Within the dilapidated interior of a decaying warehouse in District 19, a large man sat on his desk, fingers currently holding some small gadget.

His large hands could cover a man's hand and looked like they could crush one casually. His imposing stature loomed over the sole boy who sat in front of him. He looked to be no older than 15, and compared to the other punks in the group he looked as if he didn't belong in a brutal, bloody world like this. A novice, so to speak in the eyes of the veterans.

Quivering in fear of the bearlike man he looked around. Scanning for anyone who was with them in the old office-like room.

There seemed to be some sort of shadowy presence in one of the corners of the room. The boy looked away, feeling danger run through and around his skin.

"S-So uh-"

"Shhhhhhhh... not yet," the man said. The youth wisely kept his mouth shut until the man finished watching the video.

"So uh, d-do you have a plan f-for this sir?"

"Yes. Indeed the resistance we'll face off against in the future will be rather troublesome. But rest assured, you and your friends will be taken care of. I promise." The man's voice, as scary as it is, held a smooth, almost paternal tone. It visibly calmed the youth's nerves, making him less scared.

"O-Oh yeah? Well, that's a big relief! Thanks!"

"Do not mention it. Now go back to the others and await for my instructions." With a wave of his hand the messenger boy left the room. As the door closes the shadow in the corner shifted.

"Not yet, Prowler. When the time is right, pounce immediately. But today is not that day."

If he had to wait until even next year for his plan to come about then so be it.

Patience. A virtue he valued amongst all else. And it was thanks to his patience that he managed to end up here. Perhaps the living arrangements were rather questionable but in the world below the light you make do with what you get.

However, he hoped he wouldn't have to wait 3 more years. The man had a limit after all.

"We play our cards right, and the filth of this city will never have to crawl back ever again. It takes a vision, and a will, to see it through."

"That bug is gonna be tough to get rid of."

"Patience, Prowler. Patience. The time will come.

After all, I didn't certainly earn my title from back home for being reckless."

-

"So we write this one off as a hangout gone bad then?"

"Yeah pretty much. They all said the same thing, they had an argument which turned sour and they went to town with one another. Seemed their stories checked out, most of them are from SkillOut groups."

"Really which one? Cuz those guys," Kuroko said the last line with slight venom, "just can't seem to recognize restraint and discipline."

"I believe you're a bit harsh on them. Sure most of them probably forgot that going out and "assaulting people in the name of Level 0 support and safety" isn't cutting it for most people, but I've known some of my friends who were involved in some of them and they try to keep a low profile and not cause chaos."

"I understand Katsu. Perhaps I was a bit too judgemental. Still, we can't ignore that some SkillOuts' actions very much go against their supposed goals. I can't speak so much for the rest but we have to keep our minds mostly free of biases. Ok?"

Katsu nodded in agreement. "Yeah I understand. I'm just saying. You know. Well anyway, their stories match up, and we got some uninvolved civilians in there as well. Who knows what could've happened had we been too late. Good thing you came in before us."

"It was. By the way how are the others holding up?"

"They're fine, some of them are already released from the hospital. They just need some time off."

"I understand. And you might need some time off too if you wanna rest. I mean what happened earlier must've been-"

"Tiring? Terrifying?" He answered for her. After a brief self-depreciating laugh, "As much as I want to ma'am, I wanna help out around here. Maybe help Uiharu-senpai with her work. I don't wanna go rest for long just 'cause of a big fistfest."

Kuroko looked up to the teen. It was easy to forget but despite the size and height gap between them he was one year younger than her and Uiharu. And yet there was a sort of drive within her underclassman, a drive which had pushed him to keep going.

With a small sigh Kuroko nodded. "Fine then. You're with us, but if something goes wrong you make it out as quick as possible. Leave the rest up to us ok?"

"Yes ma'am," Katsu bowed to Kuroko.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that working with both the fabled Goalkeeper and the Teleporter of Judgement, was the best day of his life. And despite his limited powers he wished to do his best to catch up to them both and hopefully prove himself to be reliable.

He worked his ass off to get where he started. And he is not gonna let this go to waste.

"Whoop, there it goes again," Uiharu remarked all of a sudden. The lights and devices around the office seemed to flicker on and off.

"Uh, is this normal? I mean this has a couple extra generators on the ready so wouldn't it be a problem?"

"Oh, you're new here so you haven't known yet," Kuroko said so rather casually. Katsu was a bit curious as to what she meant, but a question would have to wait as she quickly teleported away from the room.

Confused he turned to his younger senpai for answers, to which she responded with a stiff smile.

A few minutes later Kuroko appeared again in the room-

"Jeez can't she just at least be more mindful of her power? I love her too much but she can be extremely stubborn."

"Well what can you do? Someone like Misaka-san's bound to make a lot of noise whether you want to or not. That's just how it is."

"I know that, it's just, can she just be a lot more understanding for her poor kouhai's plight. The amount of paperwork I have to deal with just to save her from trouble, not to mention the numerous complaints she's getting regularly."

"Uh, who are we talking about here?"

"Oh we were talking about Shirai's senpai frying another part of the city again, the usual." Uiharu casually said. Katsu was floored for a bit; this was a casual thing to happen?

"So... is she gonna...?"

"No, mostly she just deals with delinquents on the regular. I still dunno why she can't get it into her head not to fry every single electronic on a mile-radius."

"Sounds like a pain to deal with," Katsu said emphatically.

"As much as I would disagree yeah she is," Kuroko said rubbing her temples in frustration. "But it's part of her charm."

"Wha-"

"Forget it Katsu, better not say more with that." Uiharu warned him, which left him even more confused.

-

Mikoto Misaka yawned as she walked across the street in District 7's 3rd Avenue.

'Man, what a pain,' she groaned. 'Nothing much left to do, that manga still hasn't put out the newest chapter already. Then I had to blow off some steam. And then after that...'

She had her ears verbally chewed out by Kuroko for frying those delinquents back in that alley.

Her act had caused quite a commotion as she had apparently caused a couple phones to explode, and wrecked the cleaner robot's circuitry.

She did feel a bit bad for that, she really did.

That said having to deal with pricks like those, just a couple sparks of lightning wont cut it. They have to learn a lesson, lest they'll keep doing the same stuff over and over again.

And her efforts weren't in vain. Some thugs around the area had heard of her, and they were wise enough not to even mess with her. But the dumber ones, wow.

She didn't know whether they were that desperate, or what.

'Bunch of perverts,' she thought.

She found herself at a familiar drink dispenser, the type which would ruin any good student's day.

And in front of it was a certain familiar mop of spiky hair.

-

Touma Kamijou stretched his neck, rotating it clockwise then counterclockwise.

Today was a rather average day. Which to an unlucky man like him, made all the difference.

Apart from having to chase after a flying piece of his homework then bumping (chest-first) into Yomikawa-sensei, which sent him flying away from the campus from one of her powerful strikes, then being beaten up by the dyed blonde and cerulean idiot duo, and then after a series of misfortunate events, a bunch of in-the-process-of-undressing baseball girls.

And all after dealing with that ruckus from earlier.

But Kamijou considered that to be an average day in his life, as odd as it is to say aloud. Or even think.

At least his attendance was a lot more consistent than before, so that's a plus.

Shrugging to himself he placed his drink to his mouth and drank the warm coffee-

"Hey."

Kamijou spat out his drink in shock. He didn't know someone was already there, because his Instinct would've taken care of that.

Even more so when seeing who that person is.

A middle school brunette, around the same height as Fukiyose, her typical rich girl's uniform which, still to this very day, shows off her legs.

Even ever since that time with her he still hasn't understood the reason for such short skirts. They were very much pervert-magnets. Nothing says "I'm so defenseless" than a rather short skirt fluttering without care, showing off a young woman's walking implements. And perhaps a lot more than that as Kamijou muses.

"Where are you looking at you idiot? Or are you trying to pick a fight with me?"

Welp, figures. "I'm still confused with the length of that skirt you're wearing. Isn't it chilly down there, and wouldn't anyone go and see your... overalls down there regularly?"

"How would I know, I'm not the daughter of the guy/girl who designed it. And I would kick your ass for saying such perverted things with such a look in your face, but I am feeling rather nice so I'll let it slide."

"So, what brings you here? Please don't fight me today Zapper-sama, I've already have enough shit on my plate as it is."

As soon as he said that though a spear flew towards him, which he negated with his right hand.

"It's not Zapper-sama, it's Mikoto Misaka, get it through thick head."

"Duly noted." Kamijou said.

"You say that but are you gonna go through with it?"

"No promises there."

"I figured," Mikoto said with a sigh.

"I suppose you came to take a drink over here?" Kamijou asked the young woman.

"Oh? Did you also shove in a couple yen in there? How much this time!?" Mikoto asked the last one rather excitedly.

Kamijou just can't with this woman. But several, like her do see his own bad luck as a joke so he can't fully fault her. But he had a nifty counter for this.

"Unfortunately for you Ojou-sama Mr. Kamijou is well-aware of this wretched machinery's reputation for devouring numerous students' hard-earned allowances. I simply did the simplest choice," Kamijou emphasized the 'simple' in the last.

Mikoto raised a brow. And Kamijou responded by slamming his elbow into the machine, causing a can to fall on the chute of the machine.

Mikoto made an impressed sound. "You learned."

Kamijou was about to bow when suddenly the machine started blaring out a horribly high-pitched sound.

This was reason enough for the both of them to get out of Dodge quickly.

-

"Perhaps that strike was a bit too strong, I mean I'm pretty good at gauging my strength."

"Gee, you are? Wouldn't know that to be the case."

"Hey, get off my back wouldya? That was an honest mistake okay, I simply misgauged my own strength," Kamijou sounded indignant.

Mikoto took a beat to absorb his words, and giggled. Which led to raucous laughter.

"Hey, what's so funny? I wasn't joking, my strength was too much for most people to handle, I nearly went-"

"Did you honestly forget how strong you were!? That's hilarious!" cried Mikoto in laughter. Kamijou rolled his eyes in annoyance over the girl's antics.

"Yeah well whatever I guess." Kamijou was about to up and walk away. "I'm going home anyway, see you around. And thanks I guess, for not trying to fry me."

"Oh really? That's what you think right now?" Sparks erupted from Mikoto's bangs as Kamijou felt a sense of danger. "You go and disappear for over a week, and you think everything's all okay?"

"H-Hey now Misaka-sama, let's not get all too hasty..." Kamijou rose his hands, trying to calm down the raging demigoddess. He failed.

"As much as I appreciate you calling me by that name I prefer if you didn't ADD IN A STUPID SUFFIX AT THE END!!!" With a yell like that Mikoto fired a spear of lightning towards the negating boy.

As is usual the bolt was deflected by Kamijou's right hand.

"Okay now what the hell?! You go and spare my life, and then you up and decide to throw lightning at my ass!? Dammit woman, I am so going to enjoy beating you u-"

"I knew it." The girl's voice however, interrupted his rant. He was confused at what Mikoto had just said this time.

"You're him aren't you? You're the Red Man everyone's been talking about?"

-

The plot thickens.

As is usual, leave your comments down below, lemme know what things you want to see happen in later chapters! Vote and share, so more can read; the more the merrier as they say! And as always, constructive criticism is extremely appreciated, I try my best to improve and you guys help out a lot.

Sincerely,

Komigakuo.