August 2nd, 2007. 4:48 PM.

Academy City, Japan.

Predictably enough, the ride shared by Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto had not been a particularly eventless or dull. On the contrary, in fact, their ride was, as their previous had been, one wrought with peril, disturbances, and various other 'negative' moments.

Firstly, their vehicle was again brought to a halt, as the same raging mob of girls and young women from the previous encounter rushed, like a herd of furious beasts, after a continuously-shrieking Aogami Pierce, who, like some sort of cybernetic organism with human flesh stretched over its form, continued to run, full speed ahead, straight in front of Touma's vehicle.

Apparently, on neither occasion did he recognize Touma or Mikoto, as he simply rushed right on past, without sparing the vehicle so much as a single glance.

Getting a better look at the young man, Misaka Mikoto thought she recognized him, from somewhere. He seemed oddly familiar. Regarding that, she didn't dwell on it.

Secondly, Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto crossed paths, within the safety of their vehicle, with a group who, if appearances were to be judged from afar, were members of some Skill Out faction.

They, however, were faring quite terribly against the seventh strongest esper in Academy City, Sogiita Gunha, who was delivering quite the embarrassing beat-down upon each of them.

Loudly, he proclaimed that his guts were far superior to any 'lowly harm' they could do unto him. Given that dozens of them were splayed out, on the roadway, and he alone stood without so much as a scratch upon his form, both the Railgun and the Imagine Breaker's Bearer were inclined to agree. Carefully, Touma manoeuvred his vehicle around the scene, as his girlfriend looked on.

Thirdly, during their attempted cross between School Districts Seven and Five, their destination being School District Six, two individuals wobbled, back and forth, in the center of the roadway, carrying an enormous pane of glass in either of their hands, both parties working together to lift the seemingly monumental thing. They stumbled, nearly fell, and then regained their stability.

"Oh, come ON!" Touma had exclaimed. "This is like something out of a cartoon! Get a move on with your dumb-ass glass… SUCH MISFORTUNE!"

Mikoto had merely responded by placing her own hand upon her boyfriend's, as she shook her head in frustration and disbelief, the latter feeling aimed at nothing and no one in particular, simply being a sensation that, indeed, existed.

Fourthly, some few five minutes away from their destination, and, seemingly, without so much as a singular reason to do so, an entire flock of birds began pursuing Kamijou Touma's vehicle.

They dive-bombed the vehicle, threw their forms into the rear windshield, and into its side vehicles; all the while, Touma, at the helm, was perpetually attempting to avoid the militia of winged, avian Kamikaze pilots.

At one point, Mikoto zapped the flock, sending many of them careening towards the roadway beneath them, referring to the creatures as 'stupid rats with wings'; yet they, in due time, would rise again, and take up proverbial arms once more. She hadn't intended to kill the beasts, after all, merely subdue them and give her desperate boyfriend a chance to escape their onslaught.

All the while, Touma's mind wandered; just what he done to upset the creatures so terribly. Had he offended them, somehow? He hadn't recalled ever going out of his way to harm a bird, or any other animal, for that matter.

Finally, after their trials and tribulations had passed, a worn-out Touma and a cautious Mikoto pulled into the lot of "Just Press Play!", the gaming shop in School District Six.

Yes, in fact, Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto had been pursued by the hateful airborne pests across the distance of nearly two entire School Districts.

Putting the vehicle into reverse, and setting it into a space, allocated with two elongated, white lines, Touma slumped forward, resting his forehead against his vehicle's steering wheel. Exhausted, but not discouraged, he released a sigh of contempt.

"S… such… m… misfortune," he lamented, "why did those birds…? Gah… who cares, they're gone now. Thanks for g… giving them a zap. I think you showed them wh… whose boss."

Mikoto provided Touma with a reassuring pat on the back. Running the palm of her hand along his shirt, she allowed her individual digits to dance, rising, falling, rising and falling.

Though the silky material of her boyfriend's shirt was in the way, obscuring the flesh of her fingers from directly connecting with his own, the sensations, or, what he could feel of them, still brought relaxation upon him.

"No need to thank me. When I told you that I was going to help you with your bad luck, I didn't just mean with just the big things alone. I meant with the little things too."

With that reassurance held in his heart, both parties exited the vehicle, with Mikoto locking it from outside, through the use of her ability.

It wasn't a greatly lengthy span of time before she took to his side, and quickly clutched his hand into her own. With her available hand, Mikoto pointed, outward, towards the rather impressive, multilevel structure which sat before them, gleaming silver beneath the warmth of the sun's rays, like a tower constructed by the hands of some ancient civilization.

"This is your zone! I'm going to make sure you have as good of a time here, as I had at Gekotaland, 'kay? Just let me handle everything. I'll take care of you."

"Oh, you can 'take care' of me, alright."

"Not… in public, shhhhh, please."

Chuckling, Touma took the Railgun into an embrace, through the use of his right arm; Mikoto, with a warm, tingling sensation rising in the depths of her stomach, closed either of her eyes, trusting Touma to act as her eyes. The feeling was making its way upward, and it caused every inch of her form to feel as if it was being bathed in some celestial force.

"I'm probably going to head downstairs and see what's going on with the arcade scene, 'kay?" Mikoto rhetorically inquired; she knew well enough that she didn't have to seek her boyfriend's permission.

"If you need me, I'll be down there… unless you want me to look around with you, of course! Just say the word! I could just drag you down there with me after."

"You do you, Mikoto-chan," Touma remarked; the '-chan' honorific's place in her boyfriend's addressing of her person caused the Railgun to giggle aloud, as she shook her head in faux-disapproval. "You being happy is just as important as me being happy, so, I'll catch up with you when I'm done up here. Don't feel like you've got to rush around, we've got… well, I guess we've got until the store closes."

"You're a gift, you know."

"Shucks."

Beneath the shadow cast, there was a great and ornate set of doors. This set was shaded beneath the shadow, provided by the enormous emblem of a nondescript video game controller, one which looked to have been specifically crafted in order to avoid any sort of issues involving copyrighted designs and materials.

The young couple stepped through, and, reluctantly, a relaxed Mikoto opened her eyes.

Two matters that needed to be addressed immediately became visible.

The first was that the ground floor of "Just Press Play!" had experienced a makeover, of sorts. The nearly innumerable racks, bright silver in coloration, dotted with sparkling globs of something that seemed to offer something of an almost futuristic vibe, had been re-aligned, set to run vertically, as opposed to horizontally.

The second was the fact that the carpeted flooring had been replaced; the original had been white in coloration, while its replacement was the exact opposite, and, additionally, had numerous strange shapes dotting its entire width and height, respectively. Circles within circles, triangles within rectangles, and ovals orbiting triangles were among the many abstract forms.

Standing, looking down at her phone, an employee of "Just Press Play!" lingered behind one of many, many glass cases, which lined either side of the store's walls, each of which both Touma and Mikoto knew to be filled with collectibles, memorabilia, and other sorts of knick-knacks.

Author's Note: Yes, this chapter is unfinished. I can hardly even remember where I was planning on going with this, when I'd started writing it over three years ago. Whoops!