June 17th, 2003
.
"Hmmm… There weren't as many for sale as I thought."
It's another night in Academy City, a city of 2.3 million people in the western part of Tokyo where 80% of the population are students. Walking on the sidewalk, a boy with spiky black hair, wearing the uniform of Kunugigaoka High School, was heading home, rattling the can of orange juice in his bag.
Usually after school, he went to buy groceries, but for some reason there weren't many for sale today. Therefore, he was only able to buy 2 cans of coffee, 2 cans of orange juice, and a small bag of chips.
"Well, not like I am really too desperate for some sales anyways."
As the boy continued walking through the streets while contemplating, he heard footsteps from an alleyway nearby. Curious, he took a look and saw a girl with short brown hair being surrounded by a bunch of high school delinquents, seeming to be annoying her, while people were just passing by.
A few of the delinquents were trying to hit on her while the rest were keeping the coast clear for any Anti-Skill or Judgement officers while also keeping people from coming too close. All of them looked rough, and some of them were carrying metal bats, iron bars, and knives.
Normally, a normal person would be freaked out by this. For Kamijou Touma, however, it's just an everyday occurrence so he was not particularly worried.
The boy didn't think badly of the people who passed by though, as they just didn't want to get involved.
Therefore, there was only one option for him.
"Ah! Found her, found her!"
The plan he had in mind right now was: "Pretending and Escaping" , meaning: Just heading inside of the crowd of delinquents, pretending you were looking for the girl and then leaving safely with her.
"There you are! You shouldn't wander off like that!" Kamijou said as he pulled the hand of the brown-haired girl through the crowd "Thanks for looking out for her! Coming through!"
The plan had worked great. Normally, it would happen so fast that the delinquents wouldn't know how to react plus no one would have to get hurt…
"Oi! Who are you?! And why are you touching me?!"
… Or at least that was the plan anyways, if it weren't for the girl snapping angrily at him, which made Kamijou stop in his tracks. His face dawned with surprise as he looked at the girl.
"Shhh! You're ruining my plan! Play along!" Kamijou whispered to the girl… Only to have her snap back at him again.
"Why should I bother?!"
Eventually, all the delinquents had figured out what was the plan and surrounded both the girl and Kamijou as well.
"You gotta have a lot of nerve, boy! Looking for trouble?!" One of the delinquents, looking like the leader of the group, spat out.
However, Kamijou Touma was completely unfazed at the threat from the leader. On the contrary, he even looked at him with a defiant look.
"Yeah, so what?" Replied Kamijou "In fact, all of you should be ashamed of yourself ganging up on the little girl like this."
At this point, the spiky-haired boy had another card to play: "Becoming the Spotlight" . Meaning: Gathering the attention of the delinquents by insulting them, and making them focus on him.
"Take a look at her: She's just a little kid." Said Kamijou while pointing at the brown-haired girl "Sure, she might look like a cutie, but she's hardly what anyone would call mature."
As some delinquents started to close in on Kamijou for this, some other delinquents could swear that they heard the sound of sparks.
"I mean look at her. She hasn't even gotten out of the wearing shorts phase yet."
Unbeknownst to Kamijou, his words had accidentally caused emotional damages towards the brown-haired girl, who was fuming angrily.
At this point, even him could hear the sound of the electricity sparking. Turning behind, he saw that very same brown-haired girl start shooting out lighting coming from her.
"SCREW YOU, YOU BASTARD!"
BIRI BIRI!
As the girl shouted angrily, a giant hailstorm of blue electrical sparks flooded the streets, engulfing all the delinquents in the alleyway. Kamijou, out of instinct, immediately closed his eyes and raised his right hand to block the upcoming onslaught.
SHATTER!
When it finally ended, the boy opened his eyes and saw all the delinquents on the floor twitching uncontrollably, as if they were electrocuted.
"Wow… That was close…" Thought Kamijou "It would've been me had I not blocked it on time…"
"Well, it seems like I don't need to do much here." The boy commented "I'm gonna leave, then."
"Wait!"
The instant Kamijou Touma was about to leave the alleyway, he was called out. Turning to the source of the voice revealed it belonged to the angry brown-haired girl, looking at him like he was supposed to be dead.
"Who the hell are you?! And why are you here?!" The girl said while pointing accusatory style at Kamijou, who tilted his head in confusion.
"Geez… Talk about unpleasant things…" The spiky-haired boy let out a sigh "I was just trying to help you. Does that reason of mine make you attack me?"
"I never asked you to!" The girl said as she proceeded to fire another bolt of electricity at Kamijou, who then quickly raised his right hand to block again.
SHATTER!
And just like earlier, the lighting bolt had disappeared, again.
"W-What?!" The brown-haired girl looked at Kamijou in pure surprise and shock as if she had seen a ghost "How… How could you… What kind of power is that?! Who the hell are you?!"
Kamijou, not wanting to cause any trouble, simply chose the words carefully to say an honest answer.
"Well, for your information… I'm just a normal Level 0. Nothing more, nothing less."
The girl was now in more shock and disbelief than before after hearing those words. Despite the answer Kamijou had given to her, the girl shook her head in denial, completely refusing to believe these words.
"Level 0, you say? You can't be serious!" Said the girl angrily "As if I believe that nonsense you said!"
Kamijou, not being a stupid fool, took this opportunity to run out of the alleyway and not look back. There was no way in hell he was going to stand there and explain his power to that girl. It would be like an instant death sentence for the boy, and he knew it.
However, just as Kamijou started running, the same angry brown-haired girl had started chasing after him as well.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU BASTARD!"
Kamijou Touma, seeing what happened to him so far, could just mutter out his signature catchphrase while running away from the girl.
"Such misfortune…"
"... Haah… Haah… At the moment I have cut her off for sure…"
After running for a moment, Kamijou Touma had stopped at the rooftop of an abandoned building, trying to catch his breath. Running away from the brown-haired girl had cost him a large amount of his saitama, despite him still training nowaday.
"Well, I think she won't be foolish to enter this building-"
"Stop it right there!"
Just as Kamijou thought that he had run away from the brown-haired girl, that same girl had finally managed to catch up with him as she entered the rooftop.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Shouted the girl angrily, while glaring at Kamijou.
"Home, I guess." Replied the boy while feigning ignorance in hopes of getting out of this situation unharmed.
However, the girl then immediately sent a lighting bolt towards Kamijou, who, of course, had blocked the bolt with his right hand again.
"Seriously? What the hell was that for, little girl?"
"That's for giving me such a nonsense answer, making me chase after you, and not to mention, mocking me and my appearance earlier before!"
"Nonsense answer? What I told you before was the truth. I'm just a Level 0."
This reply from Kamijou had earned him another lighting strike from the brown-haired girl, but he had stopped it all with his right hand.
"You really like pissing me off, don't you?!"
"Pissing you off? I don't even understand why this Kamijou-san here is making you mad. Do you care to explain that to me, Biri-Biri girl?"
The nickname "Biri-Biri girl" has pushed the brown-haired girl to her limit, causing her to launch a series of lightning bolt attacks towards Kamijou, which he easily dodged and blocked with his right hand. As he dodged the last attack, he took a look at the watch and widened his eyes in surprise at the time right now.
7:17 PM
"Crap… I'm gonna be late…" The boy contemplated while taking a look around "And since that little girl has blocked my way, seems like there is just one option…"
"Well, it seems like my time is up, then." Commented Kamijou as he turned his back against the brown-haired girl "As much as I would like to continue this cat-and-mouse chase, the show is over."
"What… What do you mean-?"
However, before the girl could finish her words, Kamijou Touma had jumped off the building, flying through the air, and landing on a roof. The spiky-haired boy leapt to the next building as the brown-haired girl standing on the rooftop of the abandoned building, could just widen her eyes and look at him in surprise.
"W-Wh-WHAT?! WHAT THE HELL WAS JUST HAPPENED?!"
Kamijou Touma, after landing safely on the roof of the next building, turned his head back and said.
"Well, I really have to go now. Important things are coming up to me. See you next time, Biri-Biri girl."
As Kamijou Touma continued parkouring, the brown-haired girl was still standing motionless on the rooftop while staring at the direction Kamijou had parkoured earlier.
While she tried progressing what just happened, she thought about an unanswered question in her mind.
"Who the hell was that guy?… And what the hell was that power?"
However, she had a feeling that she would meet the boy once again, and from that, her life would be distorted, no longer normal anymore.
"Just… Just who exactly is this guy?"
Academy City.
A city filled with schools whose technology is 30 years ahead of the world.
A completely independent educational and research institution located in the West of Tokyo, a conglomerate of educational institutions and research organizations, and a student city with 80% of the population of 2.3 million are students.
A city of science, where cutting-edge science and technology decades more advanced than outside of Academy City are researched and used.
One of the school's unique features is that artificial psychic power development has been put into practical use and is implemented on all students, giving it a strong aspect as a psychic power development institute.
People who can use these abilities through the Power Development Curriculum are literally called ability users, or in the other word, Espers. Currently, there is a ranking system of ability users, from Level 0 to Level 5.
Non-capable individuals (Level 0) who possess abilities that are immeasurable or have little effect
A person with low abilities (Level 1) who possesses abilities that are of little use in everyday life.
A person with special abilities (Level 2) who has an output power not much different from that of a person with low abilities.
A person with strong abilities (Level 3) who possesses abilities that are useful in everyday life.
A person of great ability (Level 4) who possesses abilities that are valuable in the military.
A psychic (Level 5) with the powers to fight an army on their own.
Students attending Academy City fall into one of these six rankings, and depending on the individual, some will try to improve their level through hard work, while others will feel that their talents are limited and give up.
However, in many special cases, there are many individuals, despite having abilities or not, possessing a talent which they are really the best at.
These special students, they are literally called Ultimates, who are the best from every field imaginable.
And due to the existence of Ultimates, a special school was established to develop such skills like this. The education course for the greatest of greats, the prestigious learning environment for the pinnacle of prodigies.
Hope's Peak Academy.
Those who have been observed, judged, and scouted to be the best in their field would be invited to this school. They would be given the highest of treatment and the greatest of opportunities to advance their talents. As such, each and every attendee was given a name specific to themselves, a reminder of how they stood head and shoulders above everyone else.
They were given the title of an Ultimate.
There are two things you need to attend this school: One, you need to be a high school student already, and two, you need to be the best at what you do.
No ordinary student can come here. In order to be enrolled, you have to be sought out.
Kamijou Touma, a student of Kunugigaoka High School, is ranked as a Level 0 in the system. He is one of the 60% Level 0s in this city.
At the first look, he looks like a normal Level 0. A completely normal, harmless high school boy, who can be seen anywhere.
However, despite all that, Kamijou Touma is not your typical Level 0.
He may be a Level 0, like he always self-proclaims, but he had a strange ability that could not be detected by the SYSTEM scan which determines each person's Level.
An ability in his right hand known as the Imagine Breaker.
To the average person, it looks like just an ordinary right hand, but in fact, that hand possesses the power to negate all abilities.
As long as it's a supernatural phenomenon, it will be nullified without any exceptions. Therefore, it can be considered as something significant.
However, despite being an incredible and tricky power to negate abilities, it has its own downside as well.
In exchange for negating abilities, Imagine Breaker also negates Kamijou Touma's good luck as well, since good luck is also considered to be a supernatural phenomenon.
Which is why his daily life is constantly full of misfortune, such as getting chased by dogs, hit by stray objects, and having his important belongings get lost, stolen, or even destroyed. Not to mention, he has a tendency to be involved in dangerous situations just to save some random strangers, getting himself injured in the process.
In conclusion, Kamijou Touma's tendency to be unlucky is really unnatural.
Once Kamijou finished parkouring, he landed himself safely on the street, which was near the student dormitory where he lives.
As he walked down the street, he couldn't help but take a look at the crescent moon in the sky, which reminded him about his past.
For Kamijou Touma, the recent events in his life could be summed up as colorful.
After that fateful day, when the moon was broken by the being that he would come to call Class E's most memorable homeroom teacher in his life, Kamijou's life took a whole new turn.
It has been nearly two years since that day.
Yes, ever since his new homeroom teacher, who was a yellow bipedal octopus standing at about three meters tall and possessing a large, bulbous head with a wide smile and small, beady eyes. He used two feelers as arms, with two fingers each, and utilized the rest of his tentacles for walking. According to him, his nostrils were so small, but when discovered, they seemed to have four eyes.
This homeroom teacher introduced himself as Koro-sensei.
A bipedal octopus wore a black academic dress, a small black square academic cap with a yellow tassel, and a large black tie with a yellow crescent-shaped moon on it. It was a weird, yet interesting style of fashion, that's for sure.
And this person, no, this yellow octopus creature was their new homeroom teacher.
More or less, this brought shocked, surprised, and confused looks from the entire class.
And the reason he was appointed as their homeroom teacher? Well, firstly, their former homeroom teacher had mysteriously disappeared, and there was a need for a replacement for that post.
Another reason is that Koro-sensei received a personal request from their former teacher, Yukimura Aguri, who had since passed away due to the incident, which they would only learn during the final months of their school year.
" Hello, how are you? So, I'm the one who blew up the moon, next year I intend to do the same thing to planet Earth, but never mind that now, I'm gonna be your new teacher. Isn't that exciting?!"
That was the kind of ridiculous greeting Koro-sensei delivered to Kunugigaoka Junior High School's infamous Class E at that time.
End Class.
Failure group.
Talentless ones.
Hopeless students.
Only a few of the harsh titles of ridicule they received during their stay at one of Tokyo's top schools from their resident students, those who belonged to Class D and above.
Yet, Koro-sensei didn't seem to mind teaching them. That was for sure. There was no expression of disgust or revulsion on his new teacher's face; assuming that they could even tell what kind of expression he had been showing during the first few months of the school year.
But they could certainly feel it. This new teacher of theirs, just like Yukimura Aguri, seemed eagerly honest to really guide and teach them properly.
Another reason was that "promise" had stated that he planned to destroy the Earth after "teaching" Class E for a year. That was what he told the select few individuals from each nation around the world. Of course, it was merely a disguise that hid his true objective.
" So long as I have time... I will use this as a teacher. The students you watch over, I will watch them myself. No matter what, these tentacles will not let them go."
Once again, it was truly unbelievable.
Teaching junior high students that were considered as the lowest of low in their school, not only to change them into outstanding students but also to be assassins assigned to assassinate their teacher who can go up to Mach 20 in speed and has a needle impenetrable body.
It was a hell of a burden to put on junior high kids. However, what could the higher-ups even do? They had no choice. Instead, this would work out just fine at the time; they would somehow manage to create a countermeasure against this creature.
In Kamijou's eyes, this felt like a nightmare reenacted in reality…
… Or so it seemed at first glance.
As bonds formed and strengthened, Class E soon recognized him as their full-fledged teacher. If you think about it, this kind of setting resembles that of your typical shonen mangas or modern fantasy novels. What they are facing right now was far from fantasy but the cruel reality they were living in.
Koro-sensei possessed attributes that enabled him to connect with each student individually. He was objective, empathetic, and observant. As a result, even though they knew he would explode the Earth in a year, the students still respected him. He takes care of each student's needs, often becoming interested in their current issues or hobbies and guiding them accordingly.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Koro-sensei was Kamijou Touma's idol.
Especially, about the path Koro-sensei took in life, Kamijou would proudly say that even though his teacher's way of life before was nothing but dark and filled with cruelty and blood, he couldn't help but admire the change that Koro-sensei took, and his natural talents being applied to a rather different area compared from what it was supposed to be.
A year after graduation, the boy had earned the eighth "Level 5" position, which he was supposed to take a year ago, when Kamijou Touma was scouted by Academy City's Board Chairman, Aleister Crowley, due to his assassination talent and the Imagine Breaker.
However, due to having doubts about his talent, Kamijou refused to take that offer, continuing living a normal school life as a "normal Level 0" . Despite that, Academy City's Board of Directors has left that seat open for Kamijou in case he changes his mind.
At first, he was supposed to… Until a certain girl, whom he considered to be as precious and important as the old Class E and Koro-sensei, had entered his life.
Despite just having met and getting to know each other for a few months, they became close to each other, their bond was strengthened so closely.
After an incident happened to them a year ago, which involved two Class E members as well, Kamijou Touma swore to protect the girl, as well as the people who were close to him, from any upcoming dangers. However, he can't forget the advice that Koro-sensei had given them before.
"Kids, I have important advice for you guys, as well as for your future: Keep swimming forward now, without stopping, before this talent, your youth, escapes you… Follow what your heart tells you to do. These are the moments where one's self could truly appreciate the value and essence of life."
After two years, Kamijou Touma contemplated whether he had truly taken Koro-sensei's advice to him that day. However, looking at where he was at present, the spiky-haired boy could only give out a satisfied expression with a hint of sadness veiled underneath.
There's nothing left to regret, for Kamijou Touma himself was happy from where he was standing right now. Koro-sensei would probably comment that everybody is doing well in life if he is right here now.
All that was left was his new goal, no, "target" would be a more appropriate term.
And that all led him here, as a normal Level 0 school boy, who wants to enjoy his youth…
… As a hidden assassin, who will take on missions and use his skills if it's necessary…
And as the mysterious, unofficial Number Eight Level 5 of Academy City, who will be ready to reveal themselves to the public…