"H-Hey, stop that would you!? Can't you see you're hurting him?"
Ruiko Saten felt her hand squeeze within her chest.
Those thugs bullying that guy are now all looking at her.
Their leader, the tall guy, already ahead.
Saten didn't know how things had happened to this point.
-
A Day Ago...
"So you're a brain specialist?" Uiharu asked Kiyama.
"You reckon you might do something to fix Kuroko's broken brain right?"
"We were talking about the Level Upper and her help with this mess." Kuroko explained, with slight annoyance on her tone.
Saten listened to Kuroko's explaination, and excitement guided her hands as she was about to take her hand to her pocket and show off her new bab-
"It's a very big deal, anyone who's seen with one will be taken into custody." Misaka said.
"Wait, isn't that a little excessive?" Uiharu asked.
Kuroko explained. "We can't properly explain to you since investigation's still in progress, but we have suggestions that users may experience side effects."
Saten stayed silent, something which everyone sans Uiharu noticed.
"Of course, as is the case these users have a tendency to commit crimes, so there is reason to the extra measures."
"..."
"Oh, you had something on your mind Saten?"
"O-Oh, nothing really," Saten said as she stashed her phone away, but as she stashed her phone away she accidentally hit the table, causing the iced tea beside her to wobble, and spill into her seat neighbor.
That neighbor being the aforementioned brain doctor Harumi Kiyama.
"Oh shi- I'm so, so sorry miss-"
"It's okay, it's no big deal," Kiyama assured Saten.
It would've been sincere, hadn't the woman suddenly stand up, place his hands on the sides of her skirt, and pull them down, showing her underwear (and rear) to her tablemates and the restaurant behind her.
"What the hell are you doing!? Can't you see we're in a public space!?" Kuroko reprimanded the woman, as she would to a misbehaving child.
"It's okay. There's no need for you to be worried for me.
My body isn't that alluring to men anyway, so I do not see a problem with this."
"That's not the issue! There are all kinds of perverts, gender be damned, do you really want to give them a show!?"
After the meetup Saten had gone and left the diner immediately, hanging out under an old underpass.
She took out her cellphone out of her pocket, staring at her treasure.
"And it took me a while to get this. Heh, I almost thought my computer's caught a virus."
"Saten-san, is something the matter?" A familiar voice caught her attention. It was Misaka.
"Woah, why are you... how did you..."
"Well, you up and vanished after our meetup. So I was worried."
"Oh, don't worry about me over that. It's nothing really."
"But-"
"I mean, I got nothing to do with that am i right?" Saten discreetly placed her phone in her left back pocket.
"I'm not a part of Judgement, so you know..." Saten said. "What can I do?"
Saten removed her right hand off her front pocket inly for something to fall off.
Mikoto walked over to pick it up.
It was a red charm, like the ones in Shinto shrines.
White floral patterns smattered around the thing, with a small blue stripe run down in the front of it. On display within the stripe were a couple Japanese symbols.
"Ah. Sorry. It's, um... It's..."
"You've had it attached to your bag right?"
"Yeah. My mom gave it to me, before I left for here.
Even though they aren't very scientific and all." Saten stared at the charm with a somber look.
-
"Woohoo, my sister's gonna have superpowers!"
"Sweetie, you know I'm not fully okay with this."
"Really now, your mother's such a worrywart."
...
"You know how much I hate them prodding inside your head..."
"Relax Ma, they're not gonna do that!"
...
"Here, I want you to take this with you."
"Eeeehh... this isn't very scientific."
"You know you can come back any time if you feel things aren't working out in there.
Just know that you're more important to me than anything else, ok?"
-
"My mom's very superstitious, I mean there's no way a dinky old thing like this can do anything.
It's not like it's magic."
"Sounds like a pretty great mom, if you ask me.
I mean she really loved you that much to give you a charm like that."
"Yeah... she's a greay mom.
But it feels like... I'm not really living up to their expectations right now. I mean look at me, I'm still a Level 0. Even with my effort I still can't do spectacular stuff like you and Kuroko."
"Oh come on Saten. Levels aren't that all that they had hyped it up to be."
Saten knew Misaka meant well.
But even still, that pit in her gut never left.
-
"Any progress?"
"...I don't get all of the codes and jargon in here, but I did discover possible meeting points in here for the dealers."
"Impeccable as always, Uiharu!"
"These are all the possible locations Kuroko." Uiharu gave her the sheets in which the place were printed on.
Kuroko took a glance of the sheet.
"..."
"It's a lot isn't it?"
"You tell me. Geez where can I even start?"
Kuroko took another minute to read up on the paper.
"So?"
"Well, we'll just have to start with one, then keep hunting."
-
"Level Upper. Even after I downloaded it it still feels surreal.
I can finally become an esper with this thing... but still, I don't know whether something like this is safe.
Hell, I barely even know much about it."
Saten's finger hovered over the delete button of her phone, intending to erased the power-granting wish away from her grasp.
"But even so." Saten was still conflicted by her decision.
Does she truly want to throw it all away?
"Hey, you said you'd give me the Level Upper after I've paid enough! Here, it's all of it!"
But before she could decide her legs started walking towards the source of that voice.
As she got there the sounds of flesh meeting flesh greeted her as she saw a group of teens surrounding a single boy.
The boy was probably only an inch taller than her, his bowl cut hair and pudgy belly making him rather noticeable in a crowd.
"Please let me go, don't hurt me!"
"Where is our damn money then!?"
Saten saw one of them walking towards the boy. He was a lot taller than the bowl cut boy, his brown hair spiked up in gel and dyed blonde.
"Wonder how much you guy's Levels have raised to.
Why don't we use him for test practice?" He started to say, before a loud crash of metal filled the air. Looling behind him he saw no one.
"Hmmm, most likely a cat.
Now then, where were we?"
-
'DEAD BATTERY'
Of all times, it had to be now. She can't call anyone at this point.
Peering over the corner, she counted three guys.
Mean-looking ones, too.
What can she do in that moment? After all she's nothing more than a middle school girl minding her own business.
That was what Ruiko Saten told herself as she ran away to get help. Or at least-
She stopped dead in her tracks.
-that was what she told herself.
...
Time went back to normal. The stage that had been set from the beginning is now currently in play.
'This was extremely dumb', she thought to herself.
But she couldn't stop now and turn back, not when she was there already.
The guys were there, thinking of very cruels things about what to do with the bowl cut boy. They hadn't noticed her yet.
Saten gritted her teeth, but she tried to calm down and push forward.
"AntiSkill's on their way here soon. So... you better watch it." Her voice shook as she kept herself from collapsing to the state of terror enveloping her body.
Saten knew this was stupid. She, of all people, would know just how idiotic this decision was.
What can she do against them? She didn't have her bat on her.
As she raised her head she saw their leader, the tall blonde, towering over her.
"What was that? I didn't quite catch that?" It was all he said before he kicked the metal wall behind her.
A horrible clang rang within her eardrums, covering her ears to spare it from further pain.
She felt her head grabbed by the tall boy.
"You've got a big mouth for a kid. A powerless loser like you shouldn't be walking in here playing hero and be telling what and what not to do."
Saten grabbed the boy's hand, struggling to escape the thug's grasp, however he was far stronger than poor weak Saten.
'Dammit, he's right,' the girl bitterly said. 'What was I thinking?'
Closing her eyes to wait for the impact to come she neglected to see a man in red far to her right, swinging by.
-
Kamijou was on time. The scene he saw right now was not good. Three assholes, a fat kid, a girl, who was being manhandled by one of them, blonde, and lankier than the others.
He had to step in.
-
They didn't know what hit them.
Kamijou fired a glob of web at the lean thug, and with the consistency of a rubber ball travelling at high speeds it stunned the thug causing him to let his grip on Saten loose.
The 2 remaining thugs, the bowlcut kid, all looked at the unconscious blonde. For the former two though their shock lasted for a second as they immediately looked around.
Saten meanwhile, stood in confusion and shock. Whay just happened? It seemed like someone shot something at his head.
She looked around for the object, seeing nothing but a couple of empty cans, some wooden planks, construction materials, and white bean bag.
'Wait, a bean bag?' Saten looked at the projectile.
It looked like a bean bag, although it was a couple times smaller. And its pattern looked very different, as if it's not a uniform pattern but a repeating one, wound up around and around like a yarn.
Saten looked to go over and pick it up until one of the thugs looked back and noticed her walking off.
"Hey!" He shouted, startling Saten out of her trance, and was about to walk over and grab her when he felt something hit his back. It felt as if someone had lightly slapped his back.
He thought it was his buddy who stopped him. He about and turned to the thug when all of a sudden he was flown backwards. The hit to the ground was enough to wind him for a while.
Meanwhile the last esper who saw this trembled in fear. He had no idea as to what's happening.
A thud on the ground made him, the bowlcut boy and the girl to turn their gazes forward.
It was a man in red. Red mask, with wide white eyes resembling that of an insect's, underneath a red hoodie jacket, and black leather gloves, with black slacks underneath.
"If you know what's good for you, surrender right now." The Red Man declared.
But the thug did not cower, instead of vacking away he immediately attacked, rushing at the red man, at the same time telekinetically throwing construction materials towards the crimson vigilante.
Behind him Saten ducked and leaped out of the way to avoid harm from the flying large objects.
The Red Man stood undettered, and with quick and direct movements he evaded each object. In a sudden burst of speed the Red Man came in front of the telekinetic and launched an uppercut towards his chin. Knocking him instantly.
Saten looked on in awe (the bowlcut boy was in a state of half-awareness) as the red man dodged and ducked over the things the esper thug threw at him. They were rebars, sacks of concrete, traffic cones, and other tools, lots of things a normal guy couldn't dodge in time.
Within Saten's subconscious a sort of idolization towards the powerful vigilante had formed.
Kamijou lightly panted, petting some of the dust off himself. He didn't want to spend another 30 minutes cleaning them up. He turned around to check on the girl and bowlcut, just as he jumped back from a knife slash.
"Shit!" He was glad he managed to evade the attack; he didn't want to have to buy another jacket like last time.
"You bastard, Im'ma gut you up like a damn fish!"
"That is exactly what someone from a chessy action movie would say." Kamijou found himselg retort. A slight cough was heard behind the knife thug, but paid no attention to it.
The blonde thug lunged towards the red man, knife ready to strike him in the gut.
Kamijou took a stance, and prepared once as the knife drew nearer to his shoulder-
At the last second his left arm grabbed empty space. The thug had stopped his charge mid-action as Kamijou pushed against this empty space.
Saten couldn't believe it. This mysterious vigilante who's strong enough to take on a dozen thugs, is also telekinetic, just like the thug earlier?
Saten was left wanting for more questions.
Kamijou looked at the thug. His face, his ugly mug sneering towards him, most of his teeth bared at him, in the exact same position he was on when he grabbed the air in front of him with his left.
"Goddamit how are you this fucking strong?" Kamijou heard the thug say something, but it shouldn't be possible. Because the thug's mouth did not move when he heard him speak.
Kamijou was confused (his left was still pushing against the air). Was this the man's power, to manipulate space to create illusions?
'Wait... illusions...' Kamijou felt a switch in his brain flip.
Clenching his right fist he raised and threw it at an angle where a human head would be at during a grapple.
KER-RRASH! went the glass as he felt his fist connect to flesh. The illusion of the frozen thug had glitched and shimmered into nothingess as the thug was flown back from the force of the punch. His back hit the pavement, and the back of his head slammed onto the ground, knocking him out at last.
"An illusion-based power... not something I've not seen before." Kamijou remarked. He then looked over to the two other teens. Walking over them he crouched down to check the fat kid's injuries.
"Several bruises here and there, over at the back, stomach, face. Have you called AntiSkill yet?"
"Yeah, yeah I have." The girl said. Kamijou turned to her- 'wait she looks familiar'- and was about to tell her how to help him out and dress his bruises, however...
"This is Judgement. Surrender and put your hands up."
"...Shit."
"S-Shirai-san?" The young girl turned around and saw her friend, the stoic Judgement officer she had seen a couple times. "B-But wait! He isn't the bad guy, he saved us two from these thugs, we would've been a lot worse if it weren't for him!"
Shirai said nothing. She stoically looked around, seeing the unconscious thugs laid around.
"Even so, I need to take you in. Please, surrender and put your hands up, you're under arrest for vigilantism."
"It's okay miss, I got this."
"Confident are we?"
"Look miss, can't we just get along? I did a good job helping out someone, I'm just a concerned citizen doing their duty."
"A true concerned citizen would wait for AntiSkill to arrive, not take matters into their own hands."
"...There aren't many things you people can do about the darkness of this city."
"...what???"
"I said, you're tugging on the wrong shirt. I'm just trying to help."
"Sir, please don't make this worse."
Kamijou stood silent. Not even moving a muscle. His eyes narrowed towards the officer, who continued scanning him.
One wanted to escape. The other to enforce order.
After a short while the sirens of AntiSkill rang from the distance, which made Shirai look away for a couple seconds.
'Reinforcements,' Shirai thought. She then heard the sounds of gradually disappearing footsteps.
She turned around to see the red man, quickly sprinting away from her.
Kuroko wasn't exactly shocked by this, she did turn away from him. Not that it mattered anyway, she grabbed her belt containing her needles, setting the coordinates in her head.
The needles from her belt disappeared as they traveled out of normal space, and appeared all around the red man.
With this attack they might be maimed and wounded by the needles, so she made sure to aim for the sides of the sleeves and pants.
However the red man inexplicably moved in ways which made the needles miss him by an inch. Kuroko was shocked; how could this vigilante be quick enough to dodge her needles, especially when it's basically impossible to predict an object travelling through 11th dimensions to reappear to normal space and strike a specific target.
The red man leaped and fired something like a rope from his wrist, which somehow slingshot him away from the street and into parts unknown.
Kuroko was too shocked by the needle evasion technique employed by the vigilante, that she completely forgot about pursuing him.
"S-Shirai, I could use some help," Saten from her side shook her attention, making her attention known to the wounded boy.
"U-Uh yeah, okay, let's take a look at that."
After a quick first aid measure AntiSkill had arrived, placed the hurt boy onto one of their cruisers and left. The remaining officers were on scene taking the espers to the vans. One of them, the blonde boy, was very hostile to the officers, spouting angry curses and promises to "kill that red bastard!"
"Congratulations! Three arrests on a single day, not something that incredible but to do so without any injury, that's pretty incredible." One of the officers on site praised Shirai for her deeds. "You Judgement kids sure are pretty incredible, though it'd be good if you relied on us a lot more. It'll take a lot off your plate if you do so."
"Oh..." Shirai wanted to tell them it wasn't her, but the red man who appeared, but she didn't want to spend time and energy filing a long report about it, so she took it in stride. "Thanks I guess."
"You're too modest yount missy, well then I wouldn't wanna bog down your efforts, we'll take it from here."
"Thanks for you hel-"
"We wont lose we cant we are strong you dont understand if we participate in the experiment we understand it makes sense but we are scared it is what it is dont worry you understand..." the blonde thug started spouting random nonsense. A string of phrases flowing out of the boy without rhyme and reason.
"What the...?"
"The others have been lkke this also, we don't what's got into them."
'This is getting unsettling...' Kuroko thought to herself.
-
"What a nightmare that was, those two people about to fight, I mean he could beat that esper before, he could do it with Shirai too. But Shirai is also a strong person, she would've been to be in Judgment." Saten walked along a street filled with closed storefronts and some karaoke bars.
'They're very amazing people, unlike me, a Level 0. Figures, someone like me couldn't do anything back there. I just... didn't."
The pit within Saten had appeared once more. And she hated it.
"Hey Ruiko, we haven't seen you since the closing ceremony! How you doing?"
"Wha...? Akemi, Mu-chan, Mako-chan..!"
"Hey hey, what were you doing? Some grocery shopping?"
"Oh, uh..."
The phone in her pocket had never felt any heavier.
-
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Spent a week revising and editing this one, especially with how I should deal with the thugs. Do you prefer Kamijou vs. Thugs or Kuroko vs. Thugs, what do you guys think? Maybe next chapter I might give you all a surprise.
Do leave a comment. Vote or share this story. Constructive criticism is appreciated.