Aoi threw her hands in the air and shrugged.

"And before you ask about teleportation, it never was teleportation. It's practically the same, but different. It's 'fluctuation'. And what I mean by that is basically the quantum fluctuation that space experiences. With my ability, I'm just able to cause the necessary movement of the base hyperrectangles in such a way that "two types" of matter swap positions. In layman's terms, it's the same as swapping out with a partner in a sport or a video game, but instead, you're swapping two objects out with each other, or an object and yourself, or yourself and someone else, or someone else and an object. The list goes on." Aoi explained.

"So the mass and the 'path' to wherever you want to 'fluctuate' doesn't matter...?" Mikoto caught on quick.

"Precisely. If necessary, I could probably create a black hole of some size right now and swap myself with it. That's probably the most illustrative example, but trust me, I don't want to destroy Earth or anything." Aoi explained but immediately tried to cover herself for using such a destructive example.

Mikoto and Yomikawa seemed okay with it and continued listening.

"*Ahem* Last but not least, I can subconsciously make a field around myself using 'restructure', which would cause anything that comes into contact with it to disintegrate. To demonstrate, please throw a coin at me, Misaka-san. Arcade coins are surely cheap enough to be used for science." Aoi continued and asked nicely.

"O-Okay... Do I-?" Mikoto was interrupted.

"Throw it similar to a rock. No, firing off a Railgun would not be necessary." Aoi explained.

"Okay... Here goes!" Mikoto threw the coin at Aoi.

Upon coming into contact with Aoi's clothes, the coin in question turned into a swirl of air. The swirl, in turn, traveled around Aoi's body and disappeared just like it appeared.

"In a way, the subconscious part of my ability is actually stronger than Accelerator's famed reflection. So... that's about it." Aoi seemingly finished her explanation.

"Oh, actually no. There's one more thing." Aoi said casually. ""ONE MORE?!"" Mikoto and Yomikawa thought as they were ready to go home after hearing all of those previous things.

"Just kidding. I am going to say that I'm happy I got to pick my esper name myself. The researchers would have probably called my ability 'nano-particle' or something." Aoi joked a little.

"I... I actually have a question." Mikoto said, looking a bit nervous.

"Yep, go on." Aoi replied with a warm smile.

"Well... If you control the basis of all matter and Accelerator can control anything and everything... then... who wins and how...?" Mikoto asked the million-dollar question that many fans of Accelerator, or maybe haters of this story of mine, asked over and over again.

"Simple. Whoever can calculate better and at a more base level." Aoi replied simply.

"In fact, the wonderful researcher people have estimated that if he and I had had our abilities swapped somehow, then he'd not be able to cause any change on a level above strings. And even that would be 'one string at a time'. Though... I honestly think they're overestimating what he could theoretically do. Whereas I could probably become a Level 6 or something with my calculatory levels and his less sophisticated ability. Accelerator's ability is just that easy to calculate I guess." Aoi said it as naturally as she breathed.

"LEVEL 6?!" Mikoto exclaimed, getting the shock. This was not what she expected to hear.

"Yep. Though to be fair, my ability is classified as a 'limited-scale absolute ability'. I guess there's some truth to that, right? I can only really use it within my AIM field, which was measure at 40km at its maximum. So... yeah. I can't exactly control 'the universe' at my level." Aoi voiced what she thought.

""40 Kilometers is plenty!"" Mikoto and Yomikawa were unanimous.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Aoi agreed with a smile.

"Anyhow, it's probably best to go for me now. Please don't go into detail too much about my ability to anyone who asks. I'd like to keep that as secretive as possible so that nobody gets to figure out anything about how to 'witness the base hyperrectangle' or make my ability reproducible. That could lead to some very harmful results." Aoi asked, sounding rather serious all of a sudden.

"In any case, bye-bye!" Aoi waved the two goodbye and fluctuated ahead, not forgetting to drop the Metaloid off to the Anti-Skill members who came to pick him up with a massive crane that was going to be used for a yearly 'Gundam Expo' in Academy City and the life-sized models there.

"You should get going-jan." Yomikawa winked at Mikoto as she noticed Mikoto's three friends waving for her to come over.

"*Uhm* Thank you for the talk, Yomikawa-sensei." Mikoto decided to be polite this time.

"No problem-jan. It's not every day you get an addition to the Level 5 roster." Yomikawa replied and leaned in for a whisper.

"Even if that Suzuki girl seems like a good person, let's not overly discuss what she'd told us, okay?" Yomikawa whispered and got an affirmatory nod from Mikoto.

"All right! Off you go!" Yomikawa pushed Mikoto on the back and thus Mikoto and friends joined up once again.


July 16th 2005, 17:56


Misaka had long joined up with Railgang and all of them now shared 'the tired look'.

"Long day today, huh?" Misaka asks, while simultaneously trying to cheer up her friend and two new friends. They would usually reply with words but all but Kuroko nod this time.

"It was indeed, Onee-sama. Who knew that the 'powerful alien robot terrorist' would cause such a delay in us getting Anti-Skill to take those robbers away." Kuroko said and sighed heavily out of exhaustion and due to lots of waiting.

"It really is unfortunate, Shirai-san! I didn't even get to eat any more crepes!" Uiharu complained and reminisced.

"Me too! Ah, the taste was so good! Somehow it only lasted a day for us all today though." Saten also joined in with her nostalgia but then remembered how it all went a bit haywire after that.

"Good job on saving the boy, Saten-san." Misaka says with a warm smile.

"Thanks." Saten smiled.

"But y-yeah... Like... I feel like I'm closer to you somehow, Misaka-san. I never thought I'd say it, but it seems me and you were similarly powerless today." Saten said the ultimate strange fact of it all.

"*Haha* True, true." Mikoto laughed nervously and agreed. Saten's sentiment was very appreciated.


Some time later, the four decided that each needed a bit of a 'breather walk' after it all. And Mikoto was also part of it.

She went for a walk to a park and-

"Hey." Misaka heard a familiar voice inside her head. Mikoto immediately started doing a 360-degree search, even using her Radar Sense only to NOT find Suzuki Aoi.

"I'm not actually there with you, I'm using the base hyperrectangles in a way reminiscent of the rank 5, whom I think you know all too well…" says Aoi in Misaka's head and Misaka feels a shiver down her spine.

"No, no, no. Only not Shokuhou..." Mikoto thought.

"Sadly, it's a yes. And whatever you think, I can hear, sorry. But that goes both ways as well, so I'm not really hiding anything, don't worry." Aoi's voice said inside Mikoto's head.

"Is this as unblockable as I think it is?" Mikoto thought.

"Yep~" Aoi said in Misaka's head, while sounding eerily similar to Shokuhou, further perpetuating a stereotype. Misaka was not liking this.

"I don't like to use this aspect of my ability at all. In fact, I don't think anyone except me, and you know about this use. I haven't even used it for anything other than to hear the true thoughts of someone who I believed was up to no good. Please don't tell anyone about this use I have for my ability. This can have serious ramifications." Aoi's voice spoke.

"Okay… I can certainly get behind you not mind-controlling people and not letting others theoretically exploit it." Misaka thought and mentally sighs, relieved that Aoi was, in fact, 'not like Shokuhou'. Though this probably only because Aoi had other things going for her other than mind-control and thought-reading.

"I'm glad we agree! Anyways, I'll be ending the 'mind call' any second, but I need to say something first..." Aoi said and chuckled slightly.

"Mikoto-chan, let's be friends!" said Mikoto's 'inner voice' in the most sincere and innocent tone imaginable.

"HUH?!" Mikoto's thoughts were filled with the biggest 'what the heck' thought she could probably ever produce.


The following segment was written on 29/03/2020. It was back when this chapter was first published. Please read at your own disgression:


*Fwooh* This one took a while to write. I recently thought up this esper power, Material. From what you've read about it, it is very OP -at least when compared to everything else in the Toaruverse at the start of the Level Upper Arc- but somehow it seems very plausible and is an ability that is based on actual science -even if the base Hyperrectangles are a bit of an asspull- that actual fits with the general theme of the Toaruverse -Or that's what I think at least-.

(Suzuki is OP. Very OP. How do you plan to challenge her?) Answer: I guess I'll have her enemies be able to negate parts of her esper powers or block them outright. I won't give her a nerf like Accelerator got in the canon.

As you can see I love writing detailed stories rather than expansive ones. So expect big chapters, maybe comparatively slower updates -depends if you're comparing me to people who write a chapter every 3 days and never stop or the people who write a chapter and drop the story really-.

I'll probably do a chapter 2 some time soon, but we'll see.

This is also my second ever published story -not asking for any leeway with that though-.

P.S. The best ways to support stories, in general, is to is participate in reviews, as well as follow the author/story. Personally, I tend to look at the number of reviews any particular story has to see if the story has engaged many. Please consider giving this story a review if you liked it.