Luna looked out over the festival from her vantage point on top one of the buildings overlooking the area. The streets were filled with people, stalls, and stages for the performances, but she wasn't looking at them. Instead, she planned to look at the edges of the festival, where people might try to slip away, unseen, into back alleyways or empty streets. If the girl she was looking for had been taken, as they feared, that's where she'd be the most likely to see her, if the person who took her hadn't left already.

She held her phone in her hand with a picture of the girl in question, Ruiko Saten, that she got from her friends.

As soon as she looked out over the crowd, she noticed it. A large, circular area in the middle of the festival was unnaturally empty but was slowly getting smaller and smaller as people seemed to realise there was space there to walk.

She had an idea about what that circle could mean, but hoped she was wrong.

She quickly scanned the quieter streets and back alleys closest to the circle and found exactly what she was looking for.

A man carrying a young girl with straight black hair over his shoulder, walking into a dark alleyway.

Luna couldn't tell if the girl was the one they were looking for, but it was still someone in trouble, so she couldn't just let it go. She jumped from rooftop to rooftop, using her ability to clear the gaps between buildings. She was able to quickly make it to the alleyway and dropped down, once again using her power, this time to slow her descent.

She landed behind the man and spoke up, causing the man to stop.

"Hey asshole! Why don't you put the lady down and we can talk about this, woman to freak?"

The alleyway itself was wet and dark. The lights from the festival unable to fully illuminate the small area that was only about fifty or sixty meters long and about ten to fifteen meters wide. There was some graffiti on the walls, but they were difficult to see and even more difficult to understand.

The man didn't react to Luna's provocation. Instead, he seemed completely unphased by her entrance, as if she were not even there.

Luna tried to gauge the man, but it was difficult with the lack of light. He seemed to be a little taller than her and his arms seemed to be packing an above-average amount of muscle, so he wasn't someone to take lightly.

However, Lun was able to confirm that the girl he was holding was indeed Saten, and he didn't look like he was going to put her down any time soon, so Luna decided to take her by force and shot towards him.

As she got into striking distance, Luna swung her leg high, aiming for the side of the man's head, but he was able to block it with one hand. Luna then started a barrage of kicks, both high and low, keeping her arms free, to catch Saten if he dropped her. With each attack she would increase the pace and every now and then, she'd spin in order to gather more momentum. The man was able to block her initial flurry, but soon got overwhelmed by the number of attacks, and had no choice, but to free his other hand.

He threw Saten to the ground and Luna dived to catch her in her arms and rolled back to her feet. However, now she was on the defensive and her opponent had both his hands free. She stepped in and out, evading each of the man's attempted grabs and punches unable to counter him, but she couldn't dodge them all, so had to take some of the punches to protect the girl she was carrying bridal style.

She tried to break off and escape, but the man matched her pace and didn't allow her to run away. Luna tried to switch to the offensive, aiming kicks similar to before, but this time the man was able to defend from all of them.

'Shit. I'm in trouble here. Come on Luna, think.'

Luna started to panic allowing more and more attacks to get through her defence. She attempted another counter swing her leg high, but the man caught it and pulled her back, forcing her off balance and she fell to the ground with Saten falling on top off her.

"Hnnnggh," Saten started to stir as consciousness slowly returned to her.

"Glad to see you awake. Now if you could run away, that'd be great," Luna groaned from underneath her.

"Huh? What's happening?"

Luna didn't have the time to answer her as she saw the man approaching, so she pushed Saten off and rolled to her feet again. With how the fight had gone so far, she knew she didn't stand much of a chance, but she could buy enough time for Saten to escape.

"Go. Find your friends," she ordered.

"No need, we're right here," came a voice from behind Luna. She looked round to see Mikoto standing there, bluish white sparks coming from her body with Touma and Uiharu behind her.

The man seemed to grow weary at the sight of Mikoto's ability but didn't back down. Instead, he seemed to factor it in and was already looking for ways to beat her.

"Get your friend out of here, she was clearly a target, so you need to get her somewhere safe," Luna said.

"And you?" Mikoto asked.

"I'll buy as much time as I can. Now go!"

But before she could jump back into the fight, she was dragged backwards.

"Not happening, you're coming with us."

Luna was surprised by the strength Mikoto showed and was successfully pulled out the alley and into the streets of Paris.

Just as they escaped onto the streets, Luna glimpsed two figures blocking their attacker's path with one of them sporting long hair that was half-dyed bright red.

"You don't appear to be espers. Who are you?" the man asked Wendy and Ezra who were blocking his path to the Academy City students.

"Not really important. What I want to know is who are you and what do you want with an esper?" Wendy asked, keeping his attention on her as Ezra discreetly took a picture of the man and sent it away.

"It's just a job."

"Then you can tell your employer you failed."

Wendy and Ezra shot towards the man, letting loose a flurry of attacks, each in sync with each other, clearly accustomed to both attacking a single target at one time. The man retaliated with blocks and counters, slowly moving backwards to not allow either of the siblings a chance to get behind him.

Ezra and Wendy piled on the pressure, increasing their speed little by little, but their opponent was more than up for the task, answering each of their attacks.

However, he was still only one man against two very skilled opponents. Eventually he grew tired and started to let attacks slip through which caused mistakes, leading to even more attacks landing.

Once he started taking damage, he leaped backwards to buy himself some time, but Wendy moved in immediately, to deprive him of that, but she was a fraction too slow, and he was able to pull a knife from his belt and slashed at her, opening a wound across her chest.

"Wendy!" Ezra sprinted towards his sister, catching her as she fell, giving the man enough time to escape. "You okay?"

"Do I look like I'm okay?" Wendy asked.

"Right, stupid question, we should get you to a hospital."

"No. I've got some chalk in my room, we can use that."

"You want to do that in the middle of a hotel? We're not meant to use that in public, you know."

"Oh, relax. We're doing it in my room, no-one will see us."

"I hope you're right about this," Ezra said as he helped Wendy back to the hotel.

Having been dragged out the alley, Luna sprinted through the city along with the rest of the Academy City students. They didn't know where they should be going as they didn't know where was safe. They didn't know who that man was, what resources he had, what information he had, if he was alone or if he had allies waiting in the wings to make their moves. She just hoped that Wendy or Ezra managed to take a picture of him.

Just as she thought that, her phone started ringing.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Ezra. We're at the hotel, where are you?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. We just kinda kept running," Luna looked at the rest of the group, making sure everyone was accounted for. Touma and Saten were able to run on their own, but Uiharu had started lagging behind, so Mikoto was now carrying her on her back.

"Can you make your way back here?"

"Are we sure that's safe?"

"Don't worry, I've already put defences up and I'm prepping some presents for him."

"They might not be enough. I thought I saw what looked like a people-clearing field in the middle of the streets when I was looking for the Saten girl."

"Shit."

"Yeah, shit. Did you manage to get a picture of him?"

"I did. I've sent it to Dad, just waiting for him to get back to me."

"Okay, forward any info you get on to me, will you?"

"Will do."

Luna then hung up her phone and slowed down. But, without any warning, Touma, who was behind her, ran straight into the back of her, throwing both of them to the ground.

"Oww."

"If you're going to slow down, please warn me," Touma groaned before getting back to his feet and helping Luna up as well.

"Sorry," Luna grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

"W-what's going on? Who was that guy? And who are you? And who were you calling?" Saten spat out question after question, not giving anyone any time to answer.

"Slow down, Ruiko. This is Luna, she was helping us to find you," Uiharu explained now that she was back on her own two feet.

"Right, hi, nice to meet you," Luna gave a short wave. "As for who that guy was, no idea. Hopefully we'll get some info soon."

"Was that who you were calling? Someone who could have some info?" Mikoto asked.

"No, that was Ez. He and Wen are back at the hotel which is where we're headed now. We need to stick together as much as we can, until we can deal with this guy. Then, hopefully we can all enjoy our holidays."

"What about my parents? Will they be safe?" Touma started to panic, not wanting his parents getting caught up in this incident.

"First we'll get you lot to our hotel, then I can look for your family and bring them back as well."

"I'll go look for them now," Mikoto suggested, but was stopped by Luna.

"No, I can't take that guy alone, especially not while protecting others. You're a level 5, I'll need your help to protect them."

Mikoto seemed hesitant to do so, but in the end, she knew Luna was right. Once they got this group to safety, she could help to look for Touma's parent.

"Fine, but I'm helping to look, got it?"

"That's fine by me. I could use the help."

"So, where's your hotel?"

"No idea, we'll just keep to crowded places until I find something I recognise."

Mikoto sweat dropped.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Nope." Luna said, strangely happy, before walking towards the large crowds taking up the streets, the group following her closely.

"So, who exactly is the person you're waiting on info from?" Mikoto asked.

"My parents. They work for Anti-skill, so they might have some info on him."

"Only if he entered Academy City, if not we're screwed. That doesn't seem like the best people to go to."

Luna stopped.

"Heh, well you see…" she started, trying to think up an excuse, but she was saved by her phone going off.

She quickly scanned through the text she had been sent and her eyebrow raised higher and higher as she continued to process the information. When she finished, there was only one response she could make.

"Huh?"

Comments

Guest: Don't worry, they won't be mega powerful and able to annihilate anyone they come across, there's no guarantee that they'll even win every fight, I feel as though that would make the story boring. As for Luna, if you like her enough to ship her with another character, I must be doing something right. And finally, for Mikoto I agree I went a little OOC with her there. I tried to make her a little protective of Touma, but I think I went a little far.