"Take us over there right now!"
"You crazy kid, it isn't safe to be in all that chaos! We should head back."
"Screw that!" Mikoto Misaka exclaimed as she stepped out of the taxi (but not before leaving out the fare) and propelled herself through the air with electromagnetism.
She just hoped she wasn't late.
-
Touma Kamijou surveyed what would be considered by some to be the aftermath of a one-sided massacre. Vans upturned, security robots wrecked, and nary a body in sight.
Looking around to see a long blue car in the middle of it all, he saw an unconscious young girl, with a bouquet of flowers atop her hair. Sprinting towards the car he immediately took the car door off its hinges with his spider-srrength, snapped the seatbelt off her and held her in a bridal position, where he jumped off the highway and gently placed her down on thr ground before leaping up and continuing on looking around for any survivors.
He hoped he wouldn't see anyone seriously hurt from this, at the same time furious at the blatant disregard for human life.
Instincts blaring within his heart he turned arpund to see a long figure cloaked within the dust and debris formed from the battle. He squinted his eyes to get a better look, and he saw the flapping of their lab coat in the wind, as the dust settles to reveal his opponent.
'...The stripper lady? What the hell is she doing here?' The grave situation went at odds with his irreverent thoughts. 'Doesn't matter, I gotta get her outta here too.'
"Hey miss, are you OK? You shouldn't be here." He called out towards the brunette exhibitionist.
But she never seemed to stir. More than anything she stood as still as a statue.
"Uh, Mis-"
"Who are you?" Kamijou stopped his words as the woman began to speak. He didn't know, but there was something wrong here.
"...I was just... passing by, and I saw this explosion as I went by."
"Is that so?"
"...L-Look, you shouldn't be here. Where's AntiSkill? Why are all the vans and robots all wrecked, and where's the officers? Are you also stuck in this mess? I can help you leave this place, and I'll find the one responsible for this. First we gotta get you-" He told the woman about the danger of lingering in such a dangerous place, while anticipating any possible attack.
His words cut short when he heard the woman laugh in increasing intensity.
Something definitely was not right here. Somewhere deep in his mind told him of the threat in front of him.
And the laughter was the final checkmark in his suspicions.
"You... you did this. You're the one responsible."
"How astute. Did you think about it for more than 10 seconds?" The woman retorted. A wind blew in from his left, sending the rest of the dust away from the woman.
A chill went down Kamijou's spine as the woman's glare sharpened with a glint.
"I don't know whether to laugh, or sigh at this absurdity in front of me." She said with distaste as her predatory eyes scanned the scarlet mask. She felt as if the world was mocking her, sending some schmuck in a pathetically stupid Halloween costume to block her from her mission.
But she kept her rage in check, and spoke to the trick-or-treater. "I do not want further harm done to you. I suggest you leave right now before you are dealt with the same way I did to those AntiSkill fools. I didn't kill any of them, if that's any comfort for you, but don't try to push your luck."
"...So you're the one who did this?"
"I'll tell you right now, I suggest you put off from playing hero and leave before you get hurt."
"I won't abide."
"?"
"I said, I'm not leaving here. Not when someone is causing chaos around here." The mask said. She saw him lower his body, and entered what sge assumed to be a battle stance.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Kiyama said to the red masked man as she fired a horizontal stream of pressurized air towards the man. She saw the man raise his right arm and slam it towards the wall of air.
She didn't know whether to applaud him for his courage, or pity his lack of self-preservation. She saw the air wall slam into his hand, dropping small ribbons of blood into the ground below.
She knew that by this time it was inevitable; the air stream would eventually slice him in half, so why bother to stick around. She turned behind her to walk away, to arrive to her destination.
When suddenly, a shattering of glass was heard behind her. Then not a second later she felt something hit her back, like someone had patted her.
She was about to reach around her and grab the limb but she felt gravity lurch her from behind as she flew on her back at great speeds. Using her Aerokinesis to stabilize her unintended flight and prevent her from falling to ground and taking injuries, she expelled one last wind blast to the ground before she landed without trouble.
Looking forward, just a few meters away from her, was the red man standing in one piece. His right hand was bloodied, for sure, but he looked to ignore the pain seeing its clenched position. She couldn't believe it. How could he survive something head-on with only superficial wounds?
He must be an esper as well, and with the stunt he had just pulled he might've been a Level 4 or 5. Albeit she considered that last part something of a possibility in regards to the Electromaster, the Judgement officer's friend.
She didn't think any of the Level 5s would care about something as trivial as this. She figured he must be a mere Level 4.
The red man charged towards her, his right fist clenched tight, blood pouring off of it.
Through split-second calculations Kiyama forced a part of the road to collapse beneath him as he walked to it.
As he stepped on the fall circle, and the concrete beneath him collapsed his big toe pushed him off the collapsing ground, and with great force he leaped across the air before landing on the ground with a parkour roll and getting up to continue his charge.
All this happened under a single nanosecond. Kiyama was both impressed, and unsettled by the unexpected skill and grace he handled with the situation, as well as his seeming foresight to perform said maneuver in such a short timeframe.
"This ends now," she declared, and with a single thought raised her hand and created a powerful blast of psychokinetic energy towards the red man, whose eyes briefly widened in surprise. Dust, debris and shockwaves flew and rattled the ground within the overpass, and the lower streets under said overpass.
As the battle between the two superpowered individuals continued in the overpass, the surviving AntiSkill officers looked on from the sidelines, terror and shock etched in their faces.
-
Kamijou erupted from the dust cloud formed from Kiyama's explosive attack, and fired a line of web towards the woman.
Before it could hit her however, a dome of energy blocked the web from reaching her, and the webbing dissipated into the air.
'Shit, I was hoping to restrain her with it.' Kamijou thought. Looking around his surroundings he found one of the small security robots lying on the ground.
Kamijou quickly went over it, and despite its heaviness (weighing over a few hundred pounds) he easily brought it over his left side and chucked it towards the professor like a softball.
Despite the act itself Kamijou made sure not to throw it too strongly, for he didn't like to severely injure the woman. He had a plan for this, after all.
The woman however tilted her head, lazily lifting her arm aside her, and formed a sort of energy-based sword within her palm. Without a word she swung the sword horizontally, slicing the robot in half, forming a slight cloud of dust and wind.
Just a few seconds later the red man was on top of her, already preparing to strike her with a right hook.
She will admit, it was a brilliant move. Using the robot to block her vision, then using that distraction to deliver the finishing blow. This guy wasn't any ordinary man. He has a lot of experience with fighting.
But Kiyama only sighed in frustration, and she merely swung the sword once again, wanting to get this over with. The man's dismemberment would the least of her troubles.
Her sword, met his fist. And as both weapons collided with great force...
The man's bloody fist shattered the sword like glass, and before she could comprehend what had just happened she felt her face collide with an extremely hard impact. The impact was so great it had sent her flying a couple meters away from him.
"What... what was that? Did I... see that properly? His fist... made the blade disappear?" She was extremely shocked by this turn of events. How could someone dispel a blade made of energy with just a single touch?
'Wait, could it be?'
In her first foray into the online forums of Academy City's Grey Web she had come across multiple stories and urban legends. One about a rare type of metal formed from intense battles between espers, the Imaginary School District, and alleged sightings of multiple Railguns all over Academy City. Not just in 7, but also in 10, 12, all other districts.
Baseless trivia, she once thought about them. After all they had an entry on the Stripper Lady once. Then others made their own made-up fantasies. Mostly they were hormone-addled teens who want something exciting in their lives.
But that moment, seeing his fist destroy her power-boosting
It reminded her of this one particular story.
A man with the power to tangle against espers, and battled against the Railgun multiple times, with a power that "disregarded the supernatural and enforced the natural world" by dispelling esper abilities.
She didn't think much of it. And she thought those words were too verbose. But why...
Why did that extraordinary event remind her of that legend?
Could it be...?
'He's the man who could negate esper powers!? But why is he here!?'
She was too caught up in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice the red man with the ability-countering power approach.
Kiyama made one thought to help her escape this mess.
And not a second later the ground beneath them collapsed.
"What was that again!? Someone is in there fighting Kiyama!?"
"Yes. I don't have a clear picture as to who they are, but they're not looking too good. Where are you now Misaka-san?" Konori's voice, devoid of clear emotions, replaced by driven professionalism, relayed to the Level 5 the events unfolding in the overpass just a few meters away from her.
Hearing that Kiyama somehow can use esper abilities was one thing; now some random guy is up there fighting her right now!? She didn't know who this mysterious person was, but she couldn't let anyone uninvolved in this mess get hurt, or worse. She had to step in and quickly resolve this conflict with the rogue professor.
Mikoto sped up her pace, and sprinted towards the battleground, hopping over the stairs and propelled herself up the overpass with electromagnetism.
As she quickly got up there though the ground beneath her had collapsed, causing her to fall down to the street below the overpass. Within a few seconds of quick thinking she attached herself to a nearby pillar, the electrical charge of her fingers clinging to the hidden metal rebar inside the concrete column.
She found herself having a bird's eye view of the whole fight. Dr. Kiyama Harumi, vs this... wait a second?
The red jacket, black gloves. Could it be?
"Kuroko did you get a clear view of who the guy she's fighting was?"
"No, Sissy, I haven't got a clear visual. They've been fighting and moving around so much, I couldn't get a clear view of the guy's face. Why?"
"Remember that... "Red Man" Saten mentioned about a couple weeks ago? He is the one fighting her right now."
"..."
"Kuroko?"
-
"This is insane. The guy we've been chasing down, is now fighting Dr. Kiyama?" Konori muttered to herself, before going into unintelligible self-talking.
Kuroko on the other hand...
'H... He's... Just how persistent is this guy!?'
-
Kamijou felt his entire body numb from the pain of falling down while hitting debris of concrete on the drop down. He felt the wind in his lungs expelled from his mouth as he brutally landed on his back. He felt like he broke something significant within him, and that a careless movement would be deadly.
But he had to get up. To stop this esper. And bring back everyone's peace back again.
"URAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The boy yelled as he made his charge towards the woman. After a few meters he picked up what appeared to be a large chunk of debris from the ground and chucked it towards the woman.
Kiyama raised her hands, and the debris crumbled to dust as it drawer nearer to her. She then narrowly evaded a swing from the red man, before firing off a point-blank wind blast towards the man. He negated the blast of compressed air with a single touch of his right hand, and delivers a powerful gut punch towards her way, which she narrowly avoids by manipulating the concrete in front of her and creating a wall to block the punch. The attack proved too much however as the fist tore through the wall like paper doors and the red man bashed through the barrier with some ease.
"Why, won't, you, stay DOOOOOOWWWWWNNN!" Kiyama's cries of frustration, and as she screamed several orbs of water formed out of the air. By gathering the water vapor and moisture within air molecules she created a veritable wall of water bullets, all aimed towards him.
Kamijou felt his face go pale as he looked at the terrifying sight. Sure, he might be able to negate 2 or 5 of them down, but the rest will carpet-bomb the whole area he was currently on-
A spear of lightning had Kiyama drop all her water bullets down on the ground. The volume of the bullets caused a small flood to form, which both parties avoided (Kiyama creating an air trampoline in front of her and jumping up in the air, while Kamijou leaped up and clung to the pillar behind him).
Kiyama felt that her fortune had already ran out. There was no idea she will be able to accomplish her mission without casualties.
'No more setbacks,' she thought.
-
After the flood settled Mikoto dropped down from her hiding spot and landed on the ground. Dust and debris caused by her attack were starting to settle down, allowing the young brunette a clear view of her surroundings. Seeing that both combatants weren't currently within the area she had assumed that they resumed their battle in another place away from here.
"I couldn't expect this to have happened. I had to deal with such a nuisance. Now there's two of you?" Kiyama's voice rang out in the empty street, her voice having a echoing tone which brought chills down the Electromaster's spine.
"Well, I can be very persuasive with my actions. And you had caused so much suffering due to your actions, Kiyama-san. I suggest you stop this and surrender." Mikoto stood her ground despite her disadvantageous position. Her lack of visual on the professor, and the red man, who she cannot rule as an ally yet, had made her even more careful.
"Surrender? Really? I only wish to complete my investigations on some matters in my end. That's what I only wanted; after I get my wish I will free everyone trapped within those comas. Problem solved."
"Problem solved?" Mikoto felt her questions answered by another voice, this time sounding a lot closer than the professor's. "What part of "problem solved" involves hurting people? To what extent would the suffering and pain you've caused will be justified?" Mikoto searched for the source of the voice, only to get startled when she inadvertently bump into the man himself.
'He looks taller than I thought,' she thinks to herself.
"...Honestly, I thought there was a reason to why you've tried to oppose me all this time. Now I've realized I'm dealing with some hero wannabe." The dust had cleared, showing the professor, her emotionless visage still in her face.
"Does it matter if I am? I can't abide it when someone's disturbing people's smiles. I will stop you if it's the last thing I'll do."
"Don't forget me. You've played around with people's hearts, involving so many people and endangering their lives all because of your selfish mission. Any type of research that involves such underhanded methods in order to get its results can't be any good thing."
"And here lies the problem. Even with your level Railgun like a sheltered princess you still know nothing about the real world."
"I don't wanna hear that coming from you."
"...The Power Curriculum Program all you espers undergo daily here in Academy City... Do you think it's safe and humane?"
"...what?" The red man said. Mikoto said nothing, but her face betrayed a sense of grim curiosity at the woman's words.
"The higher-ups have been keeping important information from us, unwilling to share their findings. Without knowing that, Academy City's teachers spend every day of their lives developing the minds of over 1.8 million students.
Ever stopped to think how completely dangerous that is?"
"Why are you asking us this?" The red man spoke up.
"Maybe she'll tell us all about it," Mikoto said, "after we've captured her!" As she said that she summoned a barrage of iron sand tendrils towards the professor, hoping to restrain her. The Red man, for his part, fired a stream of webbing towards her, to prevent her from escaping.
Both of their attacks were blocked as she used her abilities to summon a barrier from the ground beneath her. "It seems you two have agreed on some silent truce. I'd applaud you both, but I cannot afford to get caught here just yet."
Saying that Kiyama remotely picked up a trash basket, filled with aluminum cans before throwing it up into the air. The contents of the bin spilled into the air, as thousands of juice cans floated along in the air.
"What's that? Is she trying to scare us with a hail of cans?" The red man opined.
"It's not the cans themselves. I'm sure the Level 5 will know what this means." Kiyama smirked.
Mikoto looked up at the sky, seeing the cans about to drop down to the ground.
A terrifying realization went about to her head. She acted fast.
"In that case... I'll blow them all away!" She declared, and with a swing of her arm she fired a continuous stream of electricity which destroyed all the other cans within the air.
Kiyama was impressed by her raw power, seeing her blow up all the cans. She heard a noise from her side, seeing the red man approaching her as her attention was diverted away.
"You mean to ambush me? Clumsy mistake."
"I'm faster than you," the Red Man said, and just as he said he moved with breakneck speeds, before pulling back his fist and raising towards the professor's head.
She quickly jumped back, her evasion boosted by a quick use of Aerokinesis which brought her a few meters away from him.
"Don't think that's even enough! You won't be able to escape!" He yelled, before firing globs of webs towards her. She managed to put up a barrier of energy which vaporized the globs. Some stray lightning struck the barrier as well, which had Kiyama glance over to the Electromaster. She was currently taking out the last of the cans.
Kiyama had to make sure she couldn't be able to recover and overwhelm her with ranged attacks.
Glancing down she held the juice can in front of the red man. He had no idea what it had meant, before it disappeared.
"What did you do?" The man said in confusion.
"Ever heard of what had happened in July 18th?"
Kamijou was confused. What happened on July 18th?
Well, he was gonna go and hang out at Seventh Mist that day, before stringing along some random girl along to help her with looking for dresses. Met Bugzapper along the way. Left the girl alone to buy gelato for the little girl before she disappeared. Then when he went looking for-
,
There was.
-?":?-;","*$(!
Danger.
ldksnenrkfkemrgmDANGerkalenfmsla!
There she was, between two girls, and an imploding piece of material. Suddenly the world went and turned red for a moment.
His heart pounded within his chest as he ran away from the lone woman. He could feel her hidden smirk bore in the back of his head.
"Is that all of them? Are you finis-"
"RAILGUN LOOK OUT!" The red man, in an unnatural display of speed reached towards the lightning girl.
"Wha-" she couldn't finish her sentence as an explosion rocked the area. Both teens were enveloped by the raging inferno, just as the red man reached around and covered Mikoto's body with his own.
"Your friend ran back for you to shield from the blast. Pretty impressive response, I thought he's leave you alone go after me. He was an unexpectedly dangerous opponent to face off against, I thought he'd be able to capture not too long. Perhaps I wonder what could've happened had you not interfered. But then again, I wouldn't suppose much might've changed. I didn't want to get this violent. I gave you both an out, yet you still resisted. But now, before the Directors get involved and send out their dogs against me, I will accomplish what I've set out to do. And I will crush anyone who gets in my way."
Kiyama felt a sort of tension within her heart, so slight that it didn't make her uncomfortable, but just enough to take notice. She didn't know whether it was guilt or something else. Perhaps there was a certain place in Hell for people like her.
But if it was for those children, it's a price she'll gladly pay.
Turning around to walk away from the dust cloud she about and went to advance away-
But something wrapped around her torso, like a tackle from behind.
"W-What!? But it was a direct hit!?"
"Did you really think that'll be the case!?" The Railgun exclaimed.
Kiyama just noticed the red man standing behind her.
"Some advice, make sure your opponent is truly down before you turn your back!"
'No, it doesn't matter!'
Tendrils of rebar sprung out of the debris behind Mikoto, intending to pull her away from-
Glass shattered as the red man knocked them all away.
"TOO SLOW!" Were Kiyama's last words she heard before continuous, agonizing pain passed through her body.
As her consciousness flickered, memories from a past long gone ran through her head.
A lively classroom, filled with children all optimistic for the future.
An empty classroom, filled with misery, and the echoes of their light snuffed out.
All at the hands of opportunistic psychopaths who see people as nothing more than guinea pigs.
And she, she was the catalyst for their doom.
Her mind faded to black.
-
After Kamijou came over and restrained the stripper lady, it seemed that things would be back to normal.
That was it. Everything was over was it?
"Hey, uh... what do I call you?" He heard Bugzapper call his attention. He turned to her, seeing a questioning look on her face.
"What do people usually call me?"
"Something like, uh, "the Red Man"?"
"Then that's it."
"Oh. ...So, about what happened back there..." She started to say, before she suddenly stopped, and turned her head as if hearing something.
"What's wrong? You hurt your head?"
"No. It's... do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"...children..., what?"
"Hey hey hey, stick with me," Kamijou said as he grabbed her shoulders. Her eyes looked to be unfocused, her brows slightly furrowed. Each time her face went paler and paler. Snapping his fingers didn't seem to work, either.
"This... isn't over..." A voice from her croaked out.
"What the...? You're very persistent aren't you." He quipped. "What did you do to her?"
"You think... this is gonna... hold me...?" The woman weakly said as she continued to get up from her bindings.
Kamijou merely walked towards her, seemingly fearless.
"Stay down. Final warning."
"What was that?" Bugzapper's shaky voice came behind him. He turned to see her, face pale as snow, a cold sweat running down her face.
"You found out? All of it?"
Kamijou was confused. He did not understand what was going on between the two. He felt like a third party in this. "What's going on? What is happening? B-Railgun what did you-"
"All those children... they were... how could you...?" Her tone filled with terror, she called the woman's attention, looking for some answers.
"It was officially declared to be an experiment in controlling AIM Diffusion Fields. But in reality, it was meant to research the effects of pushing an ability beyond its natural limits."
"...what." Kamijou was still confused.
"They overstimulated the children's AIM fields in order to study runaway abilities firsthand," Kiyama explained further.
"Then... that means," Bugzapper looked more and more horrified by the implications of what Kiyama had said, while Kamijou was still confused by all that's going on.
"Wawawait what's going on? I don't get it, can you please explain what the hell you're talking about?" Kamijou demanded the woman, grabbing her by the bindings.
"...they were intentionally manipulated to run out of control... but I didn't realize what was going on until after it happened!" Kiyama concluded her rant. Which made Kamijou even more frustrated.
"What? Hey, what didn't you realize? Answer me dammit! What are you talking about!? What didn't you realize after what happened!?" Kamijoi sounded more and more angered by his being out in the loop.
"Put her down," he turned around to see a somber Bugzapper. He didn't say more, and he placed her down on the ground.
"Those poor kids, they didn't deserve it. We experimented on them, all in the name of science. We stole their youth from them, all for results? All for science? For newer evidence about breakthrough and whatever sick bullshit they have in their heartless minds!?" Kiyama yelled in indignation.
"It was officially declared to be an experiment in controlling AIM Diffusion Fields. But in reality, it was meant to research the effects of pushing an ability beyond its natural limits."
'Wait a minute, I heard this one time in one of my classes,' Kamijou realized. In one of Komoe's lectures she mentioned how an esper's mind has natural barriers held in place, in order to protect the esper from deliberately overtaxing their abilities.
"They overstimulated the children's AIM fields in order to study runaway abilities firsthand,"
An experiment was tested on a controlled group of espers, who all voluntarily had their ability parameters overexert in certain levels, to see how much can the average esper withstand before things got too dangerous.
"...they were intentionally manipulated to run out of control... but I didn't realize what was going on until after it happened!"
The result was that only 76% of the esper's brain can take this overtaxing of ability before it tears itself apart. Fortunately the volunteers were properly compensated, recorded no side-effects, and were able to readjust back to normal.
He thought it was just some random test to analyze powers, something he wouldn't remember much considering his lack of ability.
"Those poor kids, they didn't deserve it. We experimented on them, all in the name of science. We stole their youth from them, all for results? All for science? For newer evidence about breakthrough and whatever sick bullshit they have in their heartless minds!?"
But... what if there's more than meets the eye? What if almost every single lesson they'd teach to his own class, all had a messed-up history?
How could he know?
And what did it mean?
"If something that horrible happened, why didn't you report it to AntiSkill?" Mikoto asked. The red man beside her looked to be in his own world but she ignored him.
"Twenty, three, times," Kiyama emphasized each word. "That's how many times I've requested the use of Tree Diagram, all so that I could find a way to save them! I can run simulations to uncover the true cause of the accident!
23 times I had asked to use it, and every single damn time they said 'No'. Don't you understand? The Board of Directors were involved! Do you really think AntiSkill would even point to their direction if I had told them!?"
"There had to be another away! Why use the Level Upper for this when there are alternative ways where no one could get hurt! Why did you have to-"
"You know nothing!" Her yell made Mikoto stop in shock. "I will do anything in my power to save those kids! Even if the whole city comes after me, even if I get dragged down to the deepest pits of Hell, as long as I save those children I can't stop now! I've gone too far enough, and I won't stop for anything!"
"To the point you'd kill us. Is that right?" She heard the red man beside her say.
"Without a doubt." The lack of hesitation within her voice sent chills down her spine. She had already experienced the lengths to how far Dr. Kiyama will go for those kids.
"I understand." The red man said. He only lowered himself, entering a battle stance.
Both of them had their own goals, as Mikoto with hers. But it looked like the red man had his own reasons for fighting. Whatever they were she didn't know, but he never seemed to budge.
"Which is why I have to stop you."
"Hnn."
With their short exchange of words, the air grew still.
Kiyama made the first move.
"...Are you okay?" Mikoto asked Kiyama after the latter clutched her head in pain.
"The network... it's falling... out of control..." was all the doctor could say before she collapsed to the ground face down. After a quick beat, multiple streams of light emerged from the back of her head, much to both teens' shock. The light streams moved upwards like floating liquid before they coalesced and took shape.
A terrifying abomination of a creature formed out of Kiyama's head, looking like a fetus, with white glowing wings behind and a halo on top. Its eyes opened, showing off red, green and yellow humanlike orbs.
kakrnffkdkakd...
Something within Kamijou's mind blared. His Instincts yelled and screeched.
"Oh, rotten luck," the boy muttered.
The blood-curdling roar of the infantile creature nearly overwhelmed Kamijou's senses.
-
Leave a comment down below. Vote and share this story. Constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Please point out any typos you see, I'll gladly fix them.
And I'll see you guys on the next chapter.
Sincerely,
Komigakuo.