False Conduct

by Lacien

Masaya Misaka's sister Mikoto had once looked up to him as the coolest older brother. Things have changed since then. Nowadays, Mikoto was one of only seven Level-5s, and Masaya had become the one left behind. Perhaps making some new friends and dipping his toes into Academy City's hidden underworld would prove a good change of pace… Right?

2. Chapter 2 (Ohm Sight)

A Certain Magical Index PLUS: [FALSE CONDUCT]PART 1, CHAPTER 2

-[1]-

The streets were rather quiet now.

Dealing with the standard Anti-Skill procedures had taken longer than Masaya Misaka had thought. There were the briefings, testimonies from every (conscious) person at the scene, general scolding for reckless behaviour, injury checks, patch-ups, waiting for additional personnel to arrive to help cart out all of the knocked out crooks, that one inevitable Anti-Skill officer who would try to convince Masaya to join Judgment, and so on. By the time all of that was done with and Masaya was allowed to go free, the official starting time for the school day had already arrived. Alas, he had still been about 10 minutes away from campus. Being late today was out of his control, so he simply decided to not worry about it. First day or not, this was no longer his problem.

Despite his own disposition on the matter, Masaya had an inkling that his teachers would be inclined to discipline him for his lateness, regardless of any personal wrongdoing.

Luckily for him, he had a pretty damn good argument behind him in order to get out of any unjust punishment.

In fact, he had two—those being 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2', who were currently walking along right behind him.

Masaya hadn't asked them to follow him to school, nor had a pulled out any stereotypical senpai lines like "I'll show you the ropes. Stick with me and you'll be just fine!" or anything like that. In spite of that, those two goofball first years were shadowing him like street dogs following a man with a hamburger. After what they had just been through, Masaya didn't blame them for wanting even the slightest feeling of security.

Those kids were keeping quiet now; their eyes were glued to the ground as they walked. This was how things had been for the past five minutes since Anti-Skill let them go. After those kids had gone and made one hell of a first impression on Masaya by going all filters-off on him, they'd made sure to more or less keep their mouths shut and mind their own business around him since then.

Or at least the boy had. At one point during the long ordeal with Anti-Skill, the girl with her messed up hair hadn't even hesitated to shoot Masaya some quick beggarly puppy-dog eyes time and again after she spotted him pull out his backup comb to tidy up his own battle-dishevelled locks. She even tried to comb her hair with her fingers right in front of him to try and look even more pitiful. Her little performance paid off, and Masaya eventually conceded to the wishes of that strange character, but not before making her wait her turn. Her brother had some choice words for her after that, delivered in stern whisper. She had been sure to stay out of Masaya's way thenceforth.

But still.

Not a single word out of them in the past five minutes of walking.

Had the embarrassment of their outbursts shocked them back into silence, or had the implications of what had very nearly happened to them finally sunk in?

Either way, that can't have been a pleasant experience they were having right now.

Masaya caught them shoot a timid glance or two at his back, before quickly resettling their eyes onto pretty much anything else. It was rather trivial for him to notice these things.

Despite walking at the front of their little formation, eyes forward, Masaya had been watching the two of them darting their shy gazes about behind him this whole time. How exactly was he able to do such a thing? He didn't exactly have a rear-view mirror readily on-hand.

In a way, he had something much more useful.

Ohm Sight.

Level 3.

This was Masaya Misaka's esper ability.

It was a spatial awareness ability of sorts—almost like a subset of clairvoyance, or more a convergent evolution, based on entirely different principles. It was much more useful than regular clairvoyance in some ways, but fell far short in others. With his ability, Masaya was able to construct an omni-directional map of his surroundings. It really was like having eyes on the back of his head, and on the sides, and on the top, and even below his feet. He could see all of these views (and more) all at once.

Instead of using different wavelengths of light to assemble a picture of the world like regular eyesight, Ohm Sight distinguished objects and their materials according to how electrically conductive or resistant they were. The many thousands upon thousands of conductivity readings that Ohm Sight deployed and gathered from various coordinates in the surrounding space were used to assemble a volumetric map of the world with Masaya at its centre—one that updated in real-time. Since it did not rely on light in any way, Masaya could use Ohm Sight to navigate the world around him even while blindfolded or in pitch darkness.

Since Ohm Sight created a volumetric view of the world, lines of sight were not applicable. Anything within a reasonable range could be seen. That included things such as the contents of closed opaque containers, the other sides of solid walls, beneath the ground under one's feet, or even the inside of one's own body—or in this case, directly behind one's head.

Right now, 'Thing 1' and 'Thing 2' were in a prime spot for silent observation under Ohm Sight. At this distance of only about two metres behind him, Ohm Sight could even just about make out their individual eyelashes.

Masaya had figured that the two of them were twins from the get-go, simply from the fact that they were both fresh faces in his school's uniforms, but looking at them here and now, he could see how people would mistake the sister for being older, just like that creep had.

Genetics had been quite 'generous' to her, to say the least.

Despite using his ability to observe the curves of a young girl's body, that didn't make Masaya a pervert—unlike a regular clairvoyant. He would hear nothing to the contrary.

Being able to see things volumetrically of course meant that Ohm Sight could see underneath clothing, but the bones, organs, blood vessels, nerves, and so on that also showed up really ruined the fun of that. Checking out a girl's body with Ohm Sight was like looking at a glorified 3D MRI or X-ray image, which was about as close to the opposite of sexy as it got. Many people failed to understand that important distinction, though. He had once informed a girl that she had a tumour growing on her liver, and in thanks was called a pervert for it. Such was life.

Besides all that, the girl behind him had asked him out almost instantly after he had rescued her and her brother, and given those Skill-Out crooks a right beating. If anything, she was the weird one here. Suspension bridge effect or not, most girls her age would have even a bit more tact in such a situation than what she had shown back there in front of a more or less complete stranger.

Actually, both of these kids were pretty weird.

Masaya turned his focus onto the boy next.

That strange kid had asked Masaya to be his mentor almost as quickly as the sister had asked him to date her.

Masaya had found that plea somewhat confusing, Mentor him in what, exactly?

All he had really showcased to that kid was a bit of ass kicking with a side of bullet aversion, and Masaya wasn't too keen on teaching the arts of violence to children.

That kid, with his short, scruffy hair and timid, meandering eyes was still too young and scrawny to have had any hope of holding his own in a fight against Skill-Outs. His weakness and helplessness in that confrontation wasn't even his own fault. As a middle schooler himself, Masaya wasn't exactly strong enough to overpower the standard Skill-Out in a grapple or wrestle. Outmanoeuvring, employing momentum, and wearing them down gradually was still his best option, and he had gotten quite good at it over the past couple of years as his ability had become more developed—but that was the thing. His fighting style was constructed around Ohm Sight first and foremost, so it wasn't really something he could teach to someone else.

Wait—why am I thinking the practicality of mentoring this kid all of a sudden. It's not like I even have any interest in taking on a disciple in the first place.

Why had that train of thought even crossed his mind?

I operate alone. What could I possibly gain from mentoring a little twerp like…? Like…? Hmm.

Even after all they'd been through together, Masaya still didn't know these kids' names.

Surely they'd given their names at some point. Was Masaya just being daft?

Wait a minute.

They'd definitely given their names to Anti-Skill during their testimonies. What had it been?

Sakura? Sakurai? Hmm.

Nope. It hadn't been any of those. At this point, there was only one thing to do.

"Hey. You two. I don't remember catching your names."

Sometimes the best course of action was just to ask.

With his Ohm Sight, he caught those twins jerk a bit in unison at the sudden address.

They're like, almost stereotypically twin-like.

There was something mildly off-putting about that.

The boy in the back straightened himself up in preparation to respond.

"I am Hisao Sagara. My sister here is Rika Sagara."

"Aww! No fair! I wanted to introduce myself too, Hisao! Wait, I still can! Misaka senpai, I'm Rika Sagara. Just so you know, senpai, my offer for a date is still on the table for a hero like you, in case you're interested, now that you've had some time to think about it, and you've realised that I'm actually really cute. You agree that I'm cute, don't you? Senpai, you should really turn to look at people when they're talking to you. You're being very rude, senpai." The odd girl concluded her waffling with a girlish giggle.

Ohm Sight could tell clear as day that the girl was grinning like an idiot, like she had been earlier. It seemed as though little Ms. Rambler had returned, real name: Rika Sagara.

There was also something slightly weird about her voice, hard to notice without listening intently.

Was it a Kansai accent, albeit heavily diluted?

"I apologise for my sister's unhinged ramblings. She's interested in you now, so you'll have to get used to it. Don't think about what she says too much; it might fry your brain if you're not careful." Hisao Sagara tried to offer some sage advice.

Masaya felt inclined to concur.

Additionally, Masaya noticed it here too. Both of these kids had that watered-down accent.

It seemed that Rika Sagara was none-too-thrilled to be chatting with back of Masaya's head. She suddenly chose to skip forward and out in front of Masaya, doing a little twirl to look him in the eyes.

"Heehee." the bizarre girl grinned, with a cheesy squint. She leaned in close—too close. Luckily, she was too short get much closer. "Senpai, I said it's rude to not look at someone when they're talking to you. Naughty senpai." She was blushing clear as day now. More importantly, she was standing in Masaya's way.

What was also clear as day (with Ohm Sight) was Hisao Sagara, still behind Masaya, cringing so hard that it seemed he could keel over and die at any moment. Masaya could hear what sounded like a wispy death rattle escaping from Hisao Sagara's mouth.

Masaya could leave Hisao to his fate for now. He had more important things to rack his brain over.

First-years.

Why is it always first-years?

What the hell is it with first-years always trying to get flirty with me?

Why do I never catch anything else?

Despite having an objectively cute girl shamelessly flirting with him right in front of her own twin brother, Masaya was in no place to be enjoying this kind of experience.

Masaya had initially turned down Rika Sagara's date offer by telling her that he didn't date first-year middle schoolers. This wasn't just some on-the-fly excuse, however. Masaya had enough experience dating first-year girls by this point that he was well and truly sick of them. Going into his third year of middle school, it was time to go fishing for bigger fish.

Dating a first-year girl during one's first year was perfectly normal—Masaya had done that twice, in fact. It had been an enlightening experience for the innocent young boy in him. The problem with that was, once you came to understand that the girl you were with was more excited about the idea of trying out romance for the first time than actually being with you, the dating experience got old rather quickly. This was made worse by the fact that the two of you were still essentially too young to go all that far in a relationship. You got a kiss or two if you were lucky before things got boring and all those promises of eternal love inevitable boiled down to nothing. First-years were still children, and they acted like it.

Dating a first-year during one's second year was worse. With a bit of romantic experience under his belt, Masaya was feeling a bit more ready for something more proper. First-years, of course, were still back at square one. That sort of disconnect simply did not make for good romance. Masaya had had one brief relationship with a first-year during his second year, but once he realised it was just going to be the same old story as with the first two, he had cut it off then and there.

Now, Masaya was a middle school third-year. He would make sure that there would be no more of that nonsense.

First-year girls were off the menu.

But that evidently didn't stop them from trying to wriggle their way back onto his plate.

At this very moment, one was trying to do just that.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

"Senpai? Why are you groaning senpai? You're not groaning at me, are you?"

Masaya felt his eyes slowly glazing over. He didn't recall groaning audibly, only mentally. Was his internalised groan so loud that a bit had spilled from his mouth?

Masaya blocked out that bothersome noise, and sighed. A very troublesome thought began to materialise in his mind.

Flirting aside, Rika Sagara's annoying behaviour was beginning to remind Masaya of—

Don't say it!

No, he knew it was true. Masaya had already subconsciously made the connection. He was already in that 'minefield'.He didn't have to mentally slot the square peg into the square hole to know that it would fit like a glove.

Yes. They were similar, but did that really mean that Masaya would have to resort to that?

This won't be fun, but screw it.

There was nothing else for it. Masaya was going to have to pull from that. That forbidden archive of knowledge and experience that he held within his mind—essentially, his memories. Thinking back to back then brought him especially uneasy feelings. He recalled a technique that might be able to help him here.

Yes, that could work.

Masaya felt his stomach drop; a shiver shot up his spine.

Don't think about it too much, idiot!

He didn't need the memories attached to that technique, just the technique itself. Masaya cleared his mind of everything except for that flawless method.

He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. In—and out.

He opened his eyes, and stared straight into those big, dark, troublemaking eyes belonging to one Rika Sagara. She blushed a little harder in response, and her smile wavered. Perhaps her heart had just skipped a beat. That didn't matter to Masaya, however.

Masaya spoke aloud the work of geniuses.

"Rika Sagara." he commanded in a firm, stern tone.

She jolted slightly. Masaya's Ohm Sight detected Rika's heartbeat accelerating, and her blood vessels vasodilating in a variety of places throughout her body. None of that mattered, however—as long as he had her full, undivided attention. Masaya continued.

"If you keep being annoying this morning, I will ban you from calling me senpai ever again. Do you understand me?"

"S-senpai. T-that's not fa—."

"I will count to three."

"B-but senp—."

"One."

"Mm-bu—."

"Two."

Rika's face tensed up. She was staring with wide, watery eyes at Masaya now. She tried to open her mouth to squeeze out another protest, but Masaya was faster.

"Don't make me say three."

Rika could only pause and pout in response. She eventually averted her gaze with wet eyes; her pressed-together lips trembled as she wavered on whether or not to squeak out another word.

She did not.

"Good girl." commended Masaya. As her reward for listening, he gave her a gentle pat or two on the top of her head. She seemed to like that.

Masaya had won.

The technique had worked a treat.

He never expected that he'd need to use it on a (more or less) stranger. He'd expected it to actually work on a stranger even less.

He swivelled around to find Hisao Sagara absolutely dumbstruck.

"W-what the hell did you do to her."

"Magic." was all Masaya had to say about that. "Come along, you two. We're late enough as it is."

Hisao seemed to take a few seconds to process that, before probably pigeonholing his countless questions for later and following along after Masaya. Behind Hisao followed his now-quiet sister; her face was beet-red and she seemed to be especially enjoying the look of the asphalt this fine morning.

Masaya had thought that he would absolutely hate using that classic "Little Sister Reprimand" technique again, but it actually hadn't been as bad as he thought. Using it on someone else's sister had almost felt like a refreshing experience. As long as he didn't think back on where—or on whom—he'd perfected it, he thought he might honestly start having fun with it again.

-[2]-

Tatenkara middle school.

From the front gate, the place looked like a ghost town—the only life around being the cascading of a late cherry blossom or two onto the coloured concrete ground. Usually, one might expect a parent or three to be hanging around gossiping after snapping a few choice photos of their kid's first day of middle school—Indeed, some parents still did that for their middle school kids. If even they were nowhere to be seen, then they were certainly quite late indeed.

Masaya Misaka and his two young followers passed through that front gate and onto the Tatenkara campus. For the Sagara twins, this was for the very first time.

"You seriously haven't been on campus before now?" asked Masaya. "You didn't go to any of the promotional school tours or anything?"

"No. We did an online tour."

That response seemed to fit well, coming from 'Mr Digital Map Expert' himself, Hisao Sagara. Masaya had overheard Hisao during his Anti-Skill testimony going on about how much he had relied on those maps on his phone.

They couldn't have been that good if you couldn't even dodge Skill-Outs with it, kid.

Ohm Sight was much better in that regard, even if its practical range left something to be desired as far as wider range maps were concerned. Still, it was good enough to catch two little weirdos almost getting trafficked by Skill-Outs at the far end of a winding alleyway.

At this moment, as the three of them marched through the empty school grounds, Ohm Sight continued to pick up absolutely no human life whatsoever.

"I guess everyone's already in the gymnasium, then." remarked Masaya, "They're not usually this organised."

"Should we head straight there?" asked Hisao.

"Not yet. Let's find a class allocation board first. Being in the gymnasium two minutes earlier won't help us if we don't know where we're supposed to sit."

"Ah, right. Do you know where they put them up?"

"In the central courtyard, usually—this way." Masaya gestured and strutted off in that direction. The two Sagaras followed suit.

It didn't take them much time to find the large class allocation board on the wall of one of the central courtyard's large classroom buildings. Masaya stood before it and perused through the third year classes until he saw his name.

Class 3C, huh?

Masaya then looked through the other names listed under 3C.

He was not particularly pleased with what he saw.

Okine? Less than ideal.

Shimada? That's fine.

Kanda? Not great.

Fukiyose? Awkward, but bearable.

Sukano? Never heard o' ya.

Hatano?... Shit.

He looked through the class member list once more. There was one name he was seriously keeping an eye out for.

Tachikuro?... No Tachikuro! Thank God for that!

Masaya Misaka knew that he was an odd case.

Instead of concerning himself over whether any of the people he liked would be joining him in his new class, he was more concerned, rather, with the opposite.

How many of the people he couldn't bear being around were going to be joining him in his classes? A good couple, it seemed.

He rated his new cohort a 4/10.

Of course, Masaya was not the only one looking at the class listings.

"Aww! Hisao! We're not in the same class!"

"That would indeed appear to be the case."

In contrast to Masaya's quite, thoughtful analysis, the twins had been a bit more vocal in their reactions to the class lists.

"I'm in 1D and you're in 1B. This stinks! What am I going to do without you there, Hisao?"

"Your best—you will do your best, Rika."

Charming.

-[3]-

Masaya's entourage had arrived at school, checked out their new classes, and were now standing before the Tatenkara middle school gymnasium.

Ohm Sight confirmed what Masaya suspected.

Yep. Everyone's in there.

It wasn't like Masaya even needed Ohm Sight to confirm that, anyway. The amplified voices of those up on stage inside and even the general presence of the entire student body were all audible even from here.

So, without further ado, Masaya pushed through those doors and stepped into the gymnasium foyer. He could hear the amplified voices loud and clear now. From within, he could see a large set of double doors at the foyer's far end. Beyond them was the gymnasium proper. One door of the pair was wide open.

Masaya gestured to the twins behind him to follow him forward towards those doors. A sturdy figure was viewing the ceremony in the gymnasium while stood arms crossed within that half-open doorframe. Sagaras 1 and 2 recoiled a bit at that, probably thinking that were doomed to be caught at the very last hurdle, but Masaya recognised that figure at once. He approached that sturdy man from behind.

"Alright, coach. What did I miss?" asked Masaya in a subdued volume. Masaya could afford to be casual here. This person being here was pretty much a best-case scenario.

The robust man whipped his gaze back to meet Masaya's.

"You're almost 20 minutes late, you know." said the man with a stern tone. "You'd best have a good excuse for this, Misaka-kun."

"I'll do you one better, sensei. I've got two."

With a whip of his hand, Masaya called over Hisao and Rika.

"I caught these two, our own dear brand-new first years, getting plagued upon a bunch of no-good Skill-Out types. Even Anti-Skill got involved, I'm afraid to say. Thirty minutes of reports and testimonies later, and Anti-Skill finally lets us go right when the bell rung. Since this morning's chain of events was entirely out of my control, I'm afraid to say that I will not be accepting any personal punishment for this particular lateness incident, either today, or ever. I sincerely apologise for any inconv—."

"Yeah yeah, save the speeches for our principal up on stage." The figure spun about fully to address Masaya. Still stood in the doorframe, his back now faced the entrance ceremony going on in the gymnasium. This hardy, no-nonsense man with a mighty marble-sculpted looking face was Mr Shiraishi, who had been Masaya's gym teacher during his second year.

Despite the teacher's stony countenance, Masaya liked to believe that he had managed to develop something of an unspoken mutual amicability with the coach over the past year, in large part due to Masaya's diligent athletic performance in his gym classes.

Mr Shiraishi turned pointed his finger towards the twins, "Let's see what Mr and Miss Rescued have to say about that."

All that bias aside, Mr Shiraishi was still a teacher who needed to keep the facts straight. He gestured Hisao and Rika out from behind Masaya and brought them before him. The two of them looked a bit unsure of themselves in front of such an imposing teacher. Masaya knew that they'd be fine.

"Who are you two supposed to be?"

Mr Shiraishi spoke with a level of eloquence that one might expect from the typical gym teacher. The twins looked even more intimidated now. Hisao took the lead.

"Uh. I-I am Hisao Sagara of class 1B, and this is my twin sister, Rika Sagara of class 1D."

"Well met, Sagara-kun, and Sagara-chan, you may address me as Shiraishi-sensei. I teach gym class here." A smile crept onto Mr Shiraishi's face. "I'll ask you now, was Misaka-kun telling the truth, or will he need to be running laps of the track today?"

Oh no! Not laps! Anything but laps! Masaya sarcastically mused to himself.

Laps were something Masaya had no issues with. When a punishment instead involved sitting in one spot for hours while some teacher or school counsellor tried to probe his mind and feelings in an attempt to rationalise his already perfectly rational 'misbehaviour', that was the kind of punishment which drove Masaya to want to promptly defenestrate himself in especially grandiose fashion.

He had already had to deal with quite enough of those, as of late. The less chatty his punishments had to be, the better.

Not that he was going to be doing any laps anyhow, for he hadn't told Mr Shiraishi a single lie. Hisao Sagara would surely back up his word.

But Hisao Sagara was not the one to speak. Rika Sagara did.

"Senpai forgot to mention the part where he fought five Skill-Out thugs at once and won, and dodged bullets, and then meanly rejected me."

Rika had forgotten to keep her voice down while the entrance ceremony was happening just beyond that very doorway.

Rika Sagara, kindly shut up.

She did not.

"But yes, the part that he did say was true. He stopped those thugs from turning us into play-things!"

Lower your voice, you noisy girl!

That last part of her rambling had definitely been heard by some of the students at the back of the gymnasium. Most unfortunately, that happened to be where the third years were sitting. Masaya's eyes and Ohm Sight picked up some students turning their heads in the direction of the doorway the four of them were gathered around.

Masaya grimaced as if he had a pointy pebble lodged in his shoe.

With a hand gently placed upon her back, Masaya kindly guided Rika Sagara to stand behind the still-closed half of that set of double-doors, and out of any potential sight-lines of the other students. Rika returned him some confused eye contact, but she seemed to be enjoying the physical contact, as she had begun leaning into Masaya's hand a little. Ohm Sight also caught some increasing blood flow in her face.

With the attention that the doorway was beginning to gather, he likewise decided that would also prefer to stand behind the still-closed half of the doorway. Hisao promptly selected to also join the party.

Meanwhile, Mr Shiraishi was attempting to process that veritable dump of ridiculous information that he'd just heard. After the buffering circle in his head had finished turning, he swivelled to address Masaya. He seemed to have some new energy to him.

"Misaka-kun. Teach me how to dodge bullets and I'll let you three off the hook." An excited grin grew across that stony man's face.

"You got a gun on you?"

Masaya's deadpan response caused the Sagaras beside him to go a bit wide-eyed. Mr Shiraishi's grin vanished and his mouth hung half open as he tried to process just what the hell Masaya was implying here. He seemed quick to abandon the idea of thinking about it too much. His more casual attitude returned.

"I can't bring one of those onto campus except on critical Anti-Skill business, so you're out of luck there, you lunatic."

The coach's response widened their eyes even further. Perhaps they were beginning to think that they'd accidentally enrolled at a school for crazy people.

"Would a baseball pitching machine at max speed do the job?" he compromised.

"That's glorified dodge-ball. I don't even need my Ohm Sight to evade those. I would absolutely need it to avoid getting shot, though."

"I thought your ability only raised your spatial awareness a bunch. Since when did it make you faster."

"It doesn't. I wasn't so much dodging bullets as I was dodging the precise line-of-fire, which my ability can extrapolate based on the exact direction the gun barrel is facing, plus some gravity and air resistance calculations. Ohm Sight being able to keep track of the shooter's trigger finger, forearm tendons, and general arm momentum also helps. The typical Skill-Out is an amateur with firearms, so it's easy to tell when they're about to fire, and my Ohm Sight can see where they're actually aiming better than they can, so they often shoot thinking they've got a better shot than they really do. Ultimately, as long as there's only one gun to worry about, it's not terribly difficult to avoid getting shot for long enough to close the gap and strike back."

In response to that entirely nonchalant, non-joking explanation from a 14 year old boy regarding his expert experience in gun-fights, Mr Shiraishi had also joined the Sagaras in the silent wide-eyed club.

"I-I thought the girl was joking." he muttered, "What the hell are you doing, boy? If this is something where you're deliberately endangering yourself as some kind of strange response to what happened last year, then as a teacher, I simply cann—."

"It has nothing to do with that." Masaya needed to put that line of thought to bed immediately, "I just saw some kouhais in serious danger, where no one else could help them. I simply did what I had to. I just wasn't expecting the one guy with a gun to get back up so quickly after a double flying kick to the back of the head."

After a very long pause, Mr Shiraishi could only sigh at hearing that.

"It's good that you're sticking up for the kids, but there's still something seriously wrong with your head, boy."

"I already know that." Masaya turned his gaze off into empty space.

Mr Shiraishi sighed once again.

"Alright. Just, go off to your seats now, you three. Misaka, you know where you're sitting?

"More or less." Ohm Sight could pick up an empty seat among some of the familiar faces of the class 3C roster.

"Good, good. Try to keep yourself discrete in there. I'll take care of guiding these two." Mr Shiraishi said, tilting a thumb towards the Sagaras, who stood at attention.

And so, after those three set down their book bags by the doorway for now, that small party of four poured quietly from that half-opened doorway, slinking along the edge of the gymnasium and past rows of seated students. Many among that mass of grey and white turned their eyes or covertly twisted their necks to observe those last latecomers. When Masaya came across his class, he slipped into the tight row and made his way to the one open seat. With who that seat was next to, it was no surprise that the only free one was there. Masaya silently lowered himself into that spot. He set his eyes and ears forward towards the still-speaking principal up on stage, but his Ohm Sight was instead focused on the three figures ahead of him. The larger figure pointed one smaller down one row, and then pointed the other down another. Both found their seats, no problem.

It looks as though my role of guide has at last come to a close.

Some relief washed over him now that that hectic morning adventure was behind him.

First years really are a pain, aren't they?

Masaya felt the corners of his mouth twitch up ever so slightly. He quickly corrected that, but the feeling remained for a little longer.

What am I getting all sentimental over?

Masaya tried to analyse that strange feeling, but it faded away once he tried to actively focus on it.

-[4]-

And so, the entrance ceremony passed without further issue.

Masaya had expected the nuisance of a classmate seated next to him to try and pull something. Fortunately for Masaya, there hadn't been a peep out of him during the entire assembly. Unfortunately for Masaya, that changed the moment it was over and the classes began to funnel out of the gymnasium.

"My my, it's quite the shocker for thunder-boy to be late, today of all days." sounded out some poison from a dreadfully smug grin seated beside Masaya.

Tch.

Those were fighting words. Deliberate choices were made by the voice putting together that line, in order to get as far under Masaya's skin as possible.

It's too early for this shit.

Masaya chose to maintain diplomacy for now.

"A good morning to you too, Hatano-san."

"You know, it's quite rude to address someone while turned away from them, Misaka-san. You might come across to them as autistic, perhaps brain-damaged."

Fucking hell, he's not holding back this morning.

"Now, now, Hatano-san—I make sure to address everyone I speak to with all of the respect they are due."

"You know, if you began speaking to people properly, you might start making a proper friend or two for a change. You're aware that only first-years think that the aloof loner type is cool—unless that's what you're going for, of course."

This particular brand of venom-spitter was Hatano. He was a particular wiry and snivelling type. What could have once been considered a friend in the first half of second year had taken a very unpleasant turn in the second half. Sticking around the circle of that person was bound to turn even a pleasant acquaintance into something resembling filth, and it appeared that Masaya would not be able to avoid having filth in his classroom this year.

"And might I say, it seems that that's exactly what you're going for. I saw who you came in with. I was coloured quite surprised when she sat down with the first years."

"There's always at least one first year that winds up late on their first day and can't find the gymnasium." Masaya feigned to have no connection to the Sagara girl. Hatano would definitely use any ammunition he could get his contemptible hands upon to spite him any which way he could. He was just that kind of petty. The less he knew the better.

The classes behind them had now cleared out from the gymnasium. It was now class 3C's turn to make their exit. Masaya rose from his seat and flowed down the row and out the end. Before Hatano could open his mouth again, another voice called out to Masaya.

"You're Misaka-kun, are you not?" called a shiny-scalped 30-odd looking man in a plain black tie.

"Yes, that would be me." responded Masaya.

"Yes, that's everyone, then." the man made a little tick on a tablet he was holding before continuing, "Since you missed first roll call and the introductions, I'm Kawamura, and I'll be in charge of 3C this year."

"Well met, Kawamura-sensei." Masaya cordially acknowledged his new homeroom teacher with a light bow of the head.

"I've heard about you through the teacher grapevine, and I've officially been informed of your… circumstances, so let's do our best to get along this year, alright Misaka-kun."

Masaya knew that his reputation amongst the teachers wasn't exactly the brightest. He needed to do his best to remedy that this year.

"Yes, let's do that. I thank you for your consideration, Kawamura-sensei."

But did you really have to say all that out loud? Hatano's right there.

Not enough consideration, apparently. Ohm sight caught Hatano trying and failing to stifle a shit-eating smirk.

"That said, Misaka-kun, was there a reason for you being 20-odd minutes late on the first day of school?" Now that the formal introductions were past them, Kawamura effortlessly slipped on the 'I wrangle unruly 14-year-olds everyday for a living' face. "I don't particularly want to hand out any detentions on day one if I can avoid it."

"I already explained everything to Shiraishi-sensei when I arrived. There was a bunch of mayhem with esper fights and Skill-Outs causing trouble out near Seventh Mist this morning and I got held back to give testimony to Anti-Skill once it was over. They wouldn't let me and a bunch of others go until they'd gotten everything confirmed and their reports lodged, so I was only set free by the time class was already starting. I would have been perfectly on-time this morning had that not happened."

"Alright then. You're off the hook for now, at least until I've confirmed your story with Shiraishi-sensei." Mr Kawamura concluded.

That wouldn't be a problem, at least so long as Mr Shiraishi kept the whole bullet-dodging talk to himself.

"Thank you, sensei." Masaya concluded the conversation as he passed through that double door and out of the gymnasium, retrieving his book bag as he passed through.

Since Hatano seemed to be keeping to himself after hearing about some 'circumstances' that interested him, Masaya quietly marched with his cohort off to his new classroom.

-[5]-

Masaya Misaka stood before an empty desk in his new class of 3C.

More importantly, he stood before a critical choice.

Although Masaya had managed to elude official punishment for his lateness to school for the time being, the consequences of his tardiness had still come back to bite him in the rear nonetheless.

Fuck.

That was all Masaya had to say about this situation. It was just like with the entrance ceremony.

This is not going to be a pleasant year.

Indeed.

Being the last person to arrive to class meant that his available seating options were limited, to say the least. The ever-desirable window seats were long-gone. The seats down the back too. In fact, all but two seats were now claimed, either by a student now seated there, or a book bag hanging on its side marking it as taken.

Masaya commended the wisdom of his classmates, yet lamented his own fate, for both free seats were directly adjacent to where that bastard Hatano was sitting. There was one beside him to his right and one in front. Masaya had a serious choice to make here.

Hatano seemed to be getting a kick out of watching Masaya ponder his options.

"Oooohh—what's it gonna be, thunder-boy?"

That name again.

No. Now was not the time to be getting riled up by the rabble. The moment Masaya sat down, he might not be able to move from that seat for the entire school year. He could not pick carelessly just because Hatano was being a pain in the neck (as per usual).

Beside that slime ball—or in front of him?

Masaya pondered the pros and cons of each.

Being seated beside Hatano would make it easier for him to talk to Masaya. That of course would be very annoying, but was sitting in front actually any better? Hatano was going to want to plague Masaya whenever he could, which meant that if he didn't get a chance to do so in class, then he'd try his luck during lunch to make up for it. That meant that he would be more likely to get involved in the tormenting as well. Sitting in front also meant exposing his back to Hatano. This was classic harassment territory. Ohm Sight could at least let Masaya keep an eye on him, but that wouldn't actually dissuade or directly counter any torment attempts, it'd just let Masaya know when it was about to happen—not too useful if he couldn't avoid it.

So far, it seemed that sitting beside Hatano was looking to actually be the better option here. Unfortunately, that also meant that Masaya would also be sitting beside her, but that was a minor issue if anything. It would only be an issue if Masaya allowed it be one in his head.

It appeared that sitting beside Hatano was indeed the way to go here. Masaya didn't like it, but that's what he got for risking his neck to rescue a pair of innocent children from violent crooks with apparent connections to sex trafficking rings (according to Anti-Skill). Such was life.

Masaya set his book bag on the desk's hook and sat down in the seat beside Hatano.

"Oh, bold move, thunder-boy." The choice seemed to have piqued the slime ball's interest.

Masaya just stared into empty space and sighed through his nose.

He really is never going to let that moment go, is he?

Another sigh sounded out, just barely audible. Hatano was seated to Masaya's left, but the sigh came from his right, from his other desk neighbour. Masaya turned to address his new right-hand neighbour.

"Good morning to you, Fukiyose-san."

She was Seiri Fukiyose, a girl with long dark brown hair, a nice (if almost perpetually grumpy-looking) face, and some rather impressive bodily topography.

All Fukiyose gave in response to that morning greeting was some quick (almost) eye contact and a nod. It took her long enough to return just that, and she didn't look terribly happy about it.

Awkward.

There was nothing particularly wrong with Fukiyose. In fact, she had many good qualities to her— Masaya knew that well.

So, why was he less than keen to be seated beside her?

On top of that, why did she seem to feel the same way?

"Oh, no… That's rough, thunder-boy. Thinkin' about giving her another shot, huh? Shit, I'm eating good this year, haha." remarked a certain slime-ball.

In unison, both Masaya and Seiri Fukiyose wore displeased grimaces upon hearing that.

When the hell did Hatano learn about us?

Yes.

In the past, Masaya Misaka had managed to date three girls.

Two of them were during his first year.

And.

The very first had been none other than Seiri Fukiyose.

She had been his first real crush, his first date, his first 'love' (as far as first-years understood it), his first kiss (that actually counted), his first girlfriend, and nowadays, his very first ex-girlfriend.

Whenever Masaya thought back to those approximately two-and-a-half months, it made him cringe so hard he wanted to die. Perhaps Fukiyose felt the same way. It would have surprised him more if she didn't.

Shit.

For the next year, Masaya would be trapped, sandwiched in between both his tormentor and his ex.

This was going to be one hell of a year.

-[6]-

The day's first few classes were nothing too interesting—the standard low-intensity affair typical on the first day of a new school year. That hadn't stopped most of the students from being eager enough to jump from their seats in unison the moment the lunch bell rang out.

A voice called out to that mass of students cascading towards the classroom door.

"Now, before you all escape, allow me to remind you all that next Monday is System Scan day, so make sure you don't waste your week leading up to it if there's preparation required for your specific ability exam. If any of you come unprepared for your System Scan, or late, then, this year, we teachers have gained permission from the city's directing board drop your official power levels by one."

Everyone rolled their eyes and groaned at that.

It seemed that, despite the absolute straight-man vibe Masaya had seen on him earlier, Mr Kawamura did indeed possess something of a sense of humour. The class didn't seem too amused, however. That was the kind of line you'd always hear from elementary school teachers in order to scare the impressionable (and very gullible) young espers into not causing a fuss on System Scan day—some of the kids might even start shedding a tear or two in protest. Middle schoolers would never fall for as stupid a threat as that. It was probably more of a teasing reminder that, at one point, they had.

Judging by the half-muted groans escaping his classmates' mouths, it had worked a treat.

Masaya pulled a wrapped up lunch container from his book bag, promptly left his desk, and made for the door. Staying at that spot another second longer was not in his interests in the slightest. He'd be having his lunch somewhere else.

But yes, it was about that time again.

The System Scan.

In Academy City, the System Scan was everything. The very life and prospects of an esper hinged upon that one critical moment when their scan results were revealed. The stakes really did feel that much higher than even the regular final exams. At least those only affected your academic future.

The results of the System Scan determined everything about an esper's future. The schools they could attend were on the table, as were the city-subsidised funding and allowances available to them, the general level of respect they gained as a citizen, the very weight of their word, and the very value of their life. Those last three were not codified by any legal pretence, but the law of the street said otherwise.

One didn't need to live long in this city to understand that the very basis of its culture revolved about a strict caste system, with esper levels as its tiers. There was no real attempt by the city to cover up that fact. At the bottom were the level-0s—the powerless, which made up the bulk of the city's populace. At the very top sat those elusive level-5s, of which there were only six in the entire city of 2.3 million.

Unlike most rigid caste systems in history, moving up the stack was entirely feasible for many—as a matter of fact, it was the entire objective for the city's student citizenry. Everyone began at the bottom and tried their best to work their way up from there. Whether that meant that you in particular were destined to rise any higher than rock-bottom was up in the air. Sixty-percent of the time, that answer would be 'No'.

As a level-3 himself, it might seem that Masaya was doing rather well in the race to the top, sat comfortably in the upper middle of the stack. Unfortunately for him, however, there were of course problems to be encountered up here as well.

A level-0 with no prospects for rising in the hierarchy could essentially just pack it in and return to the life of an ordinary person, as they had hardly left such a life in the first place. Being in the bottom caste meant being the majority, and being effectively completely normal would allow them to be judged by normal standards.

Once you developed a demonstrable ability, however, you became locked into the rat race.

Once you had a power, you became the subject of endless scrutiny and comparison. Those rising in the ranks would pit level against level and ability against ability to ensure that their higher ranks actually meant something.

A level-2 might argue to a level-4 that levels were just numbers—and the level-4 would make it their duty to prove otherwise. Their very dignity and pride as an esper hung in the balance. Numbers were indeed numbers, but power was indeed power.

Just like how biology was just applied chemistry, which was just applied physics, which was just applied maths, every interaction which made up the youth culture of Academy City (the only state on Earth where youth made up the overwhelming majority) could ultimately be boiled down to these level dynamics.

And those levels were defined by the System Scan.

As Masaya passed through the classroom door and into the school's hallway, a troublesome voice called out to him from behind.

"Oi, thunder-boy! I almost forgot to tell you something."

What does that slime ball want now?

Hatano and his grimy grin caught up with him a moment later. Masaya didn't make any effort to stop walking, so Hatano simply trotted along beside him and ran his mouth with a nasally quality that sounded to Masaya almost like a giant mosquito. He tried to drop his hand onto Masaya's shoulder, but he swatted it away as if it actually were a giant mosquito. Masaya immediately felt like washing his hands after that.

"Don't you run from me, thunder-boy. I hope you're free this afternoon, 'cause Tachi-sama wants a word with you."

"Tell him I'm busy." responded Masaya instantly.

When it came to surprise appointments, that name was the last one Masaya ever wanted to hear. Actually, maybe second-to-last—or perhaps tied for last; it was best not to think too hard about it.

"Aw, that's a shame. You're always so busy whenever Tachi-sama wants to see you. Don't worry then, thunder-boy. We'll come to you. See you after school, wherever you try to hide, hehe."

Like a fighter-pilot breaking formation, Hatano then did a 180 (with a stupid-looking turning circle) and cruised off down to the other end of the hallway, leaving Masaya to himself, for now. Masaya began to regret swatting away Hatano's hand now.

-[7]-

A refreshing spring breeze pleasantly cooled Masaya's face with ease.

With the classroom being a no-go, Masaya had needed a new spot to try and enjoy his lunch. It wasn't too often that Masaya went up to the school building's roof, and for good reason, but until he found a more permanent place to settle, it would do the job for lunch breaks for now.

He removed the tea-towel wrapped around a reused plastic takeaway container, and then plucked off the rubber bands which secured both the lid and his fork.

Savoury mince with vegetables, mixed with jasmine rice. Masaya had been eating this for the last two days now. He preferred to cook his meals in bulk since he lived alone, and cooking meals one serving at a time felt like a waste of energy. Masaya was probably still too young for this to be called bachelor-cooking, but that's exactly what it was. He didn't mind eating the same food for multiple days at a time, since his food, while simple in nature, was made by him and to his tastes. Some of his cooking practices were a bit questionable, though—quite typical of bachelor-cooking.

As this was more of a western-style meal, Masaya felt that using chopsticks here would feel a bit wrong. He plunged his fork into those leftovers and began working away at the meal.

Once he was done, he leaned against the railing and enjoyed the view, breeze, and gently sunshine a little longer. It wasn't too often that he got to just think about nothing in particular in a pleasant place like this. He would enjoy it while he could.

But all good times must come to an end.

Ohm Sight picked up a figure approaching the stairs up onto the roof. Masaya had been using Ohm Sight long enough that he could run the calculations for the many reading coordinates even in a very relaxed state, or rather, Masaya felt able to relax more when it was active—without it keeping tabs on his surroundings, Masaya would inevitably begin to feel uncomfortably exposed. He still had to run the calculations for it consciously, but it was almost like using any other sense for Masaya at this point. He had it on almost always.

The figure started to climb the stairway up to the roof. Masaya could tell from the figure's proportions just who it was. He gave a deep internal sigh.

Of course it just had to be her.

Still leaned onto the railing, Masaya kept his back to the roof access door as it was casually swung open by none other than Seiri Fukiyose. She froze mid-step the moment she caught Masaya in her field of view. Her eyes were directed hard into the back of Masaya's head. Ohm Sight likewise kept a close eye on her next actions.

Would she continue onto the roof, or would she turn back?

After remaining completely motionless for eight, maybe nine seconds, she eventually put that frozen raised foot down—in front of her. She continued across the roof, and then leaned onto that same railing as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

A good ten metres of railing separated them, far enough that they wouldn't feel the need to interact, but close enough that it wouldn't seem that she was put off or intimidated by Masaya.

As expected. Seiri's the stubborn type. She also knew I could see her with Ohm Sight. She wouldn't display weakness before me by backing down.

But still.

It might have been better if she did. This is so damn awkward.

They both just had to wind up here at the same time—at this very spot.

The two of them had history at this spot.

Despite its pleasantness in good weather, the roof was a bit out of the way, so it wasn't too popular as a lunch spot for the students. This isolation did, however, make it an ideal spot for the occasional young couple who might have wanted some alone-time together.

It didn't take a genius to figure out the rest.

The two of them simply stood there, neither saying a word. The only sounds that reached them were the slight rustling of the trees in the wind below them and some mild sounds of student activity from down on the ground.

Well... Now what?

Things were almost always going to end up being awkward between the two of them regardless of which course of action either of them chose to take, Masaya concluded.

Were all inexperienced first romances doomed to end up as problematic as this even after they were long over? Neither of Masaya's other romantic endeavours had left him as uneasy around his other exes. Masaya was pretty sure he didn't possess any lingering longing for Seiri. Besides, she was a rather different person now than she had been when they were together.

As a matter of fact, they had both changed a lot since that time.

Masaya knew exactly what events had transformed him into his current self.

But when had Seiri Fukiyose changed? Masaya not knowing the answer for that was what he got for giving her a wide berth for so long.

Masaya focused Ohm Sight to around the ten metre mark, reassigning his conductivity-reading coordinates from the near and far range to consolidate the image in the middle range. Ohm Sight could focus at a specified range from Masaya, but not in a specified direction, as Masaya could only ever be at the precise centre point of his Ohm Sight map.

The clarity of Ohm Sight's image at ten metres (along with whom was seen within it) did not increase all that much, but it felt significantly less sparse. The information still wasn't the most precise, but there was a lot more of it to work with.

The margin-of-error for where Ohm Sight's conductivity reading coordinates actually were (versus where they were supposed to be based on Masaya's point distribution formulas) increased with distance. This was the primary limiter to how far Masaya could see detail at range using Ohm Sight. It was like trying to paint an image with an increasingly shaky hand. Even with almost all available reading coordinates set around a specific range (instead of their default wide-ranging general purpose distribution), that margin-of-error resulted in an unfocused look to the Ohm Sight image which only became more-so with increased distance. Even without precise focus, more reading coordinates to work with could still provide more information, like watching an out-of-focus video on a higher-resolution screen—there were still things you could only now catch with the help of the larger display.

Right now, Masaya could just about observe Seiri's face in enough clarity to catch where her eyes were pointed towards, but nothing that required any finer precision. Luckily, that was good enough for his purposes. Most voluntary or involuntary gestures could be caught in that level of clarity.

The real question remained: what would she do next?

For now, she was just looking out over the school grounds and beyond—or at least feigning it. Due to their time together back then, Seiri had known Ohm Sight's mechanics better than most, so she would have been well aware that Masaya could have been watching her closely now.

The localised silence continued. For how much longer would it do so?

As Masaya was beginning to wonder that, his Ohm Sight stakeout caught something from its target.

Is her heart-rate rising?

At this distance, the movement of the human heart was not too easy to gauge accurately, especially since it was tightly surrounded by other organs and muscles made of essentially the same stuff—at least the typical human heart was. It was actually easier to see the blood inside the heart's chambers being forced about by the beating than the beating of the heart itself. Blood was notably more conductive than muscle, so it stood out nicely, which helped a lot, despite the lack of clarity.

It still seems to be on the upper end of normal for a relaxed standing state, but it's still definitely a decent bit higher than it was before. Just what's going on in that head of hers?

As Masaya tried to analyse that observation, more changes seemed to come from that girl standing ten metres away.

Her eyes just flitted this way. It was for a split second, but I definitely caught it.

That wasn't all.

Her fingers are fidgeting more than they were. She's taking deeper breaths now. She looked this way again!

Masaya suddenly found himself doing a lot of the same. He felt his own heart beating a bit harder now, and his breathing had become deeper. This wasn't the sort of giddy fluttery feeling one felt when near their crush. This was the unsettling tension that came when presented with the possibility of being confronted by an uncomfortable situation—such as an unwelcome confrontation with an ex. It felt rather like the rush one got before public speaking, or jumping into a pool from the highest diving board. Nothing so fun would be coming from this situation, though.

Seiri Fukiyose was preparing to do something, but what would it be? Masaya couldn't really envision a best-case scenario here. It was probably going to be awkward and uncomfortable whether he liked it or not.

She just gulped! Now she's removing a hand from the railing. It's her left hand, and she's to my right—she's going to turn towards me!

It appears whatever she was about to do, she was just about ready to do it. Masaya felt the tension just shoot up another level.

She's closing her eyes—and taking a very deep breath! She's going to do it! Whatever she's going to say, here it comes!

Seiri Fukiyose opened her eyes once more and began to turn away from the railing—and towards Masaya.

But just before she could do that…

CLACK. CREAK.

Masaya heard a sound come in from somewhere else. He immediately reset his Ohm Sight to its usual wide-ranging, spread-distance distribution to catch what had caused it. It was the door to the roof. Someone had just opened it. Masaya had been focusing his Ohm Sight so exclusively on Fukiyose that the doorway and the stairway leading to it had been left as a blind spot to him.

It'd been quite a long while since he had been snuck up on like this.

"So you are up here, um, s-senpai." called a voice.

Masaya recognised that voice (with its ever-so-slightly unusual accenting) at once. He had heard it a good bit this morning.

Masaya turned around to see Hisao Sagara standing by the door. Since the door was slightly closer to Fukiyose, Masaya actually spun around the slightly longer way to avoid catching her gaze.

I think she might have noticed that. That was hardly covert of me.

"What are you doing up here, kid?" asked Masaya to the source of his relief.

"Well, I uh, saw you up here from on the ground and decided to come and say hi."

"Good on you for not getting lost on the way up. Those map apps you like so much don't cover the school layout." Masaya joked.

"Yeah, yeah." was all Hisao could cough up in response to that. He stepped away from the door and towards Masaya, but was caught off-guard when he spotted Fukiyose also (once again) leaning against the railing. "I-I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" he questioned.

Masaya didn't allow any time for Fukiyose to potentially get involved by answering in his place.

"Nah, you're good. You're not with 'Little Miss Noisy' this time, huh?" Masaya answered and quickly changed the subject as soon as possible, while also beckoning Hisao over. Hisao Sagara had definitely interrupted something, but Masaya was glad that he had, even if Fukiyose might have felt otherwise.

"We don't spend our every waking moment together, you know. We're not like anime twins who are practically glued to each other at all times, or anything like that."

"Could've fooled me."

"Well you met us when we just so happened to be walking to school together. Actually, until now, that's the only time we've met." Hisao Sagara had a good counter to that.

"Fair enough." Masaya tapped on the railing to the side of him, inviting Hisao to lean beside him—on the non-Fukiyose side. Once Hisao had accepted and taken his spot, Masaya continued. "So, how's middle school going so far for you?"

"It's only been half a day."

"Good time to seek some early advice if you need it."

"Like what? What exactly should I be asking about?"

"I dunno…" Masaya thought back to when he was first beginning middle school—recalling the questions that he had had when first starting out here, "… Something like 'When does it get good?' or 'Do I really have to deal with three years of this?'—you know; that sort of thing."

Masaya realised he was being a lot more friendly and upbeat than usual. Was it to distract himself from thinking about Fukiyose, who was still stood upon that same roof, or was it something different. It would be quite unlike him to actually be enjoying himself around these kids, playing the role of the older mentor senpai to them.

Was it like he almost enjoyed being to them like a sort of bi—?

No! Don't think of it like that.

Masaya tensed up.

Don't think about that. 2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775724…

Masaya immediately started recounting the digits of Euler's number—anything to prevent his mind from crawling back to those memories. They were a minefield. It was best to steer clear of them entirely. Any memory that brought forth visualisation of that face, the sound of that voice—no matter how delightful those memories might have been in isolation, they all pulled Masaya back to that one moment—the moment his life had changed forever. The pain from the cringe-worthy memories he had shared with Seiri Fukiyose were nothing in comparison.

Masaya had made a gamble by treading carefully around those sorts of memories earlier that morning. While that had turned out alright for him that one time, he had opened that forbidden box and then neglected to lock it tight again.

He had gotten careless.

He had gotten cocky.

This was his punishment.

…7093699959574966967627724076630353—.

"Hey, Misaka senpai, are you alright? Earth to senpai!" Hisao Sagara managed to snap him back into the moment.

"Oh, um… Yeah, I'm alright. I'm okay." Masaya lied, and then exhaled deeply.

"You don't look okay." insisted Hisao.

Masaya pinched the bridge of his nose as he came up with another lie.

"I, uh, realised just now, that I have left my wallet at home today."

That should do just fine.

"I hate it when that happens. What were you needing it for today?" Hisao questioned.

Nosy today, aren't you?

"Every year, after the first day back to school, I go out and enjoy some ice cream—like, the real gourmet expensive stuff. You know, like, as a reward for surviving another first day of a new school year. Guess that won't be happening this year."

Masaya found himself making up fake lore about himself in real-time.

He didn't even use a wallet. He was a loose cash sort of guy. This was largely the fault of Ohm Sight always so easily finding dropped coins in random places wherever he went. If he ever found himself short of money in the moment, a quick stroll around the block would often fix that.

From a certain point of view, Ohm Sight was essentially just a glorified 360 degree metal detector. Back when he was just a level-1, that purpose was more or less all he could use it for.

"If that's what's got you all worked up, then how about I treat you this time. After all you've done for Rika and I, it would be the least we could do?" Hisao offered. "Shall we meet up after school? It'd also give us an opportunity to explore the district a bit more."

Masaya didn't feel especially pleased about being treated like an obedient child—by an actual child.

Don't think you can just go flipping the senpai-kouhai dynamic on me, Hisao Sagara.

Masaya was about to retort back at that, but then he remembered something.

"Ahh. Sorry kid, it appears that I am already going to be occupied this afternoon, whether I like it or not. You know, annoying third-year nonsense."

Masaya already had an unpleasant appointment locked in for this afternoon. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be fun, considering the person it was with. Avoiding it would only stack on more trouble; it was best to simply work out a plan for it get it over and done with.

At least that whole ordeal was still a few hours away.

-[8]-

That whole ordeal was now no longer a few hours away.

Masaya had continued to chat with Hisao Sagara for a few more minutes until lunch break ended. It wasn't until he was back in class and in his seat that Masaya realised how awkwardly he'd handled that situation with Fukiyose—especially since he'd been actively ignoring her while she was right next to him by chatting with someone else—and then gone back into class only to be stuck right next to her again anyway. Masaya could feel the creation of a brand new cringe-worthy Seiri-centric memory happening in real-time. His next shower would probably involve a lot of 'Why the hell didn't I do this instead?' sort of thinking.

But even so, that painful moment too had passed. He had soldiered through that ordeal, and so it went, that those boring first-day classes were now behind him. His first school day as a third-year middle schooler had come to a close.

Upon exiting the classroom, Masaya had managed to give Hatano the slip and gain himself some freedom for at least a short time before that inevitable meeting. Hatano had said that they'd come to him, after all—and Masaya believed it.

Knowing the typical nature of those appointments, Masaya absolutely wanted them to happen on his terms. There was no way he was going to let Hatano lead him around to some shady spot just for a simple 'chat'.

So, after escaping the Tatenkara school grounds, what had he done with this brief free time he had secured for himself?

Why, he'd gotten ice cream and found a nice spot in the park to enjoy it, of course.

After making up that little lie to Hisao Sagara, the thought of getting some ice cream had started sound more appealing the more he thought about it. It was a good, sweet refresher after two days of nought but savoury mince.

And so, on that pleasant spring afternoon, Masaya Misaka sat on a park bench and enjoyed a cone of some trendy new flavour that the ice cream trailer he'd visited was currently promoting. Masaya had no idea what 'Hunky-Dunky' flavour was supposed to be emulating, with that unusual deep teal colour, but it was an enjoyable enough nonetheless, with its unique gamey flavour—somehow.

Masaya continued to sit on that bench for a while longer after finishing his treat. The general peace and quiet around him was a treat in itself after the eventful and chaotic day that had thus far passed.

Like all treats, though, that too had to run out sooner or later.

Ohm Sight began detecting an array of figures coming into shape as they entered its detection range. With each step closer, their shapes became more and more clear.

It's them.

There were five of them. Two of them appeared to each be carrying something.

He's come prepared.

Masaya had chosen this spot for a reason, but it appeared that they had countermeasures for that too.

They were currently on the other side of a wide grove of dense vegetation within that park, so he didn't even yet have a line of sight, but they were close enough that Ohm Sight could see the shapes of those five figures more clearly now. Masaya could more or less identify each one of them based on their proportions. One of them was Hatano, leading the pack like a bloodhound.

Now was the time to stand up from the bench, before line of sight was established. Masaya took that opportunity to step over to the middle of the grassy field which made up the centre of the park.

He was completely out in the open, exposed. That was for the best, actually.

Those five figures now marched out from the edge of that grove. They spotted Masaya instantly and began B-lining directly towards him.

Masaya knew he'd receive additional attitude from that lot if he tried to converse with his back to them (which was more than they deserved), so he turned his gaze in their direction just to save him the extra trouble. That appeared to appease them some.

At last, the band of five arrived.

Hatano was still leading the pack. This wasn't because he was in charge or anything—far from it. Hatano was little more than the 'dog' of the guy who was really in charge. With his ability, Cell Stalker, which could track down any person whose DNA Hatano came into physical contact with, he really was like the group's bloodhound.

From the moment Masaya swatted away Hatano's hand earlier that day, he had become trackable to anywhere within the school district, and probably a good bit beyond—at least until Hatano chose to touch his next target for tracking.

Just like with the Sagara twins, it appeared that Masaya was destined to be followed today.

Like an impulsive, barking dog, Hatano was the first to speak.

"Finally behaving yourself, eh, thunder-boy?" Hatano was naturally quick to start laying on the jabs. "Don't go thinking it makes up for the little goose chase you just put us through. You know you can't run from us, so don't bother trying."

"Goose chase? Run? I was doing nothing of the sort. You yourself said that you'd come to me, did you not?" Masaya simply stated the facts.

"I-I, uhh, umm… Hmm—."

"Hatano, did we have to drag our asses all the way out here just because you're a dumbass?" asked one member of that group, with a scowl.

"I had to lug this thing all this way because you just had to toot your own horn about your ability, didn'tcha?" accused another.

With what those two were carrying, they were right to be annoyed.

Water tanks, the kind that went on top of office water coolers; they were hardly the lightest things in the world. They were about 20 litres per tank—20 kilograms to carry.

Masaya knew exactly what those were for. Hatano then responded to the accusations of his idiocy.

"Yeah, but aren't you glad you did now? Thunder-boy won't try anything cheeky with these around, no matter where he runs off to."

Indeed, those jugs of water were all that was needed to put Masaya into a state of check.

I expected him to pull something like this. It's a good thing I picked a place like here, regardless.

This precise location had at least allowed Masaya to level the playing field somewhat, even if it wasn't nearly enough to properly give him an upper hand. It looked as though the diplomatic approach was the only way forward, for now.

"This was a move of genius from the master tactician Tachi-sama himself."

Masaya ignored Hatano's continued attempt at covering up his blunder and turned his attention to the only person here who actually mattered.

Kyoji Tachikuro.

He was a tall, but rotund boy, with a chubby face sporting a big nasty grin full of mighty (slightly yellowed) teeth that looked like they could bite a whole cabbage clean in half—though Masaya doubted he'd ever tasted a single vegetable in his life.

This other boy was the self-proclaimed strongest esper in Tatenkara, and in Masaya Misaka's opinion, without a doubt Tatenkara Middle School's biggest problem.

This was the guy in charge.

He was the one who had wanted to talk to Masaya.

That boy was a live wire at the best of times, so Masaya simply chose to play it cool for now.

"Alright Tachikuro, what's so important that you wanted to chat with me for?"

The large boy stepped forward, pushing Hatano (his dog) out of the way. With a nasty glint in his eyes, he spoke.

"A fine afternoon to you too, Misaka. Let's just jump straight to the point, shall we?" He spoke as if emulating the manner of a refined gentleman.

Masaya knew well that Kyoji Tachikuro was anything but.

Perhaps a predatory businessman or wannabe yakuza, if anything.

"Go on." Masaya had been tempted to point out that he had just explicitly asked for Tachikuro to jump to the point, but he decided it would be better to keep that to himself—not out of any respect for Tachikuro, but for his own.

"Now, Misaka. Recall, if you will, back to last year. You know, following your little… episode… during that storm in class."

Oh for shit's sake!

Masaya would hardly call that 'jumping to the point'. More like a sharp point jumping into his gut, if anything.

"Haha! Thunder-boy! Scared of a little thunder, thunder-boy? Hahaha!"

"Quiet, Hatano." snapped Tachikuro.

"Eck." The 'dog' Hatano was quick to obey its master.

That… episode…

Masaya really preferred to never think about that moment in his life ever again.

Just what the hell does he want regarding that?!

A shiver jumped through his spine.

No! Don't think about it too much.

Tachikuro was looking to hit him where it hurt, but Masaya managed to retain his composure. He plastered on his best poker face.

"What of it? If you're just here to be a bother, then I'll be leaving."

As much as Masaya would have loved to make a quick escape at this point, he knew that Tachikuro was not about to let that happen. That last part was really more of a feint to actually get Tachikuro to get on with it.

"Not so fast, Misaka." Tachikuro's monster grin widened, "Do you recall that little bet you made with us after that? You know the one."

Fuck.

Masaya had tried to suppress that memory as well, but it seemed that Tachikuro was indeed going to hold him to it.

Any chance at even a semi-enjoyable rest of his day was instantly crushed for Masaya.

"Not that I recall." he lied.

"Worry not, Misaka, for I recall it just fine." chucked Tachikuro. "You made a bet with us that day. You bet that you'd make level-4 at the next System Scan."

Shit. I did say that, didn't I? His memory is better than I give him credit for.

Tachikuro continued.

"You were quite confident that you could pull it off, since you bet 100000 yen on it."

100000 yen my fucking ass!

"It was 10000 yen and you know it!" Masaya snapped back.

"Oh, so you do remember! That's good to hear." smiled the fat boy (approximately 30 percent body fat, according to Ohm Sight).

Tachikuro had got him there.

"Indeed, it was 10000—for each of us."

"Bullshit!"

"And eight of us were there at the time. So… lucky you, Misaka, you're actually only due 80000 yen."

Masaya was oh-so tempted to counter with "If I fail.", but that would be as good as agreeing to that outrageous extortion. That wasn't going to happen.

"I made one bet—with you, and nobody else." Masaya needed to ensure that this freak actually got the memo.

"Ah, Misaka. You can say that all you like, but there are eight of us who disagree. Eight on one, I'm afraid."

That sort of logic wasn't going to hold up in court. The bet in itself wasn't even legally enforceable. However, this wasn't a courtroom; this was a dumb bet between middle schoolers. Furthermore, a verbal contract wasn't worth the paper it was written on. Anyone could just go and claim anything about it after the fact, and there'd be no way to prove otherwise, not that they'd listen, even if you could.

This had become a classic case of 'he said, she said'.

There was only one way to settle this discrepancy in the terms.

"Now, Misaka… Are you absolutely sure that you only owe 10000?" Tachikuro asked, narrowing his eyes.

That was a test, a final chance to back down and accept his terms. Tachikuro was drawing a figurative line in the sand.

Masaya stepped over it without hesitation, even if he knew well what inevitably came next.

"Only a single payout of 10000—and only if my System Scan comes back with a big fat '3' on it, which it won't. Of course, that would also mean that you owe me 10000, Tachikuro." Masaya laid down his terms.

The inevitable outcome of this move was going to absolutely suck, but turning back here would suck so much more.

As much as Masaya had regretted making that bet in the first place, he knew that the regret would expand hundredfold if he allowed Tachikuro to twist that bet into outright extortion, even once. If that happened, it would give Tachikuro and his dogs a precedent to extort Masaya as much as they wanted thenceforth.

Masaya was never going to let that happen.

And so, Tachikuro likewise took his stance.

"Then it appears that we have come to an impasse."

He seemed to take some great joy in saying that.

"I believe you know what happens from here." he continued, like a judge passing a sentence. His grin vanished, replaced by a full scowl.

"Naturally. Well, what are you waiting for, shit-breath? Bring 'em out already."

There. Enough words.

"Those are fighting words, Mis—."

"Shut the fuck up and bring your shit-snakes out already." Masaya had had enough of this game of words.

"Grrr! Alright, fuck-face!" Tachikuro was actually growling now

As expected of the head dog.

"I'm gonna fucking enjoy this."

Masaya knew that he wasn't going to enjoy this. This was a public space, and their confrontation had onlookers, but Masaya ignored them. He decided then and there that he would dedicate his entire existence in this moment to making sure that Tachikuro didn't enjoy it either.

-[9]-

Tachikuro turned his back to Masaya and returned to his group, then called forth his two water-tank carriers.

That's a bait.

Masaya knew better than to strike now. Despite looking vulnerable, Tachikuro's ability was already primed and ready to strike at any moment. He was just one to enjoy the theatrics of a big reveal.

Masaya instead took the wiser option of retreating a good few metres himself.

There were now sixteen metres between Masaya and the tank-carriers.

Tachikuro himself was not the threat here, but he was the target.

The two tank carriers held their water cooler tanks forward. Tachikuro clapped his hands together once, and the lids on the tanks were shot off their tops, flying up to over 100 metres into the air, based on Ohm Sight's calculations.

Don't get distracted! Here they come!

Not a moment later, out of each tank shot out a snaking tentacle made of water. Each tentacle aimed itself straight down and plunged themselves into the soft ground. Ohm Sight could see them coiling into a corkscrew shape below ground, as if to securely anchor themselves. After they had been anchored securely into the Earth, the ends still in the tanks were lifted from their carriers' arms and into the air. With a quick and vicious whip-like motion, those two tanks were flung off the water within them, thrown off them at a speed of over 60 metres a second.

At only sixteen metres between them, the human body simply wasn't fast enough to dodge two water tanks flying towards it at over 60 metres a second. Maybe one, but not the second, which could account for any dodges.

Masaya had no way to dodge that attack.

But he didn't need to.

The force that those two water-tentacles had used to fling those water tanks at that velocity was great enough that even the corkscrew shape that they had used to anchor themselves into the soft ground had evidently not been secure enough.

CRASH!

Those two swinging snakes of water had dislodged themselves from the dirt with the great force of their swings, and sent their ammunition flying off in completely the wrong direction, straight into the ground in front of them. The plastic tanks burst into shards upon impact, imprinting two matching craters into the ground.

They had missed Masaya completely.

Additionally, Tachikuro, Hatano and the other 'dogs', who had been standing behind those two water-snakes, had been met with a satisfying shower of dislodged dirt and grass.

Masaya: 1 – Tachikuro: 0

There was a good reason that Masaya had chosen this spot for the meeting to occur. In fact, there were several.

For one, in the middle of this wide open field, there were no other loose objects lying around. This meant that the water tanks were the only decently sized objects that the water snakes could have thrown at Masaya out here, as opposed to objects like crates, bicycles, furniture, sections of walls—basically anything.

For two, this field was in just the right spot, geologically speaking, Ohm Sight could identify the silica of a sandy substrate not too deep below the surface. The ground below their feet here was loose and relatively uncompressed. It would not serve as a very suitable anchor for those water worms. Tachikuro really should have noticed that with how easily the worms had burrowed through it. Any sort of concrete environment would have granted them a rock-solid foundation—that was best avoided.

For three, in the middle of this field, there were no good nearby water sources, so water had to be transported here, and in limited quantity. In a regular old alleyway, Tachikuro could have just burst open any nearby water pipe (from within) and gotten all the water he needed.

Masaya had considered all of these things when picking the location for this confrontation. He had his experience with Ohm Sight as well as his past experiences with Tachikuro's esper ability to thank for his informed choice.

Hydro Cord.

That was Tachikuro's ability—a specialised offshoot of Hydro Hand, optimised for offensive purposes.

Using it, he could turn regular water into serpentine cords which could move around on their own and attack, grab, bind, pull, pierce, crush, throw, and so on. Being made of water, their shape was versatile and pliable, but when they hit, they were rock-solid.

Due to the incompressibility of water, the cords were colossally strong, able to lift a car with ease.

Hydraulics without the pipes, essentially.

But all of that strength was useless without the leverage to support it.

On this soft, weak ground, Masaya had deprived them of that leverage.

Tachikuro had brought two Hydro Cords of 20 litres each to this fight, but Masaya had seen him use up to four similarly-sized ones at once before.

Kyoji Tachikuro was a level-4 esper, after all.

Masaya considered leaping forward to strike Tachikuro, but thought better of it when he noticed something.

He shielded his eyes from the dirt!

He must have done so the moment he realised that his Hydro Cords were about to come loose from the ground.

The rest of his 'dogs' were groaning, trying to wipe the dirt from their eyes, but upon removing his hand from his face, Tachikuro simply stood there.

He wore one hell of a death stare, and it was aimed directly at Masaya.

A moment later, he thrust his arm forward with a pointed finger, as if commanding his snakes of water to strike at their target. Since they were his esper ability, he didn't need to command them like dogs, yet he had anyway.

He was indeed the type to enjoy theatrics.

The Hydro Cords sprung up from the ground and slingshotted themselves right towards Masaya, kicking up another blast of dirt as they did so. Again, the weak ground did not grant them the leverage they needed to reach Masaya in one jump.

The time to strike back was now.

Masaya set off in a dash. The Hydro Cords, now out of the ground and unanchored, were now floundering on the ground on front of him. They each had a cross-sectional diameter of 7 centimetres and a total length of 5 metres—they really were like big snakes, pythons of water, if anything). As long as they didn't get him in a grapple, after which they would then bind him up instantly, he would be fine.

Right before he reached the Hydro Cords, he leapt to the right. The cords struck like a whip at the spot he had just been in.

CRACK! CRACK!

A pair of actual whip-like cracks sounded out.

Too slow.

Their accuracy was also quite poor. As they had not been anchored to the ground, their own strikes were throwing them off balance. The cords readjusted themselves, coiling about like writhing snakes, and struck again, but Masaya had already leapt out of the way once more.

CRA-CRACK!

With Ohm Sight, he had no problem with keeping track of where the two Hydro Cords were at all times.

With that, Masaya was now between the Hydro Cords and Tachikuro.

It was now a race to see who could reach him first.

Masaya sprinted towards Tachikuro. It appears that he had changed tactics, as one of his cords was corkscrewing into the ground again in an attempt to anchor itself, while the other was chasing after Masaya using snakelike slithering across the ground. Masaya knew from experience that Hydro Cords felt solid, but very slippery, to the touch. The slithering Hydro Cord was pushing more against the grass than against the ground, since it lacked the grip required for effective terrestrial movement.

Nonetheless, the slithering Hydro Cord was far from slow. Luckily, it would not catch up to Masaya before he would land a strike against Tachikuro's face. Masaya was now only three metres away from his target.

But it wasn't that Hydro Cord that Masaya should have been worrying about.

Ohm Sight picked up something flying at him fast from behind. It was made of water.

Masaya dodged out of the way right before that flying piece of water could hit him. It instead continued on its airborne path, straight towards Tachikuro's face.

And he caught it.

In his hand, he held a smaller Hydro Cord. It wrapped itself around his right arm and transformed its tip into a point at the end of a snaking 'neck'. It looked rather like a heron, poised to strike.

But where had it come from? Masaya knew.

The other Hydro Cord that had been anchoring itself into the ground had done so to allow it to throw half of itself towards Masaya and Tachikuro.

Tachikuro was now controlling three Hydro Cords. One large one, and two smaller ones.

Like a striking heron, Tachikuro thrust forward the cord on his arm at Masaya, who threw himself back to avoid it. Immediately after, he was forced to propel himself again in a great dodge-roll to avoid a strike from the larger Hydro Cord, which had now caught up to him.

The area around Tachikuro was now too well-defended. Masaya sprinted back 10 or so metres to create some distance between them. The larger cord was now defensively circling Tachikuro on the ground. It held one of its ends raised up off the ground, as if it were a real snake, ready to strike. The other smaller cord was still chasing Masaya, albeit not terribly quickly.

Unlike with regular Hydro Hand, Hydro Cords could not float in air. Masaya was grateful for that distinction.

Hydro Hand users had the power to move water. Hydro Cord users had the power to make water move itself. The forces at play with Hydro Cord were all applied from the water itself, rather than by the user.

That's what made Hydro Cord so dangerous. Water in itself was shockingly strong.

But at least the water couldn't fly without generating its own lift or thrust.

That tradeoff had been made to optimise the ability for offensive power.

Masaya wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise. Any preparations he might have made to even the playing field would have been for nothing if the water could just fly.

But that offensive power was still no joke.

Tachikuro prepared for his next move.

At his distance, Masaya had no way to prevent it.

Tachikuro placed his hands in his pocket, and pulled out some regular old coins.

So he's doing that, huh?

That's not good.

That coil of water wrapped about Tachikuro's right arm retracted itself somewhat and the heron head disappeared. The end at his shoulder extended and slithered itself around his chest a few times. That was probably for support. The end at his wrist refined its shape into a more delicate form and wrapped itself around the rim of one of the coins in Tachikuro's hand.

Here it comes!

Masaya frantically twisted his body just as Tachikuro gave a simple flick of his wrist. That was all he had to do.

A moment later, a few metres behind him, Ohm Sight detected a small piece of metal well over a foot underground.

It was the coin.

Tachikuro had used the Hydro Cord like a flexible atlatl to swing and throw the coin like a discus with a shocking amount of acceleration behind it. No wonder the cord had to wrap itself around his torso for the extra support.

Masaya had been lucky here. That would have absolutely broken skin and lodged itself inside him had it hit. That would have ended the fight instantly.

Masaya had dodged bullets just this very morning, but in that situation he was just watching the barrel of the gun with Ohm Sight to stay just out of the line of fire.

There was no barrel here. There was no set line of fire. Tachikuro could have changed where the coin was fired with something as simple as letting go of it a millisecond or two earlier or later.

The coin's line of had been impossible to predict.

Masaya had dodged that on blind luck. He had no way to know exactly where the coin was going to go. Masaya could watch it with Ohm Sight and extrapolate its trajectory, or he could jump out of the way and hope for the best.

He could not do both at once. The coin was much too fast.

Tachikuro primed another coin. He flicked his wrist again. Masaya tried dodging once more.

Tch.

That one had grazed him and cut a coin-slot through his uniform. Masaya had very little time to react to that, as the smaller slithering cord on the ground was now upon him. It put both of its ends forward, pinned them into the ground, and pulled itself forward like a slingshot's elastic, removing itself from the ground at the last moment to shoot forward, right at Masaya.

Once again, Masaya jumped out of the way. When he landed, he felt a shooting pain in his leg.

Ahg! Shit.

Tachikuro had launched another coin, which had hit him in the shin.

The coins were being launched on their sides with a spin to them. Rather than like bullets, they were more like very blunt spinning circular saw blades flying at him at high speed.

His leg felt wet. He was surely bleeding.

Wait a minute.

There was something else.

Fuck!

A tight feeling was coming from his other shin— from the one that hadn't been struck by the coin projectile.

It had caught him.

Masaya had not been able to fully dodge that jumping cord. It had narrowed itself and extended its length at both ends in mid-air to cover a wider range, like a net-gun made of a single rope.

One of its ends had managed to wrap itself around Masaya's ankle.

The moment it had a secure grasp, it pulled the rest of itself towards Masaya. With ease, it wrapped itself around both of his legs like a bola, and then pulled them together tight. Masaya just barely managed to avoid toppling over.

As he stood there with his legs bound, unable to move, he turned his gaze to Tachikuro.

That horrific grin was back. Tachikuro already knew that he had won.

While that might have been true, Masaya refused to grant him the satisfaction in victory that he was after.

With no discernable expression, Masaya faced Tachikuro directly, and called out to him.

"Well, what are you waiting for, shit-breath? Get on with it."

The grin disappeared.

Ha! That oughtta do it.

Kyoji Tachikuro simply clapped his hands once again.

The larger Hydro Cord beside him sprung forth and coiled itself around Masaya, wrenching him to the ground.

The fight was over.

Masaya was defeated by Tachikuro.

As per usual.

How many times has it been, now?

AFTERWORD

Hello, dear reader.

Welcome back to A Certain Magical Index PLUS: [False Conduct]

I had plenty of spare time on my hands after writing chapter 1, so I immediately made a start on chapter 2.

A week later, and I'd accidentally gone and written 22000 words of it! The chapter wasn't even finished yet!

I figured that this was much too long for a chapter meant for easy and casual reading on a fanfiction website, so I made the executive decision to split the chapter in two. This first half alone is 16000 words, almost as long as chapter 1, so it's a good stopping point before the reader gets too exhausted from reading it all - although I think that boat might have long-since sailed, actually.

Do let me know, dear reader, if you'd prefer to read this story in smaller, more digestable portions. I tend to just keep writing until I'm at the perfect conclusion for the current section of the story; however, that can end up taking quite a long time. Perhaps I should end at cliffhanger moments in the middle of the mini-arc more often.

In chapter 2, we are properly introduced to Masaya Misaka, the actual protagonist of the story. He's a character with a lot going on, but those juicy details are best left for the story to reveal. His esper ability, Ohm Sight, was something I could reveal. In fact, I almost couldn't stop revealing it! Masaya's ability is so interesting to write about that I accidentally found myself going off on tangents describing the ability's mechanics in overly-precise and frankly unnecessary detail not once, but twice over the course of writing this chapter.

What do you think of him so far, dear reader?

This chapter marks the introduction of Seiri Fukiyose into the story. She is the first actual character from A Certain Magical Index itself to make a proper appearance in [False Conduct, apart from the cheeky Gunha Sogiita cameo in the Blaze Almighty scene in chapter 1. She actually wasn't planned to be in a prominent element in this story - I actually only decided to add her to Masaya's class after beginning writing this chapter. However, from the moment I decided to add her in, I realised how well she fit, and what she could bring to the story, as not just a love interest, but a former love interest. Much more interesting! It didn't take me long to come up with an entire cool little arc planned for her. She fits into the story and its themes perfectly. This is the kind of fun in writing that you can't plan for, and can only realise the potential of in the moment.

If you haven't already noticed, [False Conduct] begins in the year prior to the beginning of the main story of A Certain Magical Index. Part 1 of the story will cover this period. In the early planning stage, this period of Masaya's life was originally going to be contained to flashback territory, but I ended up expanding on it so much that it became much too extensive and much too important (and much too interesting) not to tell in full. By this point in the story planning, basically the whole story of [False Conduct] and its parallel plotlines will stem back to something or other that took place during Part 1, and it's going to be lots of fun to write (and hopefully to read).

This means that it'll be a good while until Masaya's story meets the start of the main story of Index. On the other hand, this means that there's a lot of prequel material that the story can interact with. Expect some fun connections and allusions to stories like Biohacker, Railgun first-year arc, and the Item spinoff. These are areas of To Aru that I feel are under-represented in fan fictions, so it'll be fun working around this part of the timeline. I look forward to writing it, and I hope you look forward to reading it.

Feel free to let me know what you think about the story and its characters so far, dear reader.

-Lacien