It was a nice and sunny November the 26th in Academy City, despite the time of the year the temperature this afternoon was a comfortable 20 degrees. Two girls were just about to enter their local shopping-center called Seventh Mist. One of them was a petite girl wearing a flower decoration of her head, making her almost look like a walking bouquet. The other one was slightly taller and had her long black hair open with a small white flower on the left side.

"You know Uiharu, it's a shame that Shirai and Misaka have to stay at school for so long today. This might be one of the last nice days before winter. I mean, we even had time to go to our dorms and change out of our school uniforms, but they are still at class…"

"Well, Saten, I bet they are doing some really awesome stuff at Tokiwadai, like the flower-decoration and sewing demonstrations we saw back at the Summer Festival, just in a theme for the upcoming Christmas season!" The short girl's eyes began to sparkle as she let her imagination run loose.
"I would die to be part of that Saten!"

"Is that why you went with flowers today, Uiharu?"

"Eeeep?!" the petite girl shrieked as she realized what was happening (again). "Saten, why do you always do this to meeeeeeeeeeeee!"

The taller girl had a habit of teasing her friend by flipping her skirt and checking on her underwear, in public off course.

"Oh come on Uiharu, I just have to be sure you are not going commando all the sudden." She replied with a big grin on her face, while the shorter girl was blushing and had tears in her eyes.

"Uiharu! Saten!" a voice from the crowd called out to them.

They turned around to see a hazel-haired girl and a slightly shorter one with auburn-colored hair just appear out of nothingness right in front of them:

"Oh, hey it's Misaka and Shirai!"

"What brings you here this early? I thought you were stuck at school for at least two more hours?" Saten asked.

"Well, as it turns out Mind-Control is a really convenient way of cutting time short at school. I think it was quite commendable of Shokuhou-senpai to reschedule all workshops of today. What do you think Onee-sama?" the auburn-haired girl provided some explanation.

"Kuroko, I think, there is a catch to all of this, normally Shokuhou would just use her Mental-Out to get herself out of class and only herself. She wouldn't have everything rescheduled just to be nice." the older girl with hazel-colored hair replied.

"You sound a bit like a Conspiracy-Theorist Misaka. Just be glad you can enjoy this nice day with us and worry about your rival later."

Saten casually redirected the conversation while the four girls headed inside the shopping-mall.


Uiharu and Shirai started talking about their Judgement duties, which left Misaka and Saten to have their own conversation.

"So Misaka, how is it going with your boyfriend?"

"M-m-m-my boyfriend?! W-w-what?!" Misaka blushed intensely. "I-I-I don't know wha-what you mean."

"Oh Misaka, you can't hide it from me, I know you were in Denmark with that spiky-haired boy and you brought him back to Academy City after all. But don't worry, your secret is completely safe with me." she winked.

If only that dense idiot would notice my feelings for once, Misaka thought, wait, why am I not bothered with her assumption, quick say something Misaka!

"W-Well, y-you know it's not like that at all! We're just friends, … y-yeah, that's it!" the blushing continued.

"Aww, you know, now I am really convinced that there is some more to it! I have met him back at the Daihaseisai after all!" Saten had a very good nose when people are uncomfortable, while talking about certain things. So, she took the initiative and slightly changed the subject, while also continuing her investigation.

"I am still amazed, that he didn't save you from something! That's how he usually meets people, especially girls…"

"Nah, you know I just lend him my good-luck charm for the borrowed item race, we talked for a bit and I think he's a really nice person, you two would make a cute couple! It's a shame my attempt at bringing you closer failed! Maybe next time!" she winked again.

Oh Saten, I know you mean well, but that would never work with that idiot… He's way too dense!

Then the four girls started their shopping-spree, while Mikoto was still red like a beet.


In another part of Academy City, a strange, foreign looking man was analyzing masses of data. He went on and on and on rambling about programming, behavioral data and physical theories and, strangest of all, about magic.

He was surrounded by holographic displays, one of them stated the following:

An Esper with the appropriate power using the Theory of Everything could easily reach Level 6. However, while the calculations sure are extremely complex, a real ToE has yet to be postulated in the scientific community. Some possible candidates are promising, but so far none of them could explain all phenomena surrounding the 4 fundamental interactions of modern physics. Electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force have already been unified in a single theory, the strong nuclear force, as well as the queen of all forces, gravity, have yet to join. An Esper wielding the complete theory could bend reality at will, time, space, energy and matter, he will have full control of everything.

It was a scientific article postulated by Kihara Gensei, a well-known scientist, who was not above human experimentation to further his goals.

A comment was attached to the document:

Fundamental Interactions, elemental Aspects, substituting the Esper-Abilities, ultra-fast learning

It was just random words the strange man had attached to the article.

Another one of the displays started blinking, while showing a live-feed of countless security cameras. A change occurred, when a single video was scaled up to the size of the whole screen, it displayed a small girl of about 10 years old.

"Finally, my plan can move to its next phase, the theory is perfect, now let us see how we can move the Esper in question to join the testing." the man said, as he looked over to the display-screen.

An Overlay had appeared on the image of the girl.

Target acquired, commencing preparations for extraction.