Author's Note:
It's been seven years since I started A Mirage To Keep You Safe. I don't know what people see in that story for so many of them to favourite and follow it, but I suppose as an author, all you see are the flaws and none of the good. I've changed too much over the past seven years to just continue from where I left off in A Mirage To Keep You Safe, so I will opt to start a new story loosely based on A Mirage To Keep You Safe. I did attempt a similar thing once in Remnants Of A Smile, but that story turned out to be... not so good. Here's hoping that this story will be better.
Mikoto wrinkled her nose at the putrid smell from the simmering corpses around her in District 10.
"I'm a monster."
The only crime those people committed was getting on the wrong side of influential people within the underbelly of Academy City, the world's most technologically advanced city ahead of everyone else by 30 years.
"I'm sick of this."
Mikoto stabbed her temple with the muzzle of her portable railgun.
She had enough of this life where killing was part of her daily routine as a ruthless assassin for hire. Being a monster was too much for her.
"Maybe I should just disappear from this world."
Mikoto closed her eyes with a smile, ready to end her misery when a wet sensation on her face interrupted her. It was an idiotic-looking boy who threw a… cream cake at her.
"It's still too early for you to die!" said the boy.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
A lightning bolt struck the asphalt in front of him.
The boy nonchalantly brushed off dust from his jacket and his black spiky hair.
"This is my life," said Mikoto. "I'll do what I fucking want with it."
What exactly does this busybody hero wannabe have up in his sleeves for him to be so calm and confident? Some variant of an anti-electromagnetism ability or armor?
"Your life doesn't only belong to you. What about your family? Your friends? They'll be upset if you died just like that."
Family?
Broken.
Friends?
Gone.
Ever since she got involved in the Dark Side, a term given to the underbelly of Academy City, such things no longer existed in her world.
Deep down inside, she did wish for somebody to be by her side.
Somebody who could tell her that there is no need to kill anymore.
Somebody who would not view her as a freak because of her position in this city.
Mikoto hurled an electric spear at the boy. "Shut up! You know nothing about me!"
The boy waved it away with his right hand as if it was just a toy she hurled at him in a childish fit.
Electricity poured out from Mikoto's body and she redirected all of this towards the boy like a roaring electric tsunami. The boy raised his right hand towards Mikoto and clenched it into a fist.
An unnatural sound of shattering glass reverberated through the air. All of the electricity vanished like it was a mere illusion.
"That's a first," said Mikoto.
She fired an orange beam from her portable railgun through his chest. The boy collapsed among the pile of charred corpses.
What an idiot. Immunity to her electromagnetic abilities doesn't mean immunity to the force and heat generated by speeding up a metal projectile three times the speed of sound. There were too many idiots who thought that was enough to handle her. She was still a trained assassin without her powers.
Mikoto flipped open her phone to see a message from her mysterious handler.
Do you still want your mother alive? If not, go ahead and kill yourself.
That idiotic-looking boy actually had a point. Her life doesn't only belong to herself. If she killed herself, the monsters from the Dark Side might just kill her mother out of spite anyway. Her mother was only alive because of the value she provided to those monsters.
She slipped her portable railgun back into her pocket. There was no escaping from this hell.
Mikoto laid on her bed inside her school dorm. She did escape that hell of being an assassin for hire in the Dark Side mainly thanks to that idiot Kamijou Touma, but the one who truly put an end to everything was Takitsubo Rikou when she put a bullet through her mysterious handler who turned out to be a member of the Board Of Directors named Kumokawa Seria.
Kuroko appeared out of thin air and pounced upon Mikoto, "Onee-sama~"
Mikoto zapped Kuroko with her lightning. Geez. No matter how many times she warned Kuroko, Kuroko would still do it anyway. It was like Kuroko had some sick masochistic fetish of being electrocuted.
"Onee-sama, I was only trying to cheer you up," sighed Kuroko. "It's already been a week since you've reached Level 5, but instead of being happy, you seem upset."
Mikoto got up from her bed and reached for the door. After Touma failed to protect Kumokawa Seria from being killed by Rikou, he chose to leave Academy City. But he promised her that he would return to meet her when she reached Level 5. However, he had not appeared even once for a week already. Fine. Then she would go find him and punish him for breaking his promise! Surely he must be in this city somewhere.
"Where are you going? Curfew time is almost over." Kuroko said.
Mikoto smiled, "I have something urgent to handle, so... I'll be counting on you again to hide my absence from the dorm manager."
Kamijou Touma decided to treat himself to a delicious meal for dinner at a family restaurant after receiving his allowance for the month when he saw a girl surrounded by a group of thugs.
Being the 'hero' that he was, he bravely stepped up and defended the girl against them. Turns out that the girl actually knew those thugs. One unfortunate event led to another and so he ended up being chased by a group of thugs.
Weaving about the streets and seemingly running about in panic, his plan was to tire those thugs out without actually getting into a fight. He wasn't strong enough to properly handle thugs anymore.
Soon, he reached a bridge. Somehow, all the thugs stopped chasing at some point of time. However, it was too early to say that his misfortune had came to an end.
"You weren't that pathetic the last time we met."
Touma darted about the bridge and turned behind to see Mugino Shizuri. Because the bridge was enveloped in darkness like a midnight sea, he did not notice Shizuri standing behind him.
"Do I know you?"
Shizuri clicked her tongue, "Seriously? Am I that fucking insignificant to you? I'm Mugino Shizuri, now the fourth strongest esper in the city. A Level 5."
"I'm just a lowly Level 0, what business would you have with me? I think you got the wrong person."
Encountering Mugino Shizuri was probably one of the most unfortunate event in his life. That crazy bitch won't rest until she finally defeat him in a fight. It would take a miracle for him to get out of this situation without a fight.
"I don't really care actually."
Shizuri's lip curled up in a sadistic manner before letting loose a green laser beam from her palm towards Touma. The impact of the blast shook the bridge as smoke filled the area.
Touma waved the smoke away without a single scratch on him. Imagine Breaker was only good for negating supernatural phenomenons like the laser beam Shizuri fired at him. If Shizuri wanted to beat him in a fight, she could just whip out a pistol and shoot him, but she was far too reliant on her esper ability to see that.
"Were you lying when you said that you're a Level 0?" said Shizuri.
Touma briefly glanced at his right hand, "My ability just so happens to be something that can negate AIM fields, so SYSTEM had no choice but to grade me as a Level 0."
Shizuri laughed before firing a few more beams from her palm, "So that's your secret? Seriously? And I thought it was because my Meltdowner wasn't powerful enough to overcome your negation ability."
Touma negated one of the beam before dodging the rest by tumbling sideways. God, this is really fucking pathetic. If a fight is what she wants, then he will give her a fight.
He clenched his right fist and all the beams flying towards him vanished instantly. When will she ever learn that the only way to beat him was to stop relying on her esper ability?
Shizuri picked up her phone with an annoyed sigh, "What is it?"
"Hurry up, we still have a job to do!"
"Fine."
Shizuri snapped her phone shut, "This is just a warm up. You won't be so lucky next time."
"That's funny. I've never been lucky in my entire life. My broken fan might just miraculously work again somehow."
Shizuri snorted before rolling her eyes, "We live in a city of science and you still believe in superstitious bullshit such as miracles."
Touma waited for Shizuri to leave the bridge before he collapsed on his knees while clutching at his chest in pain. This was the price to pay for extending the range of Imagine Breaker beyond his right hand.
In an alley, a group of thugs cornered Mikoto against the wall.
"Hey little girl, wanna play with us?" A thug said.
Mikoto rested against a wall with hands crossed behind her head, "You'd know better than to mess with me."
Another thug snickered as he placed his grimy fingers onto her chest, "Aww, but it'd be so much fun..."
Mikoto shocked the entire group of thugs with her electricity. "When will you scums ever start thinking with your brain? Perverts."
She had planned to loiter around the alley so that she would somehow get into trouble with thugs like them. Maybe this would lure that idiot out of his hiding. Not to save her, but to save those thugs from being electrocuted by her. However naive and stupid this plan sounded, she would try anything just to meet him once again. After all, he promised that he'd be back when she reached Level 5.
"You don't have to be so hard on them."
Mikoto turned behind to see a boy with black, spiky hair. Her face flushed crimson red as her heart thumped wildly.
It was Touma! He remembered after all.
"Hmph. I'm not going to forgive you for being a week late."
Although her legs wanted to bring her close to him so as to hug him and feel the warmth of his chest once again, but she did not want to make things so easy for the jerk who left her for two whole years.
Touma looked at the girl baffled, "Huh?"
"You don't remember? You promised you'd definitely be back once I reached Level 5. There was a city-wide public announcement just a week ago so don't say you didn't know."
"Excuse me, but I think that this is the first time that we've met. Do you happen to be Misaka Mikoto then? I'm sorry but I don't think I know any Misaka Mikoto."
Mikoto laughed, "What are you saying? Has it been so long that you forgotten me already?"
Touma scratched his head in confusion, "I'm very sure that this is the first time we met."
Mikoto's laughter grew nervous, "It's not funny, you know. Stop it."
"I'm not being funny. This is the first time that we met. I'm sure."
His words sent chills throughout her body. What was going on? Why doesn't he remember anything?
Mikoto took out a phone from the pocket in her skirt. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she held the Gekota keychain strapped onto the phone up close enough for him to see.
All she wanted now was for Touma to tell her that it was all just a prank even though she'd probably hate him forever for playing such a cruel joke. The last thing Mikoto wanted was for him to forget her completely.
"Look. You gave me this before you left. You really don't remember?"
"It's a cute frog but don't you think you're a bit too old for that?"
"I.. I'm too old for that?"
Mikoto dropped her phone onto the ground.
The strength of her body melted away as the thought of him forgetting her completely became more of a reality.
A sudden rage from within jerked her back to life.
"You idiot!"
She slapped him before running away in tears.
Touma picked the phone up from the ground. It was indeed the same Gekota keychain he gave her a day before he left Academy City. He told Mikoto that he was leaving Academy City because of Seria-nee's death but that was only partially true.
He wiped the blood off his nose with his other hand.
The truth was that he was dying and he wanted to die alone in peace at first. But one event in Britain led to another and he ended up on a bloody path to tear down the current world and recreate a better one. He was just a step away to make that a reality, but the price to pay for that to happen was too much for him.
Touma leaned against a wall. His breathing grew increasingly labored as a stabbing pain assaulted his body. If he could leave Academy City, he would have left already, but Misaki wouldn't let him and it's not like he could fight back anyway. Since he couldn't leave, he was certain to meet Mikoto one day. If that's the case, he might as well meet her on his terms. Besides, he did promise Mikoto that he would return to meet her once she reached Level 5.
Touma carefully placed the phone into his pocket with trembling hands. He wasn't trying to be an asshole by pretending to have lost his memories. It's just that... well, it would be good for Mikoto to see that the Kamijou Touma she knew was as good as dead.
Hokaze Junko was the second in command of Misaki's Tokiwadai clique. The sliver stars in Junko's eyes was a sign that Misaki was in control of Junko's body. Somehow, he was the only one who could see the sliver stars in the eyes of anyone Misaki was in control.
"It seems that my body is deteriorating faster than expected. Rotten luck, huh?" said Touma.
He thought he was sparing Mikoto by not telling her truth, but maybe he was just really sparing himself from the pain of telling her the truth.