Mikoto stared in confusion at what she had just witnessed. The door and doorframe on the building she was passing had separated from the wall as she walked by and inflated itself into the shape of a person. The colors were still changing, but it was pretty clear by the stance that this former door was now challenging her to a fight. That was… unusual.
"Who are you?"
The door-man answered back in a voice that sounded like sawdust and creaky stairs. "Mizuno Kuroyama. Number 5 ranked Level 5."
He had finally stopped changing. He was a tall, lanky, man with somewhat long dark brown hair. "I challenge you to a fight for your rank."
"I'm not sure it works that way."
"I don't care."
She shrugged. She sent a quick zap his way to see what would happen. What happened was his entire body curved unnaturally out of the way. Another zap to the other side, and he was arched in the opposite direction. She aimed a shot at his head, and suddenly it was U-shaped, around where her bolt should have gone through.
"So, some kind of shape-shifter?"
"It's called Protean, but yes. Basically."
Well, this wouldn't be too hard. She pulled a washer out of her pocket and took aim. He just stood there, looking at her hand quizzically. Not the brightest, then. She let fly with about 50% power. The washer hit him dead center. Or it would have, if a hole hadn't suddenly opened up right in the middle of his chest to let it through. Okay then. That was… not unexpected, but definitely at least a little gross.
"Is that all you've got?" He looked a bit too proud of himself for her.
"How old are you? You look like you're fresh out of middle school."
He stared blankly at her. "I am."
"Oh."
They both just stared awkwardly for a few seconds.
"So, what that all you've got? I was kind of hoping for more."
"Out of curiosity, when you were pretending to be a door, were you actually made of wood, or did it just look it?"
"Actually wood."
Okay, that made this slightly harder. She had hoped she could just zap the entire area.
"You know, you don't seem like your heart's fully into this."
"It was a few days ago, but now I'm kind of wondering what the point is."
"Oh?"
"I asked around about how the rankings work. It doesn't work like I thought."
"So why bother?"
"I wanted to prove I was stronger, I guess."
He shrugged.
Mikoto laughed awkwardly for a second, and then turned around to leave. Suddenly she was flying.
"I didn't say I gave up! I need to show I'm stronger!"
She extricated herself from the garbage pile she had landed in. "Why?"
"Because I told that psychopath I would."
"Which psychopath?"
"Takeru Yamamoto."
That name sounded vaguely familiar. "Who is that?"
"The new Number 1."
…There was a new Number 1? Man, she was glad she hadn't been around when Accelerator got THAT news. "So, why are you going through with it?"
"He thought I wouldn't. I hate that guy so much, I can't stand him being right about anything. You understand, right?"
She sort of did, she supposed. "So you're going to fight me, to prove you're stronger to someone you hate, who is stronger than both of us?"
"Yeah, I guess so." He smiled. "You know, he told me I should challenge you from the front, but he never said anything about the fight itself."
Suddenly she was reeling again. Somehow he had hit her from behind. He hadn't moved from his spot at all, though. The ground itself reared up to attack her, and knocked her sideways almost 20 feet.
He walked towards her, smiling. She watched his feet. Something was… off about how he was walking. Every time he took a step, his shoe seemed to be stuck to the ground for a split second before separating. Huh. She felt a rumble from below and the street buckled up again, knocking her onto the pavement. The pavement popped a sidewalk brick up into the back of her head, and she fell back onto the street. He was still walking towards her.
Suddenly, she realized her position. She wasn't on the street at all. This, this thing she was fighting wasn't just taking the form of a man. It was also the street underneath her, the sidewalk behind her, maybe even the buildings. This did not bode well.
He walked right up to her, and picked her up by the neck. "Don't even try to zap me. There's a metal rod running straight through my arms and down to the ground." He smiled again, like a friendly school teacher. It was really, really unnerving.
She put all of her effort into smiling, and managed to choke out "You're an idiot" before she ran out of breath. His face turned dark instantly.
"Don't call me that. He calls me that. And it's not true. I'm not stupid! I'm powerful! I should be unstoppable! I can be anything I want, and I-"
He didn't get to finish. She sent as much electricity as she could straight down into the ground below her. It didn't matter about his stupid self-grounding idea if he had forgotten to ground the part of himself that was pretending to be the ground. Idiot.
He was knocked out almost instantly. A layer of the ground and sidewalk, as well as the faces of two buildings and a window all seemed to slide their way towards his unconscious body, before merging back into it. The layer of him had been almost paper-thin, which explained how she hadn't noticed. Still, she clearly needed to be a bit more on-guard in the future.
She walked away and went to lunch. Kuroko had invited her, Kazari, Ruiko, and that Taro guy to a nice restaurant. She still didn't like him, but the others found him pleasant company. She was still keeping an eye out, though. Always keeping an eye out.
Mizuno woke up over an hour later. Takeru was crouching right above him, smiling directly into his face from less than a foot away.
"Get out of my face."
"Never." Takeru grinned again (damn him!) and took a step back. "I warned you, you know."
"I just need to watch myself more. Better grounding. Or maybe be all insulator?"
"Don't bother. I gave you one shot. No more."
"Why, exactly, are you trying to manage my life?"
"I'm not."
"That is blatantly false."
Takeru shrugged. "I'm not a fan of fighting, you know. It's boring. I'd rather read or something."
"Then why don't you go do that and leave the rest of us alone." It wasn't a question.
"Nah." Man Mizuno hated this guy.
"Give me one reason. One good reason why you want me to not fight her."
"Not just her."
"Fine. One good reason why you don't want me to fight at all."
He shrugged. "World peace?"
This asshole. "And have you mentioned your desire to avoid fights to any of the other Level 5s?"
"No, just you."
"Why?"
"Because I know I can push you around."
And suddenly Mizuno was in the hospital. He didn't remember moving here, but that didn't really surprise him. One day, Takeru. One day. You can't be everywhere, no matter how hard you try to pretend like you can.