Well, wasn't this just typical. Another night out, another group of worthless good-for-nothings surrounding her in the street, and not a soul trying to help her. This was usually the point where that idiot would pop out and do his little routine. She never understood why he tried to protect these morons.

As she was gearing up to zap the lot of them, a boy burst through the crows. "Ah, there you are! I was really worried!" He smiled the same smile that idiot always did, grabbed her arm, and yanked her out into the street.

He was somewhat short, with short dark hair and glasses, and was clearly terrified out of his wits. "Do you think that worked? I hope it worked."

"Why did you do that?"

"Er, you looked like you were in trouble, so I tried to help!"

"I wasn't in trouble. I can handle myself perfectly well."

"…Sorry."

He looked completely defeated. She almost took pity on him. She was about to say something when a noise from behind told her that the gang of morons hadn't been quite so easily defeated. She sighed and rolled her eyes, and started building up some charge for one good jolt.

Before she had a chance to discharge, the boy was running straight at the gang, screaming something completely incoherent. That was… unexpected. He stopped about five feet away from the brawniest one (who seemed most likely to be their leader), and asked in the most depressingly earnest voice she had ever heard, "Why can't you leave her alone?"

The response was a rather eloquent right hook straight to the head. The less expected retort was the boy simply jumping a few feet to the left, now outside of the arc of the punch. He elbowed the idiot in the back, which didn't seem to have too much force behind it but he was off-balance enough that it knocked him down.

Their leader having been knocked over like that was clearly a violent blow to the thugs' world view. Mikoto could almost see the gears winding around in their head before they finally collectively seemed to decide that they would rather go eat dinner, and walked away in a pack. Their leader got up a few seconds later and ran after them.

She turned to the boy. "That was pretty interesting. What was that, teleportation?"

He smiled. "Actually, it wasn't. It's called Perfect Dodge. Basically, I just get out of the way of any attacks."

She looked at him quizzically. "So, it's teleportation triggered by an attack?"

"It's not teleportation. It works totally differently. But yeah, that's basically the idea."

"That's a pretty weird ability you've got there, Mr. -?"

"Taro Tanaka."

"You'll forgive me if I think you're a dirty friggin' liar."

He laughed a little. "It's actually my name. I get that a lot."

"Uh huh. Sure."

Despite his air of cheery affability, there was definitely something not-quite-right about this guy. The clearly fake name, the excessive jolliness, and that ability was a bit too weird, even for this city. Still, he didn't seem dangerous, just a bit off.

She was about to apologize and leave when a loud "ONEEEEEEE SAMA" hit her from behind like a truck. Kuroko's continued presence as her roommate well into high school was suspicious to say the least, but not altogether something Mikoto minded. Kuroko's sudden presence on her back, however, was somewhat less comfortable.

After their traditional greeting (ending, as usual, with Kuroko nursing her newest head injury), Mikoto finally remembered the man who was right next to her. His mouth was wide open in a look of complete shock.

"Was that teleportation? I've never seen it before…"

Kuroko smiled. "Why yes it is! I happen to be a level 4 teleporter, thank you very much. May I ask who you are?"

"Taro Tanaka-" Mikoto stifled a laugh- "Level 3, Perfect Dodge."

"Perfect Dodge?" Kuroko tilted her head. "Never heard of that one before."

"Taro" smiled. "Try to hit me!"

Mikoto gave a half-hearted slap in his direction. Where her hand should have contacted his shoulder, suddenly he was three feet further back.

Kuroko shrugged. "So you're a teleporter too? I'm impressed, level 3 usually isn't enough to teleport yourself that well…"

He frowned. "I'm not a teleporter! It's different!"

"Oh? How exactly?"

He paused and stared straight forward for a few seconds.

"It just is, okay? Completely different."

"Uh huh."

Mikoto couldn't help but interject. She was… skeptical to say the least. Kuroko seemed to just be enjoying herself. As adamant as he was about it not being teleportation, he was the first other teleporter she had met to not immediately try and kill her or those around her. So overall, a net positive. Still, that ability of his… something was off about it. And she was going to find out what. Tomorrow. Or maybe later.

Lost in thought, she was startled when Kuroko asked her to take a quick photo of her and her new friend. Mikoto stammered some generic agreement, grabbed Kuroko's phone, and took the picture. "Taro" wasn't in the image when it came up. Huh. She apologized and tried again, this time watching the two of them instead of the screen. Right as she took the photo, he skipped a few feet to the left, just out of frame, and was back in place in less than half a second.

"So this 'Perfect Dodge' of yours works on pictures too?" asked Mikoto trying hard to hide whatever negative feelings she had in her voice.

It hadn't worked as well as she hoped: "Uh, yeah. I guess? Sorry…"

He looked like a wounded puppy. She almost felt bad, but she had more important things to do. She grabbed Kuroko's upper arm and dragged her away. Kuroko kept yelling plans to meet up and do lunch and go sightseeing or something, but Mikoto was no longer paying attention. She did notice his face darken when Kuroko mentioned offering to show him all the spots only a teleporter could reach. Maybe he wasn't a teleporter after all. Well, she doubted she'd run into him again anytime soon. Hopefully.