Chapter 1 - Welcome to the desolate world

Cold.

That was the initial sensation that washed over Kamijou Touma as he slowly opened his eyes. His fingers sent little twinges through his body, and his consciousness wavered like someone succumbing to the effects of a sedative.

There was light in that place, red, flashing intermittently, very different from the usual white that often surrounded him when he woke up in this state. It bore the markings of an emergency signal, an observation that immediately sparked concern within the boy.

It seems that someone's bad luck just kept getting worse.

"Where... am I?" he managed to murmur, his lips struggling to form the words.

No response came. The desolate truth was that there was no one to respond.

Kamijou carefully stretched out his hand toward the smudged glass in front of him. The glass yielded to his touch with a mechanical hum, carrying him along with its motion. The barrier retracted, revealing a new reality beyond.

With a deafening thud, the boy's body hit the metal floor beneath him. It took him a few seconds to get up. His shaky, weak legs used the remaining strength in them to move his semi-paralyzed body around. His gaze swept across the "prison" that had held him captive for an unknown span of time, a place alive with billowing white smoke.

"A cryogenic chamber?" he asked himself in a whisper. His insistence on wanting to speak aloud was probably to try to keep his body moving as much as possible. "This place... a laboratory perhaps?"

There were no other chambers in that metal-walled room, he was the only one who had been put in this state here.

He forced his body to move, though it responded with nothing but an unsteady stumble. His trajectory led him to a device adorned with an array of plastic tubes, all impeccably preserved.

The insistent crimson pulse of light irritated his eyes, and that pounding headache was preventing him from thinking straight.

But he had the strength to say a little more.

"Really... what kind of unlucky situation has my misfortune gotten me into now?"

x-2-x

A few minutes ago, a group of four people were walking cautiously through the cold, deserted night in Academy City. They were three girls and a boy, although the latter was in schoolgirl cosplay.

"This must be the place," said the little girl with the red hair and mask, careful to keep her tone low.

"Huh?" The girl with the short pinkish-purple hair tilted her head in confusion. "Are you sure Leader? This looks like a totally normal convenience store."

"Naru, did you miss the whole explanation I gave?" said the little girl, known as Leader, in a somewhat exasperated manner.

"Are we going in or not?" The third girl, with long brown hair hidden in a hat, said, playing with a glass bottle in her hand. "Staying out here will only attract attention from some PB wandering around."

"Don't try to jinx us, Yakumaru." The boy in cosplay walked past them and into the convenience store, his face wearing a bored expression.

Those four made up the group known as "Scavenger". In the past, they had been part of the dark side of Academy City, but their group wasn't on a level with those better known as ITEM or SCHOOL, but none of that mattered anymore. Not in this ruined world.

"The entrance to the underground laboratory is right there," said Leader, stomping hard on the floor. "Nothing must be working up here, so we have to force our way in. Naru, it's up to you."

"Yaaay!" shouted the excited girl. She also let out a groan of pain when Seike hit her on the head.

"You're too loud," he scolded in a hushed voice. "If you keep shouting like that, an abomination will appear and wipe out the whole bunch of us."

"Look who's trying to jinx us now," Yakumaru cut in, pointing to where Leader was standing amidst the destroyed shelves of the store. "Come on Naru, let's do it as quietly as we can."

"Leave it to me, Ya-kun!"

The purple-haired girl's ability, Perfect Paper, allowed her to use a unique type of psychokinesis that she used to manipulate papers in creative ways. In this case, she directed the umbrella she had in hand, causing it to collapse into numerous purple papers that fluttered throughout the store.

"That's all the care I can muster!" Naru grinned, a quirky sparkle in her eyes. "Ta-da!"

Two seconds later, something exploded in that store.

They really shouldn't have left it to that energetic girl. But an entrance was an entrance.

x-3-x

The boy's senses had finally returned to normal. His eyes focused on his surroundings, still blinking and tinged with blood red.

"Is anyone there?" he shouted to make sure he was alone.

Without receiving an answer, he proceeded to the door, which, luckily for him, was unlocked. Stepping through, he found himself in a dimly lit corridor. The place struck him more like a labyrinth, brimming with rooms and equipment whose functions eluded him. The white walls amplified the radiance of the red warning light, a sight that triggered a wave of dizziness.

How did he end up here? His memory faltered in its attempt to unravel the puzzle. The last thing he remembers is being on his way back from school to his dormitory.

"Index must have eaten the entire fridge by now."

He had no way of knowing how long he had been asleep, but a few hours were enough for that girl to deplete his stock. All he could do was hope that Othinus would convince her to leave him some leftovers.

"Hello! Anyone there?!"

At some point, he realized that shouting in a research lab, the one in which he had just woken up from a forced sleep, wasn't exactly a good idea. But his options weren't many, and after walking those corridors for so long, he'd half convinced himself that whoever had put him to sleep wasn't here anymore. In fact, he was pretty sure that everyone who worked here had evacuated.

"I hope that red light is just a practice drill. If this place is on fire or something, I'm screwed."

As always, the boy's misfortune disturbed him, even though he knew nothing of the situation.

But he was right to be worried, that loud noise of something breaking made a point of saying it out loud to him.

In that very instant, Kamijou Touma experienced a jarring sensation running down his spine. It wasn't merely a metaphorical twinge, rather, it felt as though a tangible discomfort was gnawing at him there.

It put him on high alert.

Taking a right turn, he entered one of the corridor doors without giving it much thought. Fortunately, he made that choice. Not even three seconds later, something sounded in that corridor. They were like footsteps, but they were heavy, probably enough to damage the floor of the place.

Something was coming.

Kamijou didn't feel safe in the middle of those office desks. He ran to a door that seemed to lead to an observation room. The dimly lit place didn't flash red, which comforted him at least a little. There was a pane of glass there, similar to those used in interrogation rooms. He knew this because the surface was mirrored when he was in the office, but now it was completely transparent. This was probably a place where an obsessed boss watched his employees work without anyone noticing. There were strange people like that, he was sure of it.

The footsteps drew nearer, the sensation hammering in his ears. It was right there, almost upon him. A noise reminiscent of a cicada, yet amplified in both volume and depth, resonated throughout the room. It was as if he could sense it reverberating directly within his mind, as though his skull was vibrating in response.

Kamijou Touma swallowed hard.

It was a creature right there. The thing that had been strolling around the area with an air of nonchalance was now staring at him through the ajar doorway.

x-4-x

Earlier that night, the Scavenger group had claimed their prize. They had broken into that underground laboratory because they knew it was still operational. After the great catastrophe caused by the adults, most of the electronic equipment in Academy City had been fried, rendering it completely unusable. Those that still worked encountered a serious problem: a lack of power.

Academy City was a modern place with state-of-the-art technology, but that didn't save them from human stupidity. And in moments of crisis, the worst decisions are made.

Luckily, some laboratories still survived using generators that used experimental graviton particle technology, which was the aim of that group.

"Be careful not to knock that over," Seike said in a bored tone, wiping his ear with a finger and not even looking at the girl with the short pinkish-purple hair.

"Everything's under control," replied Naru, sticking out her tongue to mock him. "Thanks to these generators, I'll finally be able to take a decent hot bath at our base."

"That's the spirit," said Yakumaru, pressing her cheek against Naru's and flashing a playful smile. "We'll be treated like queens when we present this prize."

They strolled down the corridors of the laboratory, illuminated by intermittent red flashes, yet Leader appeared preoccupied with something.

"Is there a problem?" Yakumaru tilted her head towards Leader, speaking in a hushed tone so only she could hear. "Don't tell me a PB got in here."

Leader shook her head in denial.

"I can't say for sure." The young girl adjusted the mask on her face and glanced at the flashing lights. "That alert didn't trigger the moment we extracted the generators, it happened a little later."

She looked at the two one-cubic-meter boxes in the giant paper hands of Naru, who seemed carefree carrying those dangerous things. That childish girl would soon start whistling as if she were enjoying cotton candy in a park.

"It's common to have this kind of delay," said Yakumaru, drawing Leader's attention once again. She placed her arms behind her head, maintaining her leisurely pace as if to project an air of ease and tranquility to reassure her companion. "Your ability is more accurate at night, but that's negated because of where we are. But don't worry, in a place like this, we'll hear a PB the moment it attempts to approach."

"I hope so."

x-5-x

The creature forced its way in, the door ripped off its hinges along with the wall and shattered shortly afterward. The thing's claws extending from its body looked like those of a praying mantis, its dark crimson body moving erratically, as if the skin was coming off and reattaching itself frequently.

It was big, at least 5 meters long, and stood 3 or 4 meters tall. A lion is on average two meters long, so you could imagine the creature's strength. Of course, this would be an estimate for a flesh-and-blood animal, but this beast was made of a material that Kamijou was unable to comprehend. The red light itself seemed to distort and transform when it touched the creature's "skin". Could it even be called skin?

There was no time for him to ponder, the thing moved with heavy steps, the eyes on its insect face constantly changing colors. The best description the boy could think of for the thing would be a mixture of a grasshopper and an elephant due to its size, but it moved like a predator, reminiscent of a large feline.

Kamijou had to cover his mouth with his hand as the creature nearly smashed its monstrous face into the mirror directly in front of him. His heart raced, and his gaze shifted to his right hand. There was a power, it was called Imagine Breaker. It only went as far as the wrist, but as long as he touched something supernatural with that hand, it would be destroyed, erased from existence in the same instant. But was that thing supernatural?

With his mind working at full speed, he analyzed the creature with a skeptical eye. It was somewhat familiar. Last year, he had come across something similar, crystalline creatures that resembled giant animals. They were nicknamed "elements". However, that seemed impossible, they should have been completely wiped out. Of course, there was nothing to stop some scientists from finding a way to bring them back.

Was that the answer? If so, would his right hand have the same effect as it did on those elements?

He clenched his right fist as tightly as he could. The creature seemed to look him right in the eye, and as much as he wanted to turn his attention away from that grotesque and repulsive thing, that feeling in the back of his mind told him that it would be a big mistake. A single strike from that thing, and he'd be done for. The shattered wall behind the creature served as a stark reminder of this fact. It was a matter of striking first before being struck.

His legs moved, although his mind was still doubtful. But a single step was all he managed. After a single step, the creature moved. A sudden, erratic movement. The boy's breath was caught again, his brain on high alert. And then...

"Huh?"

Kamijou was confused, but then he breathed a sigh of relief. The thing had gone, and at an incredible speed. He could still hear its distant heavy footsteps in the corridors of the facility, but it was getting further and further away.

"What's going on here?" He held his head with both hands, stroking the forehead that was about to explode. That despair from before brought a throbbing pain, not just in his head, but in the rest of his entire body. "What do I do?"

The footsteps became silent, the creature far enough away to keep him calm. He had to move, staying there wouldn't benefit him, his survival instincts were screaming it in his brain.

It took all his willpower to poke his head into the corridor with all the caution in the world. It was silly to think that the creature had used a trick to ambush him, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"It went that way," he said, examining the scratches on the floor.

His gaze slid toward the opposite side of the corridor. Escaping from that location took precedence, and that's exactly what he did.

The area had a few directional signs, but most of them proved unhelpful. Naturally, he didn't anticipate discovering a sign pointing "exit this way," but he did hope for some semblance of progress.

"You can stop right there."

Suddenly, a female voice reverberated from just behind him in the expansive corridor. His instinct prompted him to turn toward the youthful voice, yet it turned out to be a misstep.

"I said stop!" The voice verged on shouting. "Put your hands where I can see them and turn around very slowly. If I catch a whiff of you trying to utilize esper powers, you're as good as dead. Clear?"

All he could manage was a nod as he complied with the girl's commands.

x-6-x

The Scavenger group already had their objective in hand, and they were ready to leave. Meeting that boy there was pure coincidence, so they didn't know exactly what to do. There was a standard procedure for this kind of situation, but Leader hesitated for a moment. She hadn't really expected to meet anyone here.

"Do any of you know him?" asked Leader as soon as the spiky-haired boy turned around with his hands above his head.

"No," replied Seike nonchalantly as he leaned against a wall in the corridor.

"Nope." Naru shrugged.

"I've never seen him, but he's got a pretty generic face, so… who knows," said Yakumaru, tilting her head to examine him more closely.

"Could you not comment on my appearance so casually in front of me?" said the boy with the spiky hair, he even sounded a little annoyed. "Who are you anyway?"

"You're not going to ask the questions here." Leader crossed her arms and signaled to the other members. "You're at a disadvantage, so answer our questions truthfully or..."

Their standard procedure was to eliminate any threat that came their way. Of course, this could have very serious consequences in this new world they were living in, and that depended on one thing.

"Which faction do you belong to?" asked Leader in a stern voice. She didn't want to give the boy any room to get comfortable.

"Faction?" He looked genuinely confused. "Wait, is this about that crazy 'Kamijou Faction' idea? But you don't look like magicians... although Itsuwa wears pretty normal clothes."

They all looked at each other in confusion as they listened to this nonsense. He said something about magicians(?), a faction they had never heard of, and an unknown person. This seemed like a strategy to avoid giving away important information, a ploy to buy time and plan a combat strategy or escape route. People from the dark side wouldn't fall for such a simple trick.

"You have 30 seconds," said Leader, signaling the girls to advance. They were in a battle position now. "Tell me which faction you belong to. Try winding me up again and we'll follow standard procedure."

"Yay! The standard procedure, I love it!" Naru exclaimed, even dropping the experimental generators with no care due to excitement.

"Be careful with that!" Seike tapped her on the head lightly before turning his eyes toward the boy in front of him. "You heard Leader. 10 seconds left."

"Wait, 10 seconds?" The boy sounded desperate now. "Could you at least explain to me what the hell this faction thing means? No, forget it, I'm not in any faction, I swear!"

Leader signaled for the girls to stop when she heard that.

"So you're a nomad?" asked Yakumaru, holding a shiny bottle in her hand. That thing would blow the boy to pieces as soon as she threw it. "Something rare these days."

"But that's strange," commented Seike, his face creased with skepticism. "What's he doing here then? I can only think of one thing." He looked at those experimental generators on the floor of the dimly lit corridor. "If you came here for the same purpose as us, were you thinking of trading this for food or something? Or do you have any shelters with valuable equipment lying around?"

"Interesting," interrupted Leader, putting her hand to her chin. "Tell us where your hideout is."

"What?"

"Your hideout, now," said the little girl sternly. "If you belonged to a faction it would be different, the leader of ours doesn't want a problem with the Big 4, but nomads are fair game. We'll take everything you have, a good price to pay for your life, don't you think? Do what we ask, and maybe we'll let you go."

The cornered boy seemed to freeze in place when he heard the threat. That in itself was confirmation that he was not a dangerous person. Excellent. Finding a nomad these days was rare, and this wasn't a high-level esper by all accounts, so stealing all the food, water, and equipment he had in his hideout would be a quick and easy profit.

"Are you talking about my dorm?" asked the boy, visibly frightened. "I'm not giving you my address."

"Are you sure?" Leader had a sneering smile, a pity that was hidden behind her mask. "We'll really kill you if you don't tell us."

"So be it."

The atmosphere in the area suddenly appeared to shift. The fear that had once marked the boy's demeanor was no longer present. His gaze underwent a transformation, adopting a sharp and resolute quality. It seemed like there was someone else standing before them now.

Leader was wrong, maybe that guy was dangerous.

"I don't really understand the situation," he continued, clenching his right fist, "but I have people I want to protect, so let's settle this between us."

Seike laughed a little as he shook his head. That guy had a strange aura, but he was certainly an idiot. The Scavenger group had no problem eliminating someone like that.

"Your funeral," said Leader, and then looked at one of her companions. "Naru, take care of the vanguard as usual, the others prepare the support."

"Got it," everyone else said in unison.

"Here we goooo!" shouted Naru excitedly.

Following that war cry, the girl with short purple hair underwent a transformation. Her customized maid attire twisted around her as she cradled various papers in her arms. On her right arm, a colossal spinning drill emerged at full velocity, while a modern-looking shield elevated on her left, enveloping her entire figure.

Naru typically functioned as the forefront of the Scavenger group. One could label her as their "Ace". She alone possessed more than sufficient prowess to handle virtually any esper they encountered on their journey. Due to this, she engaged the boy in the most audaciously reckless manner possible.

With a push from the paper wings that appeared on her back, Naru launched herself at the boy with enough force to blow up a reinforced concrete wall. The drill in her right hand could easily rip a human body to shreds with a mere touch, and she nonchalantly brandished this dangerous thing in the boy's direction.

That fight would end in a single blow. That was to be expected.

"What!?" Naru didn't know whether to be surprised or not.

The boy's move was simple. He didn't seem to use any esper power. He simply moved his clenched right fist and pushed towards that drill, a move that looked more like suicide. Victory was guaranteed, there was no way a simple fist could beat that overwhelming attack…

But that's exactly what happened.

That insignificant fist didn't stop or get crushed, it kept going, undoing that drill like someone removing a mere spider's web.

Naru's eyes widened.

She averted her gaze to her shattered drill hand. Everything began reassembling itself, yet she had to shift her focus once more, the enemy was still there, after all. That fist, which had seemed so feeble just a moment ago, swung in her direction, aimed right at her face. She had to block it. That fist was dangerous, that much was clear. However, the shield she held in her hands proved futile. The seemingly unassuming boy tore through her defense with the ease of someone shooing away an annoying fly.

The fist didn't stop, it continued its trajectory toward her face, and the girl was so stunned that she didn't even manage to dodge it in time.

"Watch out!"

A hand saved her from the attack that was about to hit her, pulling her up at the last moment.

"That was close," said Seike, standing next to the still-stunned girl. "Leader, what are the instructions?"

The other girls there were just as stunned as Naru. Leader had to blink three times to get her thought process back on track, while Yakumaru didn't quite know what she was doing with that explosive bottle in her hand.

"What did he do?" Yakumaru asked Naru, her eyes not leaving the boy for a second.

"I don't know," said Naru, refitting her weapon and shield and getting into battle position. "It wasn't like that person, but this guy is dangerous."

"Seike, try to stop him," ordered Leader, taking a few steps back as a precaution. "Be careful. Yakumaru, wait for the signal and then go all out on him."

"Understood."

Seike moved at superhuman speed straight toward the boy, but his aim wasn't to hit him. He slid along the ground next to his enemy, dodging an attack that hit the air right next to his face, and then circled around him with graceful movements. Without wasting any time, he got back into formation.

"He shouldn't be able to move now," said Seike, a little out of breath.

"Ya-kun, let's go all out!" Naru shouted at her friend.

"Leave it to me— Huh?!"

However, the boy moved before the girl could throw that explosive at him. She was so sure that he wouldn't be able to do anything that she aimed right at his chest instead of making sure the explosion hit him by aiming at his feet. This caused the bottle to fly straight down the wide corridor and explode away from the boy who dodged the bottle at the last second.

"Impossible!" said Seike, biting his lip in frustration. "I've increased the air friction around him to the maximum, he shouldn't be able to move. What the hell is this guy?"

"Don't be intimidated," said Leader, but her voice was trembling. "We still have our special team attack. Nobody escapes that."

"I wouldn't say that with such certainty," said Yakumaru, reminding everyone of a certain traumatic experience.

"That was an exception!"

"And this guy is clearly an exception," argued Yakumaru. "He went up against Naru's explosive drill with his bare hands! Can he at least be hurt?!"

If they had a special attack, they momentarily forgot it the moment the boy stepped forward. He had a frightening expression on his face, which was enough to make the four of them instinctively take a step back.

But Leader took a deep breath and calmed down. Attacking that person directly seemed like a bad idea. Usually, they would keep trying until they found a weakness, but that group had a certain bad luck that made them constantly face invincible monsters, so the girl's survival instincts kicked in.

"Naru, get the generators and let's get out of here," said Leader.

"Huuuh? "

"Don't complain, we have to back off for now and-"

A resounding noise broke the girl's train of thought. It was the sound of footsteps, loud and unrelenting, reverberating through the empty hallways of the research facility. The girl's experience made her instantly understand what the situation was.

Normally, her heart would have raced when she heard those footsteps, but now, a rush of relief went through her body momentarily. This was her chance, fortune was smiling at last.

"Excellent," said Leader, watching the boy turn in the direction of the sounds. "That's our cue."

Everyone there understood what their leader meant. Abnormal monsters must be faced by abnormal monsters, that was a global rule.

"Naru, get a vehicle ready, we're getting out of here while this guy's busy."

"What's that thing?" asked the boy with the spiky hair, taking several steps back.

Leader hadn't expected that. The fear had returned in the boy's voice, his powerful fist even seemed to tremble for a single instant. And she smiled when she saw it.

She didn't know why she was afraid. It was obvious that it would end like this, that boy might have a strange power, but he was still just a high-level esper from her perspective. Facing an abomination was a tall order even for some level 5s.

"Surround this side," ordered Leader. "The PB is coming from that direction, let's corner this guy and let that thing take care of him."

"Good strategy, Leader," Yakumaru seemed to have regained her confidence.

In a normal situation, they would already be running. But they needed to at least make sure that the thing attacked that boy first, then they would leave when their confrontation began.

The abomination was a 'Type:Alpha' judging by its appearance. It stretched more than five meters in its elephantine body, as big as it was wide, the large corridor could barely contain it. Even though that boy was clearly powerful, he would die or at least be seriously injured fighting such a beast. That thing had evolved to hunt people like them, espers, no matter how abnormal you were, it would still be an unfair fight in favor of that absolute predator.

The creature chose its target, it looked the boy in the eye and ran at alarming speed towards him. It had to be now.

"Let's go!" shouted Leader. "Survive at least one blow, porcupine boy, our lives depend on it."

She smiled sadistically before turning to run in the other direction, followed by the girls. However... something had gone wrong with her plans. The boy also advanced towards the creature, as if his courage had been renewed, or a last act of desperation.

This was not the case.

That fist hit the abomination right in the insect's face. That absolute predator was attacked without hesitation by a mere human using nothing but his bare hands. A sharp noise echoed throughout the laboratory, it was like glass breaking, or in this case, crystal breaking.

All it took was one punch. Just one single hit from that fist turned that monster to dust in a deafening explosion, and along with it, the group's hope was shattered.

"O-o-o-one blow?" Yakumaru stammered in disbelief. "That damn monster defeated an alpha abomination with one single blow?"

x-7-x

Kamijou Touma was certainly unlucky.

He woke up dazed in a chamber that almost turned him into a popsicle, he hardly knew where he was at the moment, his heart had nearly stopped when a massive creature locked eyes with him through a mirror, 'four' crazy girls tried to kill him, and now the monster came back right when he was cornered. His heart raced so rapidly that any sudden fright might cause it to give out at any moment.

"What the hell?" Kamijou just whispered that, kind of trying to calm himself down after that near-death experience. "At least that worked... you're alive for another day Kamijou-san, hahahaha!"

His laugh sounded all muffled, but he had to get some of what he felt out or he would really die. Seriously, he had no idea if it would work, but since he probably couldn't outrun the thing, it was attacking or being attacked. Luckily the Imagine Breaker worked on that element as well as the others.

"Hahahaha!" He continued to grin like an idiot while trying to control his heart which was still full of fear. Wait, speaking of fear, he had forgotten one detail. "Um... are you guys okay?"

Only Kamijou Touma would worry about his enemies in such a situation, and that was completely genuine. Those scary girls who had put the fear of God into him a minute ago were now cowering paralyzed, the life even seeming to have left their eyes. One of them, the smallest, clearly had her soul pouring out of her mouth. It made sense, that monster he destroyed was pretty scary.

"Hey, I asked if everything was all right," he said, taking a step towards them.

"D-d-don't come any closer!" The little red-haired girl, Leader as she was called by the others, took several steps backwards with a terrified look on her face. "We got the message, that scary laugh made it clear. Please let us go!"

"Huh?"

Scary laugh? That's how it sounded to her, but from his point of view, it wasn't quite like that. It was a nervous laugh at best. He even scratched his head a little awkwardly, the mood of the situation seemed to have lightened a lot after that strange creature died.

"Look, I don't want any trouble," said Kamijou, raising his hands in surrender. "If I have to fight, so be it, but I'd really prefer it if we settled this peacefully."

It was four against one, if Kamijou made a wrong move, he could lose his life right there before he knew what kind of situation he had gotten himself into. However, all he got in response were confused looks coming his way.

By now he had realized that the girls had been intimidated by his power, but it wasn't as if he was going to risk a bluff in a situation like this, perhaps if the situation had gotten worse, but this wasn't the time.

One of the girls, the "Leader", cleared her throat loudly.

"I see," she said, her voice sounding a little nervous. "Tell you what, we'll take one of the generators and you take the other. Sound fair?"

"What?" Kamijou looked to the side, where two strange boxes were lying. He had barely noticed them because of everything that was going on. "I have no interest in something like that."

"Eh?" All the girls seemed to have rehearsed it. They looked at each other but tried to keep at least their peripheral vision on him.

"So what are you doing here in this lab?" asked Leader. "Is there any other important equipment here?"

You could sense that this little girl was acting very cautiously. Good, at least he could relax in the knowledge that a sudden attack wouldn't come. Not that he had totally ruled it out.

"So... this is kind of complicated," said Kamijou, scratching his head nervously. "I kind of don't know how I got here."

"Huh?" said the girl with the pinkish purple hair. She put her hands on the waist area of that strange outfit that resembled that of a maid. "Did you get lost or something? And we came across you by pure chance. See? I told you the horoscope was right, we shouldn't have gone out today-"

"Quiet, Naru," said the brown-haired girl, Yakumaru. "And here you go with that horoscope thing. That was pure coincidence, there's nothing scientific behind it."

"And you think I don't know?" The purple-haired girl retorted. She gave a childish pout that Kamijou found rather cute. "But look at all this. Does that really seem like a coincidence to you, Ya-kun?"

"Will you two stop?" The last girl(?), the one with the long black hair interrupted in a harsh voice. "You there, what do you mean you don't know how you got here?"

"As I said, it's a bit complicated." Kamijou let out a tired sigh. "I woke up in some kind of cryogenic chamber. I think someone held me there against my will, but I don't remember anything."

"What kind of monster forced you into a cryogenic chamber?" Yakumaru asked in exasperation. "Academy City's number one?"

"Please don't refer to that person, my head hurts right now." The girl with black hair and a sailor's uniform had even lost her balance at her friend's joke.

That kind of caught Kamijou's attention.

"Um... do you know Accelerator as well?"

"Uwauwash-bff?"

It had been such an innocent question, but the reaction he got in response almost made him fall over backwards.

"Leader, this is getting out of hand," said Yakumaru, tugging lightly on the little girl's blouse. "What are your orders? How the hell do we deal with this scary person who just said he knows another scary person? Wait... my God... don't tell me this guy is a level 5!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Leader waved her hands nervously. "I have an idea, don't worry."

"Will you stop whispering over there?" asked Kamijou, crossing his arms. His bored voice had a freezing effect on the shivering girls there. "I need to get out of this place. A friend of mine will bite my head off if I make her skip more than one meal."

"O-okay."

They all nodded quickly.

x-8-x

In the end, the Scavenger group had accomplished their mission, of course, they hadn't returned to their base yet, but Leader had a plan.

"The exit is this way," she said, pointing to a metal staircase that led to the convenience store upstairs. "It's not a trap, I swear."

"A bit suspicious," said the spiky-haired boy, crossing his arms. "Anyway, it's not like I have much choice."

With a nonchalant shrug, the scary boy walked up the stairs with his hands in his pockets. He walked so casually that it seemed as if he wasn't afraid of the death lurking outside. Seriously, the boy looked like he could declare war on the whole world and win in a single day.

"Leader, what's the plan?" whispered Seike, his face worried. "I feel that staying in this guy's presence any longer is not a good idea."

"Are you coming or not?" asked the spiky-haired boy at the top of the stairs.

If the situation already seemed strange, it became even more so when they left the convenience store.

The boy with the spiky hair suddenly stopped. His eyes passed quickly over the deserted landscape before him, his face rigid, his posture becoming less relaxed as time passed. He was surprised, exasperated, and something else that the girls there couldn't precisely identify.

"What the hell happened here?"

The desolate landscape in front of him had become commonplace by now, but the boy's voice made it clear that this was the first time he had seen it. He had said something about a cryogenic chamber, but how long had he been there?

In the end, he didn't really belong to any faction, and he wasn't even a nomad either. That mysterious boy turned to them with pleading eyes, his intimidating aura completely gone. He was lost, desolate like the city around him.

"I don't understand why you're surprised," said Naru, tilting her head in confusion. "This place has been like this for almost a year. Are you the type who doesn't leave the house?"

Leave it to Naru to make an unintentional joke. Leader almost slapped herself and the girl across the face at this stupidity.

"He was in cryo-stasis, Naru," spat Seike, rolling his eyes. "Probably even before the catastrophe."

"Ah! Of course, of course." The girl made a dissuasive gesture and smiled nervously. "I already knew, I already knew."

"Catastrophe?" The boy's eyebrows rose, and his lips quivered like a child unable to bear the cold. "Does it have to do with those things? The elements?"

"Elements..." Leader pondered. "Yes, we called their ancestors that if I remember correctly."

"What do you mean ancestors?"

"These things evolve quickly," explained Yakumaru, adjusting the cap on her head. "Their structure is basically completely different from the originals."

"We call them 'Prismatic Beasts'," continued Leader. "Or PB if you prefer. The one you killed in there is a variant called 'Prismatic Abomination.' That was a 'Type:Alpha', the second most dangerous. They usually only come out at night, unlike the other beasts that prefer to hunt during the day."

The boy was pensive, as if trying to absorb so much new information. It must have been devastating to wake up and know that the world he knew had turned into this pile of rubble. Leader would have felt sorry if her heart wasn't racing all the time because of the fear she felt.

"Index," said the boy suddenly. "Shit, I have to find her... and Othinus, are they together?" His fist suddenly clenched, his gaze becoming determined. "Have any of you come across a silver-haired girl wearing a white nun's habit? She's important to me... if I don't find her..."

"Your girlfriend?" asked Seike casually, his expression serious.

"No." He shook his head in denial. "Just a friend... roommate too."

"We haven't seen anyone with that description," replied Leader, "believe me, we'd remember something so exotic."

She still wanted to say something, but a beep from her wrist stopped her. The watch there was one of the essential tools for survival in this world.

"Dawn is coming," said Leader, pressing a button on her watch. "We have to hurry." She looked at the spiky-haired boy and took a deep breath. Time to put her plan into action. "How about you come with us? Our faction's base isn't far from here."

In the past, Leader used to try to recruit anyone she liked or thought was strong, but that wasn't exactly the case anymore. This boy was the exception these days.

"Yay! Good idea Leader!" Naru waved her hands enthusiastically. She then walked over to the boy and greeted him with another wave."My name is Sakuragi Naruha, but you can call me Naru if you like." The girl winked at him.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Kamijou Touma." The boy was a little taken aback by the closeness of the girl. "And I think I'll accept your offer. I have to start somewhere after all."

"That's awesome!" Naru leaned in a bit, locking eyes with him. "You were seriously cool back there. Like, 'bam' and 'pow'!" She punctuated her words with playful air punches. "Having someone that strong on our team will be great... and you also seem like a really good guy."

The other three members of Scavenger looked at each other at this strange exchange.

"Naru praising someone that much?" Yakumaru asked somewhat surprised. "The world sure has changed."

"Yep," Seike responded with indifference.

"We'd better go," said Leader, checking the time on her watch. "We've got an hour and fifty minutes before dawn. I hope our leader gives us a good meal for all this work."

x-9-x

Kamijou Touma felt a tightness in his chest when he saw the city he had lived in for so long in this state. Buildings in ruins, rubble everywhere, twisted metal objects scattered like a junkyard that stretched for miles.

There was barely any light here now. Only the silver veil of the moon faintly illuminated the street.

But the worst thing about it? He wasn't with anyone he knew, and he didn't know if he'd be meeting any familiar faces any time soon.

The world he knew now was a hostile place... ruined... shattered. Food and water were scarce, and monsters lurked in the shadows. All his willpower would be needed to overcome this obstacle.

Clench your fist Kamijou Touma.

Accept a warm welcome from this desolate world.

Hello, dear readers! Well, the story of why this fanfic exists is that I recently decided to re-read a few chapters of the Accelerator manga and also a bit of the WR arc just because. Some might think I'm a masochist… Anyway, this story has our protagonist interacting with this group of misfits in a post-apocalyptic world. What could possibly go wrong, right?

This fanfic will have an atmosphere of mystery, and some characters who don't usually appear much will be important here, a certain villainous girl (not anymore) will appear here in the next chapter by the way.

Sorry if any silly mistakes have slipped through in the proofreading, feel free to point them out, I'm still not very confident with the English language.

That's it for now, let me know what you think of the premise of the story in the reviews. Moon leaving... dawn is coming.