A/N So, here we are, the start of the story, again. For those who are reading this story for the first time, I should explain that this first arc is being rewritten as it has a few things that don't match up with some later story details. For the people who have read the other arcs before and are reading this one thank you for continuing to read this story and I hope you all enjoy this updated version of the first arc.
Nearly didn't get this done in time as I got a little distracted by F1 testing last week, but I managed to finish it on time.
Now, let's begin.
"Damn, I hate these things. Why do we have to get them again?" Ruiko Saten asked as she poked her arm where the tracking chip had been inserted through a needle before they had gone through security.
"Don't touch it, Ruiko, you'll just hurt yourself," the girl next to her with the distinct flower headband, Kazari Uiharu, reprimanded her. "And it's so we don't get kidnapped. We were told this, weren't you listening?"
"Sorry, got distracted."
"By what? There wasn't exactly anything interesting for you there?"
"Polka dots."
"Polka-? AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Uiharu screamed, trying to hold her skirt down as much as possible whilst glaring at her girlfriend. "Why were you looking?!"
"The room made me a bit nervous, so I needed something to calm me down." Saten said, matter-of-factly.
"That's not an excuse!" Uiharu shouted, her cheeks puffing up in a pout.
The couple continued to bicker in the queue for a small café in the departure lounge of District 23's International Airport. They were on their way to Paris for a weeklong holiday with their friend, Mikoto Misaka and her boyfriend, Touma Kamijou, who had been stopped at security and was currently having his bag searched. Mikoto had waited for him, whilst Saten and Uiharu had gone to get food.
"Anyway, enough of that," Saten interrupted Uiharu's rant about not looking up skirts in public.
"Absolutely not! I have every right to this, Ruiko. And you're going to stand there and listen, okay?!" Uiharu continued to rage, but she was stopped when Saten grabbed her cheeks and pulled her in for a kiss.
"There. Is that a good enough apology?" she asked. "Now, as I was trying to say. Aren't you excited Kazari? We're going to France! I heard that nearly two years ago, when Academy City attacked, they were actually looking for some document that held enormous power, but they couldn't find it. Maybe I can find it when we're there." Saten squealed.
Uiharu sighed.
"I'm already regretting saying yes."
Mikoto and Touma had offered the couple a chance to go with them to Paris and, after a little convincing and the electro master paying for the flights, they agreed. Kuroko Shirai had also been offered, but Komaki Makigami, another member of Judgement assigned to the Third Judgement Branch, was having none of it, citing the pile of work at the Branch that had been getting larger and larger by the day and she was sick of Shirai avoiding it.
"Ruiko, that was in Avignon, which is more than 400 miles away from Paris," Uiharu explained. "You won't be anywhere near this document you believe in."
"Kazari, Kazari, Kazari," Saten started, waving her finger. "If Academy City failed, France won't leave it at the same place, would they? No, they'd move it to a more secure location, like Paris."
"And how would a civilian like you be able to get to this 'more secure location'?"
Saten chuckled, a huge grin spread across her face.
Just then Mikoto and Touma joined them in the line.
"Hey guys, what's gotten into Ruiko?" Mikoto asked seeing the huge grin on her face.
"Ah, Mikoto, help me with her. She's talking about some powerful document in France that Academy City were apparently looking for nearly two years ago," Uiharu pleaded with the level 5
"Do you mean the Document of C?" Touma asked.
Saten's eyes lit up at the reveal of the precious document's name.
"So it's real? And Academy City couldn't find it?" Saten asked, her face right in front of Touma's.
"It was, but I destroyed it before anyone could use it. It was way too dangerous."
Saten's eyes went from shining bright to tears ready to escape in a fraction of a second. Her shoulders slumped as she discovered the truth.
Uiharu could do nothing but giggle whilst Mikoto sighed at Saten's antics.
The group reached the front of the queue shortly after and had to wait another hour and a half before they were allowed to board the plane, so they decided to discuss the plan for the rest of the day whilst eating their food at one of the tables in the café.
"So, my parents will pick us up from the airport and take us to the hotel," Touma started.
"Then we'll unpack our stuff before we can check out this summer festival they've got going on," Mikoto continued.
"Right if we can get all our personal belongings sorted, then we can focus on having fun without having to worry," Uiharu finished.
"Right," confirmed Touma.
"So, this summer festival. What is it exactly?" Saten asked.
"Apparently it's just different acts and stuff throughout the streets, mostly free to watch and it should be on the entire time we're there," Mikoto explained.
The group continued to discuss their trip until their flight was called. They were clearly excited for the week, especially Saten and Uiharu who hadn't been to Europe before and hadn't left Japan without the supervision of their school. Both of them had massive grins on their faces throughout the entire day and were giggling to each other as they boarded the plane.
Touma and Mikoto were happy for another reason; They could finally go abroad for a holiday and not have to deal with some sorcerer or end of the world event. They could just relax and enjoy themselves for once.
The plane had columns three seats wide, meaning one of them would be separated from the rest, with Touma being the unlucky one and having to sit on his own and Saten making sure she got a window seat.
The flight was twelve hours long, so most of it was spent sleeping with Uiharu using Saten's shoulder as a pillow. Mikoto thought they looked adorable in that position and took several pictures. She then fished out a marker pen from her bag above her and decided to take revenge on the pair for an incident that occurred a few months back where Mikoto fell asleep at Saten's dorm and woke up to a pair of cat whiskers drawn on her face and a love heart on each cheek with Touma's name written inside them.
Her revenge was cut short, though, when the pen was plucked from her grasp. She looked behind her to see her boyfriend with the pen in his hand and his eyebrow raised.
"Oh, come on. This is the perfect time for revenge," Mikoto whisper-yelled.
"I never thought an ex-Tokiwadai student, much less their 'ace' could be so childish," retorted Touma.
Mikoto pouted.
"What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be trying to get some sleep?" she asked.
"I can't. There's a red-haired girl next to me who's snoring louder than an Academy City fighter jet."
Mikoto listened and sure enough there was someone snoring extremely loudly two rows behind her. She looked back and, in the seat next to Touma, there was a girl about Touma's age with long, bright red hair. She was well-built and extremely intimidating but still very attractive.
"You better not try anything."
"Who do you think I am? I've already got a cute girlfriend, and even if I didn't, I'm not the sort of guy who'd try something on a girl who's asleep."
"Okay, okay, I was just teasing, no need to get all defensive," Mikoto held her hands up as if she were surrendering. "Now, go try to get some sleep, it'll be three-ish when we arrive in Paris, so we'll still have half a day to mess about at the festival, you'll want to be well rested for that."
Touma sighed.
"Yeah, okay. You should do the same, so no more playing pranks."
"Yeah, yeah. See you when we touch down."
The two shared a kiss before Touma returned to his seat and tried to get some sleep.
By the time they had touched down in France, Touma hadn't gotten any sleep. Dark circles had formed under his eyes, and he wanted a bed as far away from that girl and as soon as humanly possible. However, he knew he wouldn't be getting that opportunity until after the girls had a chance to explore the area close by to the hotel. The only thing he could do was recite his usual catchphrase.
"Rotten Luck."
They made their way through customs and to the arrival lounge where Touma recognised his parents quickly and waved to them.
"Hi Mom, hi Dad," he greeted as he approached them.
"Hi Touma, how was your flight?" Touya, Touma's father asked.
Touma's shoulders slumped at the question.
"Awful. I couldn't get any sleep."
"Our flight was great," Mikoto interrupted as she walked over to the Kamijou family. "Hi Touya, Hi Shiina."
"Mikoto! Good to see you," Shiina wrapped the girl in a hug. "How's your mother?" she asked pulling away.
"She's good. She just finished her university course, so she's planning to start working soon."
"Oh, that's good to hear. I can't wait to see her again. Now, who are these friends of yours?"
"Oh, right," Mikoto turned towards Saten and Uiharu. "The long haired one is Ruiko Saten and the short-haired one is Kazari Uiharu."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr and Mrs Kamijou," Uiharu bowed her head.
"Nice to meet you," Saten waved.
"It's nice to meet the two of you, and please, call me Shiina. This is my husband Touya."
Touma's parents led them out of the airport, but Mikoto froze when she saw them leading the group towards the car park.
"Wait, you rented a car? In Paris?"
"Yes. Is that a problem? We thought it'd be a good idea so we can go wherever we want, when we want," replied Touya.
"Have you ever tried to drive in Paris? It's hell."
"It's not that bad. We got here just fine."
"You must have gotten really lucky. We've got Touma now. There's no way that luck will last."
Touma's eyes started tearing up at the blunt statement. Saten had to put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him.
"It's okay, Touma."
The car itself wasn't a good choice either. It was a small French car that couldn't fit all six of them, not for a lack of trying anyway. Both Touya and Shiina were in the front whilst the four students tried to fit into the back, but after the door was slammed into Touma's shoulder half a dozen times, they decided it wasn't going to work and decided to stuff Touma in the boot with the suitcases despite his protests.
For the next hour and a half, the car was filled with screaming as Touya attempted to navigate the chaotic Paris traffic. The other drivers on the road acted like they planned to kill them, speeding at ridiculous speeds, cutting across them and generally driving like lunatics. The car also spent twenty minutes trying to escape a roundabout but kept getting cut off by other drivers blocking their exit.
Eventually they arrived in front of the hotel they were staying at and they could finally stop screaming.
"We're alive. We actually managed to survive. How?" Saten asked, surprised they hadn't ended up as a burning wreck in the middle of the road.
"Ha ha. Well, would you look at that. We're here. Who could have guessed traffic in Paris could be so crazy?" asked Touya.
"Me! I could have guessed! And I did!" Mikoto shouted from the back seat.
"Are we there yet?!" screamed a voice from behind the girls. "If so, then let me out of here!"
Everyone got out of the car and as soon as Touya opened the boot, Touma sprang out, wrapping his fingers around his dad's throat and started strangling him.
"What the hell was that?! Are you trying to kill me?!"
It took all four girls nearly two minutes to get Touma to stop trying to kill his dad.
Unbeknownst to the group, a man watched the pair having their squabble from the shadows across the road. He held a mobile phone to his ear and spoke into it.
"You just need one of them, correct?"
"Yes, Academy City espers are priceless. You grab one of them and our debt will be paid," the voice from the other side said.
"Understood."
The man hung up and watched as the group entered the hotel. He didn't want to kidnap children, but he didn't have much of a choice.
The man sighed.
"Let's get this over with."
Comments
limited.edition118: Thanks, it can be really useful and if you write or plan on writing I recommend it. It allows me to have good stopping off points when if, for some reason, there isn't going to be a chapter the next week, it means it hasn't stopped on too bad a cliff-hanger. It also means if I want to change a twist later in the arc, I can start putting in the hints earlier in the story.
Guest: I was more going for protective, but it seems I didn't really accomplish that either, so I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the feedback. As for how they knew about Accelerator's choker, there's a few details and relationships that I haven't explored yet that are extremely important in explaining this, so I hope your worries will be answered in time.