PROLOGUE

If you were given the option of living in a small town or the big city, which would you choose?

Those that chose a small town mean that they generally prefer the quiet life away from the bustling noise of the city. While those that choose the city prefer the opposite. However, this isn't true for everyone as there are other factors to consider when it comes to the motive of living in the places they do. A majority of people stay in those environments simply because they are unable to move or because they have gotten used to it.

Rinas was an example of both environments. It was located in the central valley of the United States and was separated into a small rural town and a bustling city with the only thing in between them being clear grasslands with the occasional farm. Despite being 20 miles from each other, they still share the name Rinas. This was because the founders of each landmark were loving brothers who wanted to share their success with each other by naming both locations after their last name.

It was a kind gesture when you ignore the odd implications.

To avoid confusion, the populace separated these areas into "Rinas City" and "Rinas Town". The city was filled with large scale business and shopping centers. There were even a couple of corporate headquarters located within. The town however was intended for basic living and recreational housing with only a few small-scale shopping areas, fast food restaurants, and a few parks. Because of its small rural setting, it was relatively quiet and had very little traffic.

"CRAAAAP! Crap! Crap! Crap!"

Amongst the once quiet atmosphere of the small rural town, there came the screams of a middle school girl running through streets while carrying a round object. She had long dark brown hair tied in a ponytail and big square glasses that highlighted her dark green eyes. A light green zip up hoodie with two white stripes reaching around the waist and along her arms covers a simple white tank top. Below said tank top and sweater are dark blue jeans with tears that are more akin to a fashion trend than the results of hard labor. The zip up hoodie had a white logo of an atom inside a flask one would find in a research lab.

Normally someone running through the streets of a public area while screaming light profanities would be seen as a social taboo you would normally not want to disturb the general public. But the girl had a pretty fair motive.

"Jesus Christ, what the hell even is that thing!?"

Chasing after her was a giant creature one would find in the stories of a certain 18th century man who was too afraid of the world around him.

Standing at 15 feet tall, the creature had no real shape as it was a moving mass of dark yellow and black tentacles bottled up together to form a slimy morphing ball. On the back of each of the tentacles was layers upon layers of humanoid eyes while the front had the suction cups you would expect to have but with an outer layer of razor-sharp teeth.

It moved through the streets like a rabid animal hunting its prey and was slowly but surely closing in on the middle school girl. It was quite the miracle that a human being could outpace a creature such as this for so long. But miracles don't last forever, the girl was rapidly running out of breath and slowing her pace. One of the creature's tentacles swung down at the middle schooler, sealing her fate.

That was until a giant hole tore apart the slimy tentacle before it had the chance to lay a fang covered suction cup on the frantic young girl. The creature halted its pursuit to recuperate from the pain.

"Misaka, thank God! I'll do nothing but give my undying love until the day I die after what you did for me!" the middle school girl shouted with praise into a wireless earpiece.

Atop a building near the chaos stood another middle school girl. She wore a tan buttoned jumper over a white dress shirt with a red bow tied around her neck and a blue checkered skirt with black and tan criss crossing lines. With this appearance, she looked like any other middle school girl.

But what broke that vision was the 20mm anti material rifle in her arms and green visor goggles wrapped around her head.

"'Misaka is grateful for your gratitude' says Misaka ignoring your attempt at a confession. 'However, it appears that Misaka's location has been compromised and must now relocate to a different sniping position' says Misaka packing her weapon into her bag as she makes a daring escape."

"Wait what?! You're leaving me on my own again!?"

"'Misaka will not be able to aid you right now' says Misaka as she does a sick jump over a railing. 'Make sure not to lose the item you are carrying as it is incredibly valuable to Academy City' says Misaka giving a scolding order believing you might easily drop it."

"Give it back! Give me back the gratitude I had for you!"

The girl wielding a military grade firearm did not respond to the frantic middle schooler. Said middle schooler glanced down at the item she was supposed to protect. It was a white, egg-shaped, sphere the size of a newborn with multiple wings wrapped around it like it was hugging the egg to protect it from outside threats.

But that wasn't the girl's main concern. What concerned her though was Misaka words. She said that she had been discovered which meant there was another threat besides the tentacle creature. The girl looked around the area trying to find what it was that would cause her cruel savior to abandon her in her time of need.

And sure enough, appearing in view was a military grade helicopter with two rocket engines and 3 pairs of wings with turrets capable of firing in six different positions attached to them.

And of those 6 wings, 3 of them aimed right at her.

"Oh shit!" shouted the girl as she darted into an adjacent alleyway to escape the rain of bullets. The alleyway she turned into led her into a parking lot away from the main street. It was mostly there as extra space, though rarely anyone used it since it was separate from the main parking lot.

The girl took cover behind a wall out of view from the 6-winged helicopter. She held her breath. It felt like she was there an eternity, but eventually the gunfire calmed down. She collapsed onto the pavement and couldn't stop herself from breathing deeply. It felt like she hadn't gotten a good lungful of air since the start of this ordeal. It was refreshing to finally let some air in.

"Did…Did I lose them?"

Looking back at the events that led up to this moment, it was understandable that anyone would grasp at some vain hope that it would be over so soon. However, reality doesn't work in others' favor so easily.

The girl was alerted by the sudden sound of a car alarm ringing out loudly in the mostly empty parking lot. It was then accompanied by loud splats, as if someone was slapping water balloons onto the pavement simply because they loved the sound it made. The girl got up and looked into the direction of the sound.

Climbing over the wall separating two parking lots from each other was the very same tentacle creature that had been chasing her moments ago. It was however completely healed, the only sign of Misaka's attack being one clean freshly regenerated limb surrounded by tentacles stained with the creature's own viscera. It looks like, despite its size, it was waiting for a chance to sneak up on the girl while she recuperated. But that attempt failed since it managed to accidentally bump into one of only a few cars in the vicinity.

There was a moment of silence between the two as they waited for how the other would react. They were both in imminent danger of losing something important. One misstep from the creature, and it would lose its target. One misstep from the girl, and she would lose her life.

The silence was broken by the sound of helicopter propellers flying over between the two. The sound of another threat caused the girl to break from the stalemate and continue fleeing for her life.

She didn't look back. She didn't dare look back. But even without doing so, she could tell that she now had two massive pursuers behind her.

The giant morphing ball of tentacles hunting her like an animal, capable of tearing her apart. And the 6-winged helicopter hunting her like a fugitive, capable of shedding her with a rain of bullets from the sky.

It was at this moment the girl recalled and wondered what led to this strange moment. The series of events that led to her running for her life from foes one would not expect to find in a small rural town.

Dreaming of one day being worthy to step into the grounds of a city 30 years ahead of its time.

Running into a chestnut-haired Japanese girl around her age who spoke in the third person.

Accidentally uncovering a conspiracy that goes against the very city she looked up to.

Sarina Gray was agnostic. She did not particularly believe in God, yet she did not deny the possibility of there being one. She wasn't too close minded on the concepts of karma, murphy's law, and luck either. Yet she still had some doubts about them.

But at this moment, she couldn't help but lean more into the possibility of luck being a reality.

"DAMN IIIITT! If lady luck was a real person, I'd sock her in the faaaaaacce!"