AN: As one guest pointed out, Kamikoto is the main shipping here, however that's not the cornerstone of my story. The title character is, albeit he won't be the protagonist until after Level Upper.

Level Upper Part 2

In a certain, tall, Windowless Building, a 'human' observed the screens before him. Usually, the city under his charge did not need his personal touch.

Usually, there was not a potential threat right before his eyes.

The images captured on the screens were all from different times. Some were quite recent, only minutes old, others were from an incident that happened two years ago, and others were even older.

Whether the shy Gemstone, the rampaging madman, or the current mystery, they all showed the same person: The being most know only as 'Demon King'.

Normally, not even Aleister Crowley could be kept away from knowledge associated with his city, like the name and ability of a mere child. Then again, most such knowledge was not erased from every known electronic and biologic record (i.e. memories) in that same city. Fortunately for Aleister, he had been spared of that and clearly remembered the boy's name and talent. That predicted talent, however, was now useless – his powers had been further developed outside of the city, and were beyond the predicted level from what he could see.

AC's General Director frowned. This young man was an unstable factor – one that, if handled wrongly, could prove... disastrous. Even Imagine Breaker was malleable, as Aleister understood Touma's nature. But an esper that could damage the Windowless Building was a potential plague – or asset. He just needed more information on this boy.

A soft sound indicated the arrival of a visitor he had asked for on short notice. As the building had neither doors nor windows, the only way to access the inside was via a teleporter, though only one knew the coordinates to use.

"One minute," he told her, letting her know when to come back.

"So what is it, Aleister? If I didn't know better, I'd say your notice seemed...rushed."

"This boy, what do you think of him?"

"That half-Gemstone? Between good and evil, I'd be hard pressed to choose, but between like and dislike, I've always preferred the more quirky ones."

"Watch him, Noukan. And keep an eye out for the Imagine Breaker too. Find explanations for what developments happen between them."

"That boy? Hrmph. Between good and evil, that kid is sickingly good."

"So between like and dislike, you dislike him?"

"Actually...I'm not so sure."

Aleister said nothing as the teleporter took the Kihara out of the Building.

Saten Ruiko was currently in a most peculiar position. It wasn't all that bad, in her mind. She just couldn't help but wonder how her friends would react to this.

She was currently in a certain park, on a certain bench near a certain broken vending machine. To her left was Kamijou Touma, a fellow level 0 and seeming acquaintance of the infamous 'Demon King'. And standing in front of them, was the #1 level 5, the 'strongest esper', Accelerator.

Since both boys were wearing the same uniform, it was somewhat obvious that they go to the same school and knew each other from there.

"So," said Accelerator, still grinning, "what's the story, Kamijou?" He nodded to the girl.

"... I ended up paying for her food," Touma confessed in a comically appropriate tone. Ruiko scratched her cheek as the level 5 cackled, clutching his stomach.

"Ahahaha! Oh, my f*cking god, that's good. Never heard that one before! Hahaha!"

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. {sigh} Rotten luck," said the misfortunate boy in defeat.

A: "So?"

T: "So what?"

A: "How the f*ck did that happen? You trip another waitress?"

R: 'This happens to him on a regular basis!?'

T: "Don't make it sound like I do that on purpose!"

R: 'He's not even denying it!'

A: "So what happened? It's not like your 'rotten luck' just happens out of nowhe– on second thought, I take that back."

T: "No, don't – you're not gonna listen to me are you?"

R: 'Just what kind of luck does this guy have?!'

"Alright, spill already," demanded Accelerator, having had his fun with Touma.

"Well, I was in this café when robbers came in – yeah, I know, who the hell robs a café? Anyways, all of a sudden, they're on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs."

"What, you couldn't see what happened?"

Touma did his best to describe the exact happenings.

"Then what? Who was snapping?"

The unfortunate boy paused before saying: "You remember how we met?"

"The f*ck's that got to do with-" Accelerator's eyes widened. "You're pulling my f*cking leg, man."

"No I'm not. He was there."

"Alright," the strongest esper motioned to Ruiko, "how's she fit into this?"

"That guy sat himself at my table without asking," she replied, wondering how them meeting each other coincided with their knowing that mysterious esper.

"And since I gave away that I knew him, when he disappeared, the waitress made me pay for them both," finished Touma, rubbing the back of his head.

"So," said Ruiko, "how are you two related to the 'Demon King'?"

"Why should we tell you?" asked Accelerator with a glare that made her shiver.

"Sorry," said Touma, "but I'd rather not involve you in this."

"I am involved," declared the girl.

The Strongest raised a brow. "How so?"

"Just this week, he was messing with Misaka-san's powers."

That got their full attention. "You're friends with the third-rate?" asked the level 5.

"Um, yeah. You guys know her?" she asked.

"You could say that," replied the male level 0, "In fact, there's something you have to promise."

"? Yeah, what?"

"Whatever happens, please don't tell her about him."

"What, why?"

"Cause she'll f*cking flip if you do," said the #1.

"What?"

"Look, just, please," Touma looked at her with a serious, pleading face, "don't let her even think about him, okay?"

After a moment, Ruiko slowly nodded. She didn't know what the fuss was, but it seemed to be the best for Mikoto if she kept quiet.

"Also, if we see each other again, pretend it's for the first time. Otherwise, she'll be asking questions," added Accelerator.

Again, she nodded.

"Now, then," said Touma, "What's this about messing with Biri-biri's powers?"

'Biri-biri?'

Once again, the 'human' heard the sound of a teleporter entering, this one sounding more like the attempt of an amateur. However, this time he was not expecting any visitors.

"I can hear you."

"Aah, the 'Demon King'. Or should I–?"

"That name is on hold."

Looking ahead, Aleister watched the very esper he had assigned Kihara Noukan to watch over step out into the orange light of the room. The expression on his face was literally mixed – the right half was insanely happy, while the left was sensibly upset.

"So what is it you want from one such as I? Unless you only came here just to boast about getting into my sanctuary?"

"For your curiosity, I read your Move Point's mind for the coordinates. As to what I want, I want in on your Anti-Magic plan."

The 'human' narrowed his eyes.

"Right. You said you 'could hear me'. Then you know what I want to know."

"It seems that right hand is rather essential to your plans. How much would you need to adjust if it, say, switched owners?"

"...You're not him."

"No, I'm not." The young man's whole face became serious as he sighed.

"But I have an idea for that..."

Aleister listened, finding that this idea made the suggested change more manageable. Though he made a mental note that someone coming up with such a plan would find a way around the perceived sacrifice going through with it would require.

"You do realize that the only reason this can work is because you read my mind?"

"Of course I do. I may not be that Righty, but if it's the me before I came here, I can come close..."

With that, the 'Demon King' left to implement his idea, withholding several parts of his own scheme.

Aleister knew that he did, but as long as his plans came to fruition, nothing else matters.

The next day, Sunday the 17th, Mikoto was looking around in a park for a little girl's missing bag. She had spent a minute with Kazari, whom Kuroko then dragged back to work. They accidentally left the former's Judgment armband on the table, prompting a nearby Judgment senpai to mistake her for a new recruit, roping her into this job.

The only reason she stopped trying to sort things out and helped was because Kazari had told her about recent bombing incidents, where the culprit had hidden bombs in stuffed animals or bags. It had nothing at all to do with Kuroko's hen-pecking her about interfering with her work, nope, no-sir-ee.

"Is that you, Biribiri?"

She had just been bending over the slide when she heard that voice sound out, causing her to look up in surprise.

However, this made her miss the young boy using the slide right then, who crashed into her side that was hovering above the equipment.

Holding herself where she was hit, she yelled: "Hey! Watch where you're going!"

"You're the one who was – I'll shut up now," Touma tried to retort, before she turned to glare at him with sparks flying on her bangs.

"And you!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't that my question? You're the one crawling around a playground wearing a Judgment armband."

"Idiot!" she looked back to the actual Judgment member, who noticed the new arrival but didn't hear what he said, before pulling the high-school student close.

"Look, there was a misunderstanding and now she thinks I'm a recruit," she hissed.

"So why aren't you clearing that up?" he asked.

"There's this kid's bag we looking for. I don't have time for details but –"

"Ah! There!" cried out the judgment member, pointing beyond both of them.

They looked that way, seeing a dog with a pink bag in its mouth.

"I got it!" yelled Mikoto, causing the pet to start running off.

"Oi, wait!" she shouted, sprinting to catch up with the dog.

After a few seconds she realized that she wasn't catching up at all. At the same time someone else sped past her before pouncing on the animal, who let go of the bag and defended itself from its assailant.

"Youch, Fukou da!"

Her lip-corners tugged as Mikoto let loose some sparks to scare off the dog before walking over to the bag and carefully picking it up.

As it turned out, Mikoto's fear that the bag was a bomb was wrong, so the relieved girl took a seat on a bench next to the unlucky boy, who was nursing his bite-marks. The bench sat between two potted bushes.

"How come you caught up with a stupid dog that outran me?" she grumbled.

"Well, biologically speaking, I'm both older, and a boy, so that's two advantages I have," was the reply, earning the speaker a pouty glare, making for a strange cocktail of scary and cute, which the older boy tried to distract himself from.

"So I got myself mauled because some weirdo is going around turning kids' bags into bombs?" Touma asked, blowing on a mark on his arm.

"Not just bags, stuffed animals too," she replied, "plus, he doesn't so much turn them into bombs as he stuffs the bombs in the-huh?" She looked to her left, into the bush next herself.

"Is there something in there?" she asked, as her natural electro-magnetic field was detecting something metal in there.

" What's wrong?" Touma stood up to see what caught the girl's attention.

What she pulled out was a large plush toy, a white rabbit.

"Wh-"

Mikoto's question was cut off as they saw the rabbit begin to collapse in itself. Mikoto immediately thought of Kazari describing the cause for the bombing to be 'graviton-acceleration through the use of aluminum'.

Right next to her widening eyes, Touma's right hand shot out towards the plush, and with a crashing sound, it returned to normal. While he didn't know exactly what almost happened, he instinctively sensed the supernatural danger and reacted to it.

Right as the danger passed, Mikoto looked around, searching for someone who would be miffed, confused and surprised all at once while also ready to run off straight away.

'There!'

A gangly, four-eyed high-school boy met her eyes, before dashing into the alley behind himself.

"Come on!" she yelled, dragging Touma by his collar as she pursued the culprit.

However, right before they entered the alley, she was suddenly assaulted by electric interference, the sort that mentalists cause on her, giving her a literally shocking headache. Because of that, she didn't hear Imagine Breaker going off, and Touma was too preoccupied with her condition to register it properly.

"Biribiri! Oi, Mikoto! Are you okay!?" worried, he brought his hand against her head, which seemed to stop her condition.

"...the bomber..." she mumbled.

"I'll take care of that," he said, leaning her against the wall before entering the alley, not noticing how everyone aside from them looked like they had been flash-frozen, except without ice.

What he did see, however, was an old acquaintance hoisting the Graviton Bomber by his collar as the demonic looking esper took an iPod with head-phones from him.

As he did, Touma could hear him calmly dressing down his captive.

"Pitiful, the moment you got power, you became the same as your tormentors. Did you even have anything planned, or were you just lashing out blindly? Don't answer, I don't want to hear the reasons of someone who victimizes others because of association and misplaced blame. Now then-"

Touma stepped forward, catching the 'Demon King's attention, who briefly looked at him before throwing the third boy at the newcomer.

"Uff!" Touma caught him, allowing the more powerful young man to escape with the same invisibility as before.

Just in time, too, as Mikoto had recovered enough to come into the alley, barely missing her old nightmare as he made his way to his next checkpoint.

Read & Review, please!