Kamijou Touma had just woken up after a good night's sleep, which was a rare occurrence for him considering that his misfortune always got him into troublesome situations, being chased by gangster or dogs, and often getting arrested by mistake by anti-skill, although these situations always resolved themselves that didn't mean they resolved themselves quickly. More often than not, he had to rely on only a few hours of sleep to get through the next day. He had nothing too bad happen to him in the last week or so, so he was on edge since a streak of good luck usually meant horrendous luck after.
"Maybe my misfortune is leaving me after I was declared a level 5 by the new system scan" Kamijou sighed rubbing his head with his hand.
That's right. Our lovable misfortunate boy was declared as a level 5 after the routine mandatory system scan. Only this time the equipment used provided reading in negative values as well so his ability to negate everything supernatural was detected and was even more than accelerator who was apparently the number 1 level 5 of academy city.
Touma glanced down at his right hand. When he was child all he knew was that he was an unnaturally unlucky boy, so, to escape superstitions in his home town, his parents send him off the academy city, a city based in science where hopefully their son could have a normal life. He was a regular level zero in academy city, but he had a knack in getting in trouble and helping people out, and more often than not that meant getting attacked by rogue espers, that's when he found out that he had an ability to negate other people's esper abilities. At first it was restricted to his right hand, but as years passed, his ability grew and reached a point, where he could remotely shut off people's personal realities. With the help of his ability combined with his physical strength and endurance, developed over years of mishaps, he was able to hold on his own even against really strong espers.
This ability of his was apparently known about in academy city, as shortly after the system scans, he was approached by a member of the board of directors with a very specific request
"Academy city needs you as a member of a new task force for protection of the residents"
"Aren't anti skill and judgement enough?" touma had asked.
"No, those organizations are in place to capture and arrest threats, protecting civilians is not their primary objective."
And so touma was roped into an organization which he could find zero information about. He did not even know what the name of the organization was, which was quite dumb to not even have inquired the basics from the director in hindsight.
"Damnit, why do I feel today is going to a be a misfortunate day?"
He dressed up and got ready for the day. He had classes today which went by quite uneventfully, well, aside from the argument he was pulled into by his friends tsuchimikado motoharu and aogami pierce. It was the last day before summer vacations, but still those idiots would not stop being perverts.
"Kami-yan, which one do you think are sexier, cat girls or bunny girls?" the blond-haired boy who was for some reason allowed to wear sunglasses in school asked.
"IT'S OBVIOUS. BUNNY GIRLS ARE SEXIER AND CAT GIRL ARE CUTER. I DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS SO HARD FOR YOUR DUMBASS BRAIN TO UNDERSTAND." Aogami shouted on the top of his lungs which caused the whole class to stare at them.
"WHY THE HELL DO YOU INSIST ON HAVING YOUR PERVERTED DISCUSSIONS AND THAT TOO WHEN KOMOE- SENSEI IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE ?!" Fukiyose shouted rushing towards them.
Both the blonde haired and the blue haired boy her hit square in the face by her fists and it seems that touma escaped…..
Oh, he was hit by the deadliest weapon of them all, her forehead.
All in all, his day went quite well, and he was sitting in a restaurant, and had ordered the meal of a lifetime, as he had saved for quite a long time to be able to afford this meal.
He had thought that when he was labelled a level 5, his stipend would have increased, but apparently God had other plans, and he had to remain undercover as a level 0 as part of his mission. He found that out the hard way when he had gone to the bank to withdraw money and found out that according to the official records at least, he was still a level zero.
He was just about to dig into some bitter melon and escargot lasagna from hell, but he was interrupted by the sound of someone talking loudly.
"Hey pretty girl, this is too good of a night for a face like yours to be out all alone."
Hitting on a defenseless middle school girl? How low can you fall? Kamijou touma was not having any of it.
He turned around and saw that it was a delinquent hitting on a girl. A one-on one, touma was confident in, two-on-one was dangerous, but three-on one and he was getting the hell out.
But he couldn't make a scene in the restaurant and risk getting kicked out, so he opted for plan-B.
"Oh, there you are. I was looking for you everywhere." Touma said grabbing her hand. "Thank you for looking after her, we will be taking our leave now." But to his surprise, the girl yanked her hand out of his.
"Huh?! Who the fuck are you?" The girl said with an expression of disdain on her face.
Apparently just like women, delinquents go to bathroom in groups as well, as just then, another 5 people came out of the bathroom.
He had gotten a good look on the girl's face, and now he opted for plan-c. he turned around and punched one of the gangsters in the face and ran away as fast as he could out of the store.
"SUCH MISFORTUNE! WHY DO I GET MYSELF INTO SITUATIONS LIKE THISSSSS!" Kamijou shouted running away from the gangsters, he had run about 2 miles and the gang was refusing to give up on him.
Well, this was all according to plan, and he let the gang catch glimpses of him occasionally or else they could come back on bikes. He hoped that his stamina would not fail him and he would eventually outrun the gangsters.
He stopped on an iron rail bridge when he found out that the gangsters were no longer following him.
"Oi. What the hell are you doing?" He heard a noise coming from behind him.
"Bfghh. What did you do to those gangsters?"
After looking her uniform and her hair, he had realized that the girl in front of him was the number 3 level 5 of academy city, Misaka "Railgun" Mikoto. The way she brushed him off and considering the fact she was from tokiwaadai, a school that bred rich stuck-up ojou samas, it was not unreasonable to think that she had killed those idiots.
He had been trying to lead them off in an attempt to protect them from the wrath of a level 5, but it seemed he had failed.
"Don't worry, I didn't kill them. Now it's time for the last of the scumbags to get punished."
"HUH!? This poor misfortunate kamijou couldn't finish his bitter melon and escargot lasagna from hell because I intervened to help, and this is what I get? Such misfortune!"
Kamijou felt the aim diffusion field shift, and he reflexively turned on his nullification, just as a bolt of lightning hit him square in the face.
Misaka was shocked, as the bolt she sent out was more than enough to knock an average person out.
"Say, do you know what a railgun is?" Of course, Misaka was not going to use the railgun on the guy, but a warning shot should scare him off.
"Railgun? I have heard of it, but I have no idea what it means.."
Kamijou touma felt crazy disturbances in the air, he did not need to use his ability to know that this attack was one worthy of a level 5. He immediately raised his right hand and temporarily shut off her ability.
"Wh-What the did you just do? I can't use my ability." Said the railgun getting more and more frustrated about not being able to do anything.
"Listen, how about we forget what just happened, part our ways and pretend this never happened." Touma said. He just wanted to go home and get some sleep; he was in no mood to fight a level 5 esper. Summer vacation was about to start, and he had no intention of preluding it with the fight of a lifetime.
Misaka heard him and apparently had calmed down, so touma restored her abilities.
"You goddamn idiot…" Misaka mumbled under her breath.
The air started fizzling, clouds were sparking and touma saw a spark from her bangs, but before he could so anything…..
BOOOMMM!
With a deafening roar, a bolt of lightning came from the skies and hit touma square in the face. It had no effect on him other than making his hair stand on his head, which because of his hairstyle looked exactly the same as before.
After touma eyes adjusted to the darkness after nearly being blinded, he saw that Misaka was lying on the ground, passed out.
"Going from not being able to use any esper ability to using an extremely powerful attack was not optimal and put a huge stress on her body." Touma made a note to himself.
He approached and checked her breath and pulse, and she seemed to be fine, she was only unconscious.
She was fine but this AIM shock could be dangerous for other espers. He needed to be careful.
Well, it was time to get home and get some sleep.
….
"AAHHH! This kamijou's conscience will not let him leave a poor defenseless girl passed out on the road, even though she attacked me with an actual lightning that would have definitely killed me if I didn't have my ability." Kamijou said, grabbing his head.
He went over to her and picked her up bridal carry style.
"I hope she doesn't wake up or I'm in for a world of pain. I didn't even get to enjoy my bitter melon and escargot lasagna."
He said walking towards the tokiwaadai dorm.
His plan was to sneak into the dorm grounds and put her down somewhere she would be safe. Sneaking into the dorm was dangerous, and if he was caught, he was 100 per cent going to jail.
"Such misfortune. What did I do to end up in this predicament…"
Touma's good luck streak was broken. Well calling it "good" was subjective since a more appropriate term would be lack of bad luck, but for this average high school boy, both of them meant the same thing.
What will I do after summer vacation starts? I don't have anything planned. I don't really want to hang out with aogami and tsuchimikado. Maybe I should start working on my summer homework. I'm really struggling with studies, and my attendance is in the mud as well.
He was broken from his chain of thought as he felt movement in his arms.
Misaka was coming to.
He looked around.
He saw a judgement office with its lights on near-by.
"Hmm. That's odd, I thought all students had to be in their dorms due to their curfew by now. Well, I suppose if there is someone in there, I can entrust her to them. He started walking towards judgement branch 177."
He didn't know if there was someone in there, but-
"Ahhh, uiharu, why did we get passes if all we had to do was paperwork, all I want to do is curl up in onee-sama's arms."
He heard a sound come from the window.
"Shirai-san, drooling about your roommate will not make the paperwork go by any quicker. It would be better if you could stop fantasizing and help me out here."
Well, there certainly were people here.
To be fair, one of them seemed to be a pervert, but the other girl seemed responsible enough, so he gently put Misaka down by the door, knocked, and ran away as far as he could.
He heard sounds of scuffle briefly before he saw a flash of lightning coming from the window.
Yup, Misaka was definitely conscious now.
"I apologize about leaving that overpowered and berserk bug zapper with you but please understand that I am in no mood to handle another battle." Kamijou closed his eyes and send his apologies.
Meanwhile,
Misaka felt someone groping her.
She woke up with a jolt to find her roommate hugging her with all her might and drooling over her
"eheheheheheehhehehe oneee-samaaa, you came to visit poor old kuroko, and you have given me your body as a gift." Kuroko sat grinning rubbing herself against "onee sama"
"kuroko get off of me." Misaka warned in an oddly calm voice considering the scenario.
What kuroko failed to realize was that her voice being calm was like the calm before the storm. She had just lost to a random high school guy, and for some reason was now in a judgement office.
The last thing she wanted to do was to deal with the perverted teleporter.
She glanced up and saw kuroko's colleague uiharu kazari restricted to the sofa with what appeared to be kuroko's pins. She had tried valiantly to defend Misaka but had failed.
"kuroko, this is my final warning. Get off of me." Misaka said in a threatening way.
"ehehe. No way. Onee sama you delivered yourself to me. I can't lose this opportunity."
"I SAID GETTT OFFF OF MEEEEEE!" Misaka shouted shocking the perverted teleporter off of her.
The situation seemed confusing.
How did she end up at the judgement branch 177 office. Last thing she remembered was fighting that guy, she was sure she hit him with a bolt of lightning before she passed out. Him carrying her to the office seemed improbable.
No guy would have a sense of chivalry strong enough to carry someone that attacked you so far to judgement office. Plus, the bolt of lightning she hit him with was probably enough to take out anyone below level 4.
In hindsight, he seemed to be trying to help her. If it was any other person, it would have been a brave and kind hearted gesture, but who the hell did he think he was. Did he just not know her or did he just not care that the girl he was trying to rescue was a level 5?
(Although, it was nice to feel like a regular middle schooler for a while. I wish more people would treat me like that, well by trying to shock people who do that isn't exactly a good start.)
She wanted more information about this guy, and wanted to see who the person was that carried her to the office.
After removing the pins that held down uiharu, she asked,
"uiharu-san, does this office have security cameras at the front door?"
"uhh… yes it does, why what happened?"
"Can you check who dropped me off here."
"Ah yes, I was going to look into it and ask the person some questions, but shirai san, um…" Uiharu trailed off.
"Yeah… sorry about that. Can you look into who the person was?".
"Ah yes." The "goalkeeper" went into her zone, she was one of the best ethical hackers that academy city had to offer, although running a check on security camera footage is not exactly that demanding, but the speed at which she did it would have been surprising to most professionals.
She pulled up the footage of the security camera right before she arrived and played it.
Misaka looked at the black and white footage of a person princess carrying her to the front of the door, letting her down, knocking and running away full speed, due to the angle of the camera, the face was barely visible, but the spiky hair gave it away.
It was the same guy she had fought before passing out.
That was odd. There weren't a lot of people in academy city who would do such a nice thing…. Or be able to walk after getting hit by lightning.
Wait….
"HE PRINCESS CARRIED ME TO HERE." Mikoto screamed internally. That was a crime he had to pay for.
"uiharu-san can you run facial recognition on him."
"Uh- yeah sure."
"It seems his name his kamijou touma, he goes to a certain high school and he's a level 0."
"well, that's wrong. No esper that can withstand an attack of that magnitude can be anything less than a level 4." Mikoto thought.
"MISAKA SAN, you can't go around shocking people with attacks that can kill !" Uiharu exclaimed. Apparently, Misaka had thought aloud.
"Calm down. As you can see, he is perfectly fine. I don't think any level 0 would be able to do that. There has to be a mistake." Misaka explained.
"Oh, well I suppose I can talk to my senior about it."
"Thank you, uiharu-san."
Misaka then left for her dormitory, passing a still unconscious kuroko by the door.
She had to look into this guy. No one escapes the punishment from the railgun.
Meanwhile, Kamijou had ran all the way from the judgement office to his dorm, which was quite far away, he reached his dormitory and found out that power was out in his area, probably because of the lightning that took it out.
"Such misfortune. All this kamijou wanted to do was to go to sleep. Now I have to stew in my sweat because the air conditioner won't work."
"Guess my illusion that my misfortune had left me has been shattered."
Said kamijou plopping down on the bed and falling asleep from exhaustion.