False Conduct

by Lacien

Unlike his famous younger sister Mikoto, Masaya Misaka is no level-5. Left behind and trapped as an underpowered level-3 esper, Masaya lives tormented by both his harrowing past involving Mikoto, as well as his powerful foes in the present—until a miraculous gift turns Masaya's world on its head, and invites him down a much more exciting, yet much more dangerous path.

1. Part 1 - Chapter 1 (Prologue)

A Certain Magical Index PLUS: [FALSE CONDUCT]

PART 1, CHAPTER 1

-[1]-

This one April morning brought with it a flutter of apprehensive vitality, or perhaps more so a sense of unhappy obligation, to the chattering of many young feet up and down this-or-that street. Young people spilled steadily from their boxy dormitory buildings and zipped off to their respective destinations like little bees following the scent of nectar. These bees were students, and the nectar was the nectar of knowledge—perhaps it was not the most alluring of nectars to those youthful masses, yet they trudged off to obtain it, nonetheless. Many among these "little bees" were new to this part of the "garden", and one of them stood dead still amidst the undulating motion of many young students strutting off this way and that.

Leaned against the side of a sheltered bus stop built of ultra-modern glass and aluminium, and dressed in a pristine grey gakuran, still a bit stiff in its first real use, Hisao Sagara craned his neck as he tapped at the keypad on his cell phone.

It wasn't that he was lost in this unfamiliar part of the city; rather, he was trying to become maximally "un-lost".

He had spent most of the previous evening checking and rechecking the maps of this part of District 7, precisely to prepare him for today's first trial: getting to school. Nonetheless, here he was, checking again, cross-referencing his surroundings with what he saw on his phone's small screen. In time, he would come to understand the route to his new school like the back of his hand, but Hisao was not one to wait that long and live with even the smallest ensuing uncertainty.

Besides, he had the time to check these things, for he was also waiting for someone.

The phone in his hand pinged. It was a text message.

"Rika, if this is you telling me you accidentally slept in, I swear to God." Hisao muttered. He opened the text message. It read "Look behind you."

With as good of a poker face as a 12 year old boy could reasonably maintain, Hisao looked over his shoulder. On the other side of the sheltered bus stop's glass wall was a girl in a white and grey sailor fuku with scruffy brown bangs and a downright stupid-looking grin on her face, and she was staring straight as Hisao. She was Hisao's twin sister, Rika Sagara.

Upon seeing Hisao's poker face, Rika immediately ate the grin and attempted to emulate it herself – rather poorly. Hisao raised his right hand. Rika mirrored it with her left, the corners of her mouth twitching as her goofy grin fought to resume its regular post. Hisao tapped the glass; Rika mirrored the action in time with him.

Really, Rika? This?

It looked like Rika was adamant on doing that again.

This was a typical gag that the twins had frequently performed between themselves over the years, born from a sort of competitive spirit between the two in their littler days. Once upon a time, this sort of situation might have looked like Hisao was staring into and interacting with his own reflection. This is what the game was originally trying to replicate, but the twins were now setting out on their paths to adulthood, and they no longer looked quite as similar as they once had. Despite their still recognisably similar facial features, Hisao now stood a good half a head over Rika, and Rika's growth had of course accelerated in other areas. Regardless, that hadn't stopped Rika from pulling that old gag on Hisao this morning.

"Alright Rika, very funny, that's enough."
"[Alright Rika, very funny, that's enough.]"

In near-perfect sync, Rika mouthed Hisao's words right back to him. She would often do that.

"Rika, you don't want to be late on your very first day of middle school, do you?"
"[Rika, you don't want to be late on your very first day of middle school, do you?]"

She wasn't budging. Rather, she was challenging him. She could be rather stubborn in that way.

Hisao had been drawn into cooperating in Rika's game here out of habit. As entertaining as it could get at times, Hisao recalled that there had been occasions where the twins' mirror gag had gone on for over an hour.

Hisao knew that he and Rika did not really have that kind of time on their hands this morning. Besides, they were in a public space, and in broad daylight. Their act was already beginning to turn some heads from some among the passing masses. Hisao needed to end it quickly, before Rika started to get properly competitive with it.

Hisao knew that if he abruptly and improperly ended this sacred twin ritual, his sister would become very annoying for at least the rest of the day. He had to end it properly, which meant winning fair and square.

Hisao had an idea.

Hisao began tapping at the glass with a regular rhythm to it. Rika quickly caught on and their motions were perfectly in-sync. Hisao began bobbing his head to the rhythm, as if he were jamming out to a song in his head. As a matter of fact, he was doing exactly that. Rika followed. The rhythm of the tapping became more complex, but Rika had matched it perfectly. They both knew this song very well, and Rika had recognised it from the beginning.

The tempo of the tapping began to accelerate as the chorus approached. Hisao put his phone into his pocket and readied his other hand, which Rika mimicked. The chorus of this song was epic enough that it needed to be tapped with two hands. It was the law.

If they were playing a rhythm-based video game where the notes approached on tracks, then the chorus beats would've been well within view now. Right before they arrived, Hisao performed a little twirl in his raised wrists, which Rika copied, right before slamming all ten fingertips onto the glass wall like some sort of piano master. Rika mimicked it perfectly and was then perfectly in tune with the beat, mastering the timing of every beat of the chorus… but the song was the only thing she was following perfectly. It took her a good couple of seconds to realise the folly of her actions.

"Oh come on!" She cried out.

Hisao had only tapped out the first note of the chorus after all of that build-up, and then followed it with nothing, leaving Rika rocking out on her own, looking like an idiot. It was a dirty trick, but the only way to win the Sagara-style mirror challenge is to trick the 'mirror' into acting on its own. Rika had been utterly beaten at her own game. She shot Hisao a girlishly exaggerated pout. Behind that glass, she looked rather like a toy doll trapped inside its plastic packaging—something destined to be toyed with.

"This is not the time for games. Come out of there." the victor ordered his defeated opponent. Rika slipped out from behind the glass wall of the bus stop. With the dumb game behind now them, the twins began the journey proper to their new school.

Rika decided that a quiet walk to school was not her style. "My new dorm is all quiet without you being nearby." she complained out of nowhere.

"Shouldn't be, the noisy one is still there," Hisao retorted, "My old room was perfectly quiet and peaceful when you weren't inviting yourself in, about once a week, if I was lucky."

"Twins are supposed to grow up together, which is hard to do in Academy City, since boys and girls can't be roommates."

Hisao wasn't buying her logic. "We were in the same complex. That was perfectly close enough. We wouldn't be roommates even if we still lived with Mum. She's not poor enough that we'd need to share a room, you know."

"Yeah, but now we're in completely different complexes. It's only been four days, but it's already so lonely. We now live, like, over a million kilometres apart." Rika complained, trying her attempt at puppy dog eyes. Those might have worked on most other 12 year old boys, but as far as Hisao was concerned, they were just stock-standard Rika eyes: classic suck-up variant.

"0.7 kilometres as the crow flies; 1.1 kilometres practically speaking." Hisao showcased some of the local map-knowledge he had recently gained. He then continued with an accusatory side-eye. "It was a long overdue change, really."

Rika caught what he was fishing back up with those words. She put the puppy dog eyes away, replacing them with her sincerity eyes. "I said I was sorry."

Hisao knew that this line of conversation was best left there. Now that they were starting middle school, Hisao knew that encouraging his sister to stew in the memory of her past faux pas for a bit would be a big help for her in this new and much less forgiving social environment. After all, social warfare was to middle school what machine guns, fighter planes, and tanks were to World War I; it wasn't going anywhere, even after middle school was over. Rika was going to need all the social astuteness she could get. She would get absolutely eaten alive if word of her unorthodox tendencies happened to find its way around. Hisao wanted to avoid that from happening, especially since he would get dragged into the social abyss with her by proxy.

Hisao could already tell that Rika was going to be popular in middle school. He wasn't afraid to admit out loud that his sister had some serious good looks (a roundabout form of self-promotion, really). Her fluffy, ashy-brown hair, split into two very loose ponytails, hung at her shoulder blades in a pair of pretty, white bows, which gave her a rather cuddly look. The stupid grin she wore as her seemingly default expression made her also appear especially approachable. What concerned Hisao was the "rest" of her; which he didn't even feel strange about admitting, since he was starting to become genuinely concerned. With what she was carrying, she could easily be mistaken for a second-year middle schooler without trying, maybe even a third-year. What worried Hisao was that (apart from the increasingly common occurrence of Rika being misidentified as Hisao's big sister) she was pretty much destined to get a lot of male attention, and Hisao wasn't sure if Rika had the social savvy to handle it all, whilst also filtering out all of the ne'er-do-wells, of which there would be many.

Hisao just really hoped that Rika's feminine charm and beauty didn't one day land her in major trouble or danger.

Hisao was not a siscon; he was simply keeping an eye out for her – perfectly normal and acceptable behaviour. He would hear nothing to the contrary.

Hisao checked the map on his phone again. Despite their previous game, they were still making good time, and they hadn't strayed from the path that Hisao had plotted in unnecessarily-precise detail the night before. They were due to reach their new school with about 20 to 25 minutes to spare before the school day actually began. The number of students wearing that school's signature grey was steadily increasing in number among the sea of un-assorted uniforms. Hisao had already known that he and Rika were headed in the right direction, but the confirmation still eased his nerves a bit.

District 7 really was a whole new environment to Hisao. He and Rika had come here from time to time when they were younger, but that was really just the big locations, like shopping malls, the hospital, and the like. Navigating the huge district was not a problem when you were headed straight to your decided destination by bus. Having to live and navigate through District 7 more or less on foot was another story entirely.

The Sagara twins' previous residence was in District 13. In other words, "little kid town". District 7 was "big kid town", and, as brand new 1st year middle schoolers, Hisao and Rika were pretty much starting out at the bottom of the food chain here. It couldn't pay enough to be extra careful and vigilant in this brand new environment. Some might call Hisao paranoid, but he had good reason to be like this.

This was Academy City.

In this hyper-advanced metropolis, widely regarded as technologically 20 to 30 years ahead of the rest of the world, which ate up the whole western third of Tokyo (yet was more or less run like its own country), there lived 2.3 million inhabitants. Of those 2.3 million, about 80 percent of them were students, and most of these students were here to study what only Academy City had to offer. Sure, they studied other subjects such as maths, science, Japanese, and so on; with such a laser-focus on education, Academy City produced some of the best scholars and researchers of those subjects in the world.

But that's not what Academy City was famous, or infamous, for.

Academy City was the only state in the world that was able to create them, and they ran wild throughout this city.

Espers.

Through outrageous techniques like drugs, hypnosis, and whatnot, Academy City could turn the brain of a regular growing child into one that could effectively rewrite reality. Through this new "personal reality", an esper could break the laws of physics and introduce new and ridiculous phenomena into the world, which they would then be able to control.

Esper abilities.

This was all common knowledge to Hisao, of course. He and Rika had lived in Academy City since they were kindergarteners. They had undergone Academy City's esper development programmes themselves. That wasn't the issue.

The issue was that, since the beginning of the current generation of Academy City's Power Curriculum Programme, enough time had passed such that the children who had been studying under it the longest were now around middle and high school aged. This of course meant one thing:

Most of the strongest espers were primarily situated here, in District 7.

Hisao and Rika were effectively being plunged right into the shark tank, where just about anybody on the street could turn out to be one hell of a shark. It was no wonder Hisao had been so meticulous and careful in preparation for this morning. In Academy City, and especially in District 7, anything could happen.

And happen it did.

-[2]-

BAM! FWOOSH!

As the twins trekked down a street of a medium size along with a sizeable crowd of like-minded students, both the fresh-faced and weary-eyed, a fireball explosion like the ones seen in action movies flashed out in the middle of the street. It wasn't terribly huge, much smaller than the typical car gas tank explosion, but it was still a fireball explosion nonetheless.

The marching crowd was halted dead in its tracks. Hisao grabbed his sister and quickly retreated a few metres with her. He then valiantly positioned himself between her and the now-dwindling flames.

"What the hell was that?!" exclaimed a voice within the crowd, probably someone fresh to District 7.

"What's going on!?" shouted another. Their questions were soon answered.

"Who's trying to start trouble, today of all days?" questioned a more experienced District 7 resident.

"Shouldn't someone contact Judgment?" asked a girl to her apparent retinue of matching uniforms.

To District 7 veterans, this was just another day of the week. Hisao was taken aback by how casual they were about all of this.

FLASH!

Another explosion flared up, pretty much out of nowhere. It looked like a standard gasoline explosion, but it lit up in the middle of the road. There was no apparent fuel, and it wasn't really coming from anywhere. It had just appeared. Hisao knew what that meant.

This was the work of one of District 7's many dangerous high-level espers – one of those dreadful troublemakers who use their esper abilities against regular people for fun, profit, or worse—one of those older espers who think that they own the place simply because their ability has had longer to develop.

Said esper then revealed themself.

"Listen up, maggots!" a voice shot out. Seconds later, its owner stepped out onto the now-cleared street.

Huh? What? Hisao was not expecting that.

It's no wonder that Hisao was caught off guard here.

This "dangerous troublemaker" was in actuality just a kid, no older than Hisao and Rika were. Hisao had expected the older espers to be the ones wreaking havoc and picking on the new blood, but this was evidently not a universal truth.

The miscreant esper continued.

"Now that I have your attention, you worms, let it be known that this, all of District 7, is now the property of me! Lowly peasants, you may refer to your new lord, me, as Blaze Almighty!"

The young fireball hooligan then let off another explosion, possibly for emphasis.

FLASH!

Hisao quickly realised what this kid was up to. There were two main ways for a new kid to protect themselves in the crucible of dangerous abilities and treacherous espers that was District 7. The first approach was what Hisao was doing. Be prepared at all times. Quickly familiarise yourself with your new world and become aware of its dangers. Tread lightly until you know what you're dealing with. Find a safe passage to a secure future. Become a paranoid neurotic—essentially.

This "Blaze Almighty" kid had chosen the opposite approach: showcase your might and establish yourself at the top of the new pecking order as quickly as possible. Despite how risky of a strategy it was, with a flashy explosive ability like that, Hisao supposed that this kid might have had what it took to pull it off, considering that his fireball ability had to be at least a low level 4, near the top of the pack.

At a level like that, the only espers that "Blaze Almighty" would have had to worry about were other level 4s… or those six mysterious level 5s.

Despite being what was considered in this city a respectable level 3, Hisao was not in any place to be attempting any aggressive plays like that. His ability, to put it kindly, was quite useless. Even Rika, despite being a level 2, had him beaten in their abilities' raw destructive potential; however, her ability only worked against static targets; she was unable to use it against people. The twins, despite being espers, were really no stronger than the average ability-less level 0, at least combat-wise. In the fiery battleground of District 7, Hisao and his sister had been more or less relegated to the cautious lifestyle.

Such was the fate of the middling esper.

FLASH!

A slightly larger explosion snapped Hisao back into the present moment. The panic in the crowd had largely subsided as the younger students began to notice the older students' rather blasé reactions. Rika was curiously peeking out from behind Hisao now. Blaze Almighty was none-too-pleased by the general populace's unamused disregard toward his claim of district kingship. He set off a few more explosions. These ones were quite a bit closer to the crowd now.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

"Ah! This guy is crazy!" squealed one girl.

"Where's Judgment when you need them?!" questioned another.

The younger members of the crowd were now starting to show some concern once more. The older students were not so much panicked as they were mildly vexed at this lunatic blocking their path to school. Hisao reckoned he could identify all of the first year middle schoolers present in the crowd from their distressed expressions alone. At that thought, he realised that his own expression he now wore was itself anything but relaxed. Those close fireballs had gotten his heart pounding just a bit. It appeared that District 7's crazy esper population had just gone up by one right before Hisao's eyes.

Hisao looked over his shoulder. Rika had retreated back behind him following those bursts. Her eyes darted up to meet his gaze. Her expression had become rather uneasy. That short eye contact was all they need to confirm their opinions on the situation with one another.

"If there are no challengers to my rule, then it must be true that I sit at the apex of this District! Ha! Kneel before me, low-level peasants!" Blaze Almighty continued.

Nobody kneeled. Everyone simply stood there like statues. Some did it out of distress, some out of displeasure. After a few seconds of nothing, it became clear to the group that the first person to kneel would end up right in that lunatic's focus, as would the first person to directly oppose him, so it was simply safer to stay put with the crowd. This only served to anger Blaze Almighty.

"I said kneel before your new ruler!"

Several larger explosive fireballs flashed out.

FLAASHH! FLAASHH! FLAASHH!

The front of the crowd jumped back. Those explosions were way too close.

Yes. This was the kind of crazy high-level esper that Hisao had heard of so many terrifying tales of.

Were most of them just kids like this one trying to prove their might?

Hisao now knew just how dangerous that could be.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" shouted a boy near the front of the crowd. He was trying to slap out a fire that had caught onto the skirt of the girl in front of him, who was, understandably, in a panic. Surely it was the fire she was most concerned about here—surely. That kind of touching would be inappropriate under any other circumstances, but putting out dangerous fires came before maintaining respectable social etiquette.

Blaze Almighty took that call-out as a challenge.

"What are you going to do about it, huh?!" he taunted.

The other boy could only stare back at him with gritted teeth. It was as clear as day that this boy did not possess to him any power that could challenge Blaze Almighty.

Such was the fate of the middling esper.

In Academy City, you either had the power to challenge those who would choose to restrain your fate, or you didn't.

"Surely, there is someone strong enough here to challenge me." Blaze Almighty goaded his unwilling audience. "Maybe you lot could do with another fireball or two. Hahaha!"

"Yo."

A voice called out from within the crowd.

"Oh?" Blaze Almighty's attention had been caught. "What have we here?"

Hisao and Rika turned their heads in sync to catch where the call had originated. It was not hard to find that voice's owner; the heads of the crowd were all turned towards him like iron filings in a magnetic field.

The crowd split in two as a lone figure stepped forward. The twins followed his movement precisely, although it was hard to get a good look at him through the many heads in the way. Once he had popped out of the front of the group like a spat-out melon seed, the crowd merged back into one to close the path behind him, as if to say "He's all your problem now".

"Those are some mighty fine explosions you've got there." the mysterious stranger complimented.

"Level 4, grew them myself." chuckled Blaze Almighty. "You think you can do better, punk? I'd like to see it."

"They're okay, but they're missing something." responded the confident stranger.

Hisao covertly turned to his sister.

"Rika, I know a detour we can take to get us to school. Let's get out of here while the crazy esper is distracted."

"Okay." agreed Rika.

Blaze Almighty was still focused on his new opponent.

"Oh really? And what exactly are my great fireballs missing, huh?"

Hisao had already grabbed his sister by the hand, and the two quietly slipped to the back of the crowd and out of sight down an alleyway.

Even that far back, they still heard that challenger's thunderous response.

"GUUUTSSS!"

Barely a second later, a bright, colourful light flashed, followed by one hell of a quake that rattled the entire alleyway. Hisao wrapped his arms around Rika and the two braced tight against each other as dust and small chips of concrete were dislodged from the surrounding walls. The shrieks and squeals of those who had been in the crowd were easily audible amongst the sounds of the chaos.

-[3]-

Even after the quaking had fully settled down, Hisao was in no rush to check out the results of the clash. He and Rika continued along their alleyway detour without so much as looking back.

"What did I tell you about this place?" Hisao's seemingly exaggerated predispositions about District 7 had already been well and truly vindicated.

And the first school day hadn't even begun yet.

"Yeah. Does this kind of thing happen every day?" With that concerned remark, Rika was seemingly in agreement.

The twins now knew one thing for certain:

Strong espers equalled danger.

Hisao checked the map on his phone again. Following the twists and turns of this alleyway should have been all it took to bring the pair to the next street over, after which they could continue on to their school as normal. He was lucky that Academy City had digital maps of this level of detail, since tight alleyways were generally seen as geographic blind spots where people rarely ventured, save for the especially daring or unscrupulous.

"We take the next right," instructed Hisao, referencing his phone's map, "Then it's a left, and then we pass through that open area. One more left turn after and then we come out the other side, easy as that."

Isn't technology great? Hisao thought to himself.

Considering the chaos they had just fled from, it was no surprise that the twins trekked down that alleyway with more than a little bit of urgency to their steps. They made a left turn; and then a right. Despite the dingy setting where bad things were stereotypically known to happen, things were going well enough in this dim old alleyway.

That changed the moment the twins entered the small open space.

Oh.

The moment the alley opened up into that space, Hisao and Rika were met with about four or five older teenagers. None of them were in school uniform here. A few of them had cigarettes in their mouths.

Delinquents – here in Academy City, they were known better as Skill-Outs. Hisao assumed they were specifically Skill-Outs, that is, level 0 delinquents who caused trouble without esper powers. If they had esper powers, they'd still be going to school, studying to develop them, right?

The thugs all turned their (less than friendly-looking) eyes towards the young middle schoolers who had just barged into their little hangout spot.

Act natural.

"Morning." said Hisao with a little nod of the head.

Rika also nodded.

The Skill-Outs gave no response. They simply eyed the twins intensely.

Hisao took that as permission to pass on through the open space to the exit. They continued to walk on past the group.

Hisao had heard many times that Skill-Outs were typically less than friendly toward espers. One would think that most decently-strong espers had little to fear from powerless thugs, but, while Skill-Outs lacked esper powers, they could still put up a good fight against a strong esper with enough raw manpower (and improvised weaponry) to make up for it. That was their modus operandi.

Skill-Outs were something else to be careful of in District 7, which apparently had quite a lot of them.

Hisao and Rika just had to get past this group and exit that wider part of the back alley; simple enough.

But that would have been too easy.

Just as the pair were about to slip into the open space's exit alley, their path was blocked off my none other than two more Skill-Outs, apparently returning to the little open square, drink cans in hand. The alleyway was not wide enough for the twins to have been able to slip past the two, so all they could do was step to the side and allow the two thugs to pass them into the square.

"Oi, you two!" shouted one of the Skill-Outs in the square. He was the biggest guy there; he was probably the leader of the group–the top thug.

Hisao and Rika froze on the spot.

Surely he's calling to his returning buddies, right? Not to us, surely.

"What took you so long?" continued the thug.

Crisis averted.

The two returning thugs stepped into the open square. Hisao definitely caught one of them taking a good look at Rika as he passed her. The other returning thug spoke up.

"Some Anti-Skill assholes were in a mad rush out there. It was probably due to that big explosion we heard."

"Yeah, we heard it too. Did you see what caused it?" asked the leader thug.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure it was on the other side of the block."

Hisao and Rika took this as their cue to get out of there.

But of course, that would have been too easy.

"Hey beautiful, you ran in from that direction. Did you see what that was all about?"

The twins were forced to halt their escape. Hisao could've sworn he heard Rika give the slightest squeak.

Hisao saw that Rika's typical grin and curious eyes were nowhere to be seen. The grin hadn't really been present since Blaze Almighty showed himself, but now it was somehow even more absent than usual, and her eyes, once loaded with a curious sparkle, were now wide open and unsettled. Hisao slowly turned around to address the head thug in Rika's stead.

He did his best to maintain a casual tone.

"It was some hotshot fireball esper acting like he owned the place. Some other guy challenged him and blew up the street, I think."

That was a perfectly sufficient explanation. The leader thug should be happy with that.

"I wasn't asking you, shit-wipe. I was asking your pretty big sister, there."

Rika squeaked again.

Shit.

From what he'd heard of District 7's dangers, Hisao knew that getting caught alone and off-guard by a gang of Skill-Outs could end up being just as bad as making an enemy of a high-level esper. It was clear that he and Rika were going to have to play their cards extremely carefully to avoid something really horrible from happening.

The leader thug stepped up toward the twins. The others followed his example. Soon enough, Hisao and Rika were surrounded by the whole crew of delinquents, pushed up against one of the walls of the open square alley. Of course, they had made sure to block off the escape routes. They really weren't hiding their intentions at all. Hisao positioned himself between the thugs and Rika. The top thug didn't take that too kindly, but he raised a paper-thin façade of peace to lower Hisao's guard anyway.

"Now now, there's no need for that, boy." the top thug chuckled, "It's just not every day we get such a pretty visitor in this here spot."

Hisao said nothing in response. He simply held fast, eyeing the top thug with scrutiny. It was the best he could do in this situation. He didn't possess the kind of salesman-level charisma needed to defuse this sort of situation on his own, nor could he resolve this with his own strength. Despite his steady appearance, Hisao's heart and mind were already racing at a mile a minute. He was in fight-or-flight mode, but he didn't know how to do either, on top of also protecting Rika.

The first of middle school hadn't even begun, yet Hisao had found himself caught within his first hopeless Mexican standoff. There was a first for everything.

Hisao couldn't enjoy the irony of his situation, for he knew that this was not a fight he could win.

Such was the fate of the middling esper.

Despite his stony countenance, Hisao was beginning to panic.

That was when a hand rested itself gently upon his shoulder. It was Rika's. She slipped out from Hisao's protection to face the head thug.

Rika, what the hell are you thinking?

In the past, in order to ensure that Rika was properly educated about the dangers she might have to face in the future, Hisao had made sure that Rika knew what Skill-Outs were known to do to girls like her. It had not been a comfortable conversation, but it was one that had to happen. A little bit of Rika's innocence was a small price to pay for her safety and vigilance.

Rika knew the kind of danger that she was going up against. She had to be out of her mind if she thought she could take on this gang on her own. It would only make things that much worse for her after she was inevitably beaten.

Rika spoke to the top thug.

"Pretty? Do you really mean it?" Rika asked with a giggle.

Hisao was completely taken aback by her approach.

She was once again wearing her signature cheesy grin. Her eyes also looked rather like they usually did, slightly squinted and playful looking, but it felt like there was something missing from that expression; there was something very "un-Rika" about it.

"Uh, yeah, seriously." the head thug responded, "You really are quite the cutie, aren't you?"

"Hehe, you're not too bad looking yourself, even if you did give us a bit of a scare at first. That's quite rude, you know." Rika's smile gave way to a cute pout.

Rika, have you gone mad?!

Rika's levels of natural charisma were far-and-away more impressive than Hisao's, but that was never going to work against thugs who clearly only wanted her for one thing from the beginning.

Hisao could only stand and watch at what had to be an imminent disaster waiting to happen. He honestly couldn't tell if she had something planned or she'd genuinely forgotten that she was in danger here.

He was starting to worry that that side of Rika was beginning to show itself.

The top thug stereotypically averted his gaze and scratched the back of his head. Hisao could not believe what he was seeing.

"Well, yeah. Sorry, gorgeous." The top thug shot quick glances towards his fellow Skill-Outs. Hisao could tell that those looks carried a conniving energy, communicating a troublesome intent. Some of the thugs returned those looks. They were planning something. Some of the other thugs were too busy staring at Rika (not necessarily at her pretty face) to catch the memo—if they were to keep that up, then they'd probably start drooling before too long. All Hisao knew was that something really bad was about to happen.

"You know, darling? You're alright." chuckled the top thug, "I like a confident gal like you. You should stick around and, uh, hang out with us. What do you say?" He extended a friendly hand toward Rika, but Hisao saw plain as day that his eyes were those of a predator with prey in sight. He must have thought that Rika was a gullible and easy catch.

He might have actually been right; Hisao had no idea why Rika was acting like this.

There's absolutely no way she's actually fallen for that crap. Surely she knows what'll happen to her if she accepts.

Hisao had been unable to make any sort of move to resolve this situation up until now, but there was no way he could let this go on any longer. Luckily, the top thug had given him an opening to speak up without sounding too out of line.

"Nee-chan, we don't have time for that. We have to get to school soon or we'll be late." Hisao deliberately avoided using Rika's name here. The less those guys knew about them, the better. This argument was as straightforward as it was true.

Rika's attention returned to Hisao.

"Oh, yes, Nii-san. You're right!"

Rika's eyes had suddenly returned to their trademark Rika look. The fact that she had likewise avoided uttering Hisao's name brought him some relief. At least she seemed to understand his intention here.

Despite how Rika tended to carry herself with what might appear to some as a certain air-headed quality, Hisao knew first-hand that she wasn't dumb—far from it.

Rika was an intelligent girl, but also curious and playful. The problem was that she could sometimes get a bit carried away in her playfulness and curiosity. As her twin brother, Hisao had been on the receiving end of that side of her many-a-time before. Some of those times were best never spoken of.

Luckily, it appeared that he had managed to snap her out of that state here before things had gotten too far.

Rika turned back to the top thug.

"Sorry about this, but Nii-san and I are going to be late to school if we hang around here for too long." she apologised with a glowing smile, "We would have loved to spend some time with you, but it's really time we get going, or we'll be late."

Ah, I see now.

This was a standard technique in a girl's social arsenal. Rika was employing some classic girly-talk, buttering up the thugs in order to twist the confrontation into a winnable one. Hisao had little experience facing it himself, and he'd pretty much never seen Rika using it. Then again, Rika was the girl he knew best, and had spent far-and-away the most time with. Girly-talk didn't work on twin brothers—at least Hisao assumed it didn't. He had known Rika his whole life, yet he had no clue where she had developed skills like that. Perhaps it was just some kind of natural skill that came 'pre-installed' on girls.

This was actually something of a revelation for Hisao. Maybe Rika did in fact possess the social prowess that would allow her to survive middle school, perhaps even thrive.

Now wasn't really the time to be distracted by tangents like that, though.

Something was very wrong here.

Hisao could tell that Rika's mannerisms were becoming tense.

Using that feminine social weaponry, she was managing to maintain some control in the conversation—but only barely.

Rika was scared. That fear was beginning to become apparent, and not just to Hisao.

The thugs exchanged more shifty glances amongst themselves.

"Aww, that's a real shame. Yeah, it is the first day of a new school year, after all."

The top thug's attempt at acting to appear genuinely disappointed was pitiful. He mocked a thoughtful pose. After a few paces, he pointed his finger to the sky in mock realisation.

"Ah!"

Rika tensed up upon hearing that.

This can't be good.

Hisao likewise felt his stomach drop slightly. He knew that this creep had some serious mental gymnastics ready in order to get his way.

"You know, beautiful. The first day of any middle school year is just about finding your new classes, basic boring formalities. And of course there's the reeeaaally long and boring start of year assembly. You know what, once you've gone through it once, you can just skip it the other times. That's what we did."

His goons nodded in agreement.

The top thug was again assuming that Rika was older than she really was.

Hisao could well guess why.

The top thug leaned in closer to Rika. Too close. He gave her a wide, closed-mouth smile, and extended an open hand to her. Hisao could hear the other thugs trying to stifle their chuckles. He looked down at Rika's side. Her hand was balled up, tightening, shaking slightly. He thought he could feel the strength of her pounding heart through vibrations in the ground. Actually, that drumming may have been his own heart.

"What do you say, huh?"

"I uh. Umm. I can't d—I uh, um."

Her eyes darted this way and that, searching desperately for any excuse. Sweat was beginning to shine upon her brow. Rika's initial confidence was crumbling. Her resolve was beginning to break.

The top thug simply maintained his fake smile.

Hisao realised at once.

These delinquents did this kind of thing on a day-to-day basis. They had figured out every single move that Rika was playing from the beginning. They had manipulation experience that a young girl like Rika had no chance of countering.

They were professional sleazebags.

Overpowering and controlling innocent girls into submitting to their desires was their livelihoods.

Rika could not win this confrontation on her own.

Hisao couldn't stand idly by as this sleazebag dominated his sister for nefarious purposes right before his eyes. Consequences to himself be damned, he had to get her out of there.

He stepped forward, placing himself between Rika and that creep. His nerves were yelling at him to reconsider. In response, he simply stopped acknowledging them.

"That's enough. Let's go, Nee-chan."

Hisao grabbed Rika by the hand and gently pulled her along, away from that menace with one thing on his mind. That conversation had been rapidly turning against Rika. Unceremoniously cutting it off then and there had to be the best thing to do in this case.

Her hand was cold. He could definitely feel her pulse banging through her palm like a drum.

He approached the wall of thugs blocking off their exit.

"Do excuse us." Hisao said with an authoritative certainty to the pair of Skill-Out goons standing in front of their path to the exit alley. There was no emotion in his voice. He felt Rika pressing herself up against his back.

He firmly but not forcefully pushed the pair apart to grant himself and his sister passage through to the exit, as if forcing himself through a tight crowd to catch a train. They began to yield some space to the twins, but Hisao saw their gazes fly toward their leader, and then back again.

And then…

A large hand landed on Hisao's shoulder, and not a moment later, another had found itself smashed into his gut, balled in a sturdy fist.

"Guhh!"

All of the air in Hisao's lungs was forced out in an instant. He felt his insides being rattled by the impact. Pain rang out like a shockwave through his entire body. Hisao's mind was wiped completely blank.

This was far and away the hardest he'd even been hit in his life.

His legs went weak. He didn't even know how he had ended up collapsed onto his elbow and knees. He clutched instinctively at his stomach with the hand that should have still been holding Rika's.

He thought he heard Rika let out a scream.

-[4]-

"Haahh! Haahh! Haahh!"

Hisao gasped for air like a dying fish. Not a second later, he was choking on that same air.

After a couple of cycles of gasping and choking, he had finally regained some of his lost lucidity. Through teary eyes, he noticed Rika kneeling beside him.

"Nii-san! Are you okay?! Say something!" she pleaded in a panic.

Finally regaining some control over his breathing, Hisao managed to look up at her through vision dark and distorted. He tried to squeeze out some reassuring words, but choked each time he tried.

He heard the thugs chuckling.

He then heard approaching steps.

"Sorry pal, but you don't get to go around telling my boys what to do. That's my job."

It was the top thug.

He stopped right in front of Hisao. He squatted down to look Hisao in the eyes.

Hisao was still collapsed prone. Despite squatting, the top thug towered over him.

He spoke with a sly smirk.

"It was an honest mistake, but it had to be punished, regardless."

Hisao contained the throbbing internal pain in his abdomen to allow himself to direct his focus to his enemy.

The menacing teen continued.

"Listen boy. I'm a nice guy. I reckon that was enough for you to have learned your lesson. Don't you agree?" he asked, head tilted, eyebrows raised. Hisao saw nothing but condescension in those eyes.

After what he had just experienced, Hisao was not in any position to believe that this creep was capable of anything resembling kindness.

"I'm not some kind of monster that goes around beating the shit out of little kids for no reason," the top thug continued, "so, we're gonna let off easy today. Run off to school now, boy. Let's let the trouble end there."

As if he'd ever be that kind.

Hisao was right. The top thug leaned forward, grabbing Hisao by his short hair, and pulled up forcibly, forcing Hisao to raise his head to match the thug's gaze. Hisao knew it was better not to avert his eyes. That was a sign of cowardice. He stared right back into those cruel eyes.

The top thug leaned in closer.

"I'd better not see your ass around here again. You got that, shit-wipe?"

Hisao hesitated before responding, but only for a second. He knew that he only had one real option here.

"A-alright." he conceded.

"Great." The top thug let go of Hisao's hair before rising back to his feet. Hisao's face met the filthy ground. "Now piss off."

Hisao spent several seconds trying to regather his strength. He felt Rika placing her hands under his arms in an attempt to lift him back up. That helped some.

With Rika's help, he managed to get back up to at least a seated position. Still clutching his gut, and on wobbly legs, he managed to finally return to his feet.

"See, all better. Now get lost, kid, before I change my mind." said the top thug, rather disinterested in Hisao's struggle.

"Are you alright now, Nii-san?" asked Rika, a tone of sisterly care in her voice, "Let's go. Can you walk?"

"I think so." responded Hisao with a croak.

Rika handed Hisao back his dropped book bag.

And with that, the twins turned around to take their leave. Supported by Rika, Hisao shuffled towards the exit alleyway, the pain of defeat throbbing through his body. There was no longer a wall of muscle and tasteless haircuts blocking their exit. As the two first-year middle schoolers entered that alleyway, Hisao remembered that there was still a whole first day of school ahead of him.

He decided that he would cross that bridge when he got to it. He was just glad that he and Rika were past this mess, with only him being roughed up by it. This was not an experience that Hisao Sagara would soon forget.

District 7 was a dangerous place. Hisao had known that before, and he knew it even better now.

A strange feeling started to well up inside Hisao.

Was it gratitude?

This had been a rough few minutes for him, but Hisao knew that this experience was going to be valuable for him going forward. In a way, he was grateful to have been able to learn this kind of lesson without paying too much a price for it. It was like crashing your bike while wearing a good, solid helmet. Hisao felt himself maturing a bit in real-time.

The twins' unified shuffling suddenly stopped.

Huh?

Why were they stopping now? They were barely a few metres down the alleyway.

Hisao wasn't the one leading the way this time. Rika was. Hisao looked to her, wondering what she was doing.

But Rika wasn't returning his look.

Is there something up ahead?

No, Rika's gaze wasn't pointed forward.

It was pointed back.

It was pointed back at a burly hand that had grabbed her free arm.

"Where do you think you're going, Missy?" asked the goon that burly hand belonged to; "Boss never said we were done with you as well."

Hisao's heart plummeted.

Hisao was an idiot.

-[5]-

Here he'd been, reminiscing about the valuable life experience he'd just gained not one minute prior. He had made the foolish assumption that it was over just because he had been told that he was free to go. His relief at his freedom from suffering was such that he hadn't even tried to confirm that the person most dear to him was also safe from harm.

He'd just assumed that that was the case. It went without saying that Rika should've also been free to go, right?

Of course, that would've been too easy.

Rika tried to wrest her arm free of the thug. Her friendly girly façade was long gone by now.

No good. That didn't stop Rika from trying again—and again.

"Let go! We're leaving, and there's nothing you can do to stop us!" she cried defiantly.

In response to that challenge, the rotund goon grasping her simply tightened his grip and yanked on her with such force that Rika was pulled away from Hisao and sent stumbling several metres back. The goon has essentially just thrown her—right back into that little open square full of Skill-Outs.

The twins were now separated.

Hisao gathered what strength he still had to stomp over to her and get her back, but the goon who had pulled Rika away from him now blocked his path back into that open area. He was like a great stone block sealing the entrance to a temple's inner chamber.

Rika quickly found herself surrounded once again by those goons and their leader. Before she knew it, she had been grabbed once again, this time by the top thug.

"Now darling, what say you and I spend a little time getting to 'know each other'?"

The top thug's sleazy smirk was back.

Rika's only response was to struggle to free her wrist from his vice-like grasp.

"So boss, what are you thinking of doing with her, hehe?" one of the goons asked, "You thinking of 'introducing' her to someone? Or are we keeping her?"

Hisao's worst nightmare had just been made reality. This had to be Rika's worst nightmare also; if it wasn't before, it was now.

"Let go of me!" screamed Rika.

"Hmm" responded the top thug—not to Rika, but to his underling; he completely ignored the girl thrashing about in his grasp. A triumphant bravado of some especially evil flavour took over his mannerisms. "As much as we could get top dollar for a cutie like this one, I believe I've started taking a liking to her. I believe I'll keep her for myself."

Hisao's blood practically boiled over.

He found new strength rising within him. This was no longer the time to be worried about himself.

His eyes scanned his surroundings, looking for anything he could use to his advantage.

Yes.

Hisao Sagara wasn't out of the fight yet.

He still had one card left to play.

Hisao Sagara was not like those Skill-Out thugs.

No.

Hisao Sagara was an esper.

He was just barely a level 3 esper—but his ability was useless.

No.

Hisao Sagara would make it useful.

Hisao Sagara would use it to save his sister.

He had to.

-[6]-

"Let me go! Stop iiitt!" Rika's screamed, tears welling up in her eyes. The top thug merely ignored her protests. He yanked on her arm, and Rika was pulled straight into his embrace with a spin like some kind of screwed up couples' dance. The other goons laughed at that.

"LET ME GOOOOOO!"

Her screams echoed through that small empty square.

But that wasn't the only thing spreading through that space.

"What the–?" exclaimed on the of Skill-Out goons?

"What the hell is going on?" questioned another.

The top thug also found himself confused by what was happening.

But Rika knew what it was.

A thick haze had suddenly engulfed that small area. A fog or smoke would be a better description.

But there was no actual dampness of fog, or suffocating stench of smoke.

Nonetheless, visibility in that space had been dropped to two metres at best. Beyond that was just a plain white nothing. One could barely see their own feet here.

Their bearings all of a sudden jumbled, the thugs swivelled about in place. They might have been able to make out one or two of their nearby buddies in that white void, but that was it.

"The hell is this fog?" a goon asked.

"Ah. I bet I've got a pretty good idea."

The top thug had caught on quickly.

The thick and debilitating fog made visibility next to nothing, but sound was unaffected. The thugs had no issue communicating amongst each other.

CRACK!

They had no issue hearing that, either.

Shortly after, something hit the ground with an impactful 'flop'.

Skill-Outs would've known that sound well.

It was the sound of a collapsing human body.

"It's that shit-wipe's ability." confirmed the top thug.

Indeed.

Hisao Sagara was, in fact, a level three esper.

-[7]-

Micro Refractor

That was his esper ability.

This ability allowed Hisao to create countless microscopic refractive lenses in the surrounding air, scattering the incoming light every-which-way. The result was a phenomenon similar to when tiny airborne water droplets do the same thing in nature.

It created one hell of a thick fog.

This ability had a glaring issue, though.

Hisao's visibility had been crippled just as hard as those thugs'.

He could barely see two metres in any direction.

Furthermore, even covering this small open square with his fog was pushing his ability to its limit. If the area were any wider, he would not have been able to cover it all, leaving some of the thugs high and dry.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, it really was a useless ability that put Hisao at absolutely no advantage whatsoever.

But here, it was enough.

Hisao had taken that opportunity to grab a sturdy-looking wooden broom from within the alley he had been trapped in. He then brought its stick down hard upon the head of that goon blocking his way to saving Rika.

It had worked.

One down, seven to go.

Hisao stepped over that first fallen thug and into the square proper.

"He's by the exit. Get his ass!" commanded the top thug.

He was right. That's exactly where Hisao had to have been.

But he didn't have to stay there.

Hisao darted to the right immediately upon entering. He felt the air around him being forced about as some thugs leapt toward the spot he had just been in, only to find nothing but their fallen buddy.

"Shit! Bones is down! He got nailed!" shouted one thug. Hisao was almost surprised by how loud that shout was. It was no surprise really; that thug was barely three metres away, after all.

"Just catch that shit-wipe!" commanded the top thug.

They didn't know where Hisao was, but he knew where they were.

"Check the alley!" shouted one of the Skill-Outs from very close by.

Hisao crept a metre closer to where that voice had come from. He could now just make out the silhouette of that thug looking down at the one they called "Bones".

It was now or never.

Hisao leapt forward, and swung his solid broomstick down onto the skull of that clueless Skill-Out.

CRACK!

"Ahh! Fuck!" shouted the victim of Hisao's wrath.

It hadn't been enough for a knockout, but as Hisao jumped back into his fog, he saw that thug double over, clasping his rattled head, before fading away into that wall of white. That guy was still as good as down, for now. He had also seen the shocked face of another thug who had been with him.

"I saw him! His ass is mine." shouted that thug.

Hisao had been spotted. That was bad.

Or it should have been, but Hisao knew the opportunity when he saw it.

That Skill-Out thug would have been rushing in the direction he saw Hisao disappear into. The thug surely expected to be able to uncover Hisao in that fog and catch him.

But that thug was running blind.

So, what if the thug were to find something else instead? What if he were to find something much more painful?

The thug was approaching. Hisao could hear his frantic footsteps.

Hisao readied himself. The thug's silhouette would be coming into view at any moment.

But by then, it would have been too late; now was the time to strike.

Holding the brush end of the broom, Hisao thrust the stick end forward like a rapier.

"Guh! Ack!"

Contact!

There was no way he could have seen that coming.

The far end of the broomstick had disappeared into the fog, but Hisao could clearly feel what was at the other end.

He pulled back his weapon into a two-handed grip; then he quickly leapt forward.

A figure came into view through the wall of white. The thug had fallen to one knee and was clasping at his throat.

Like an executioner with a great-sword, Hisao finished him off.

CRACK!

Three down. I might just be able to make this work out.

But just as Hisao was beginning to get confident…

"NII-SAN!"

A scream from deep in the white void caught Hisao's full attention. He paused for just a second.

But even a single second was one too many.

A figure jumped out from the white nothing.

"There you are!" growled the thug.

He was coming at Hisao fast.

Hisao had to dive out to the side for any chance to escape his pursuer and back into the fog.

Hisao had no time to think. He leapt out of the path of his attacker—and straight into a concrete wall.

Shit!

This open square was not that large, and visibility had been reduced to only two metres.

Hisao had lost his bearings and fallen victim to his own esper ability.

Before Hisao could steady his feet again, he felt vicious hands grasping at his back. He was pulled back from the wall.

"I got the fucker!" shouted the voice at his back.

As Hisao struggled, he heard footsteps darting in his direction. Before he knew it, another enemy leapt out from that wall of white. He spotted Hisao and began to wind up one hell of a punch as he ran forward.

Hisao was trapped by the thug behind. There was no way he'd be able to dodge that attack.

But he still held that broomstick tight in his hands. He was not entirely helpless.

Before his attacker fully closed the distance, Hisao braced the bristle end of the broom up against his stomach, holding the stick end out in front of him.

Before the charging knew what Hisao had done, it was too late.

"Guhh!"

With all of his forward momentum, the thug ran himself right into the end of the broom. This was a regular old wooden broom, so it wouldn't have run him through like a spear or anything so gruesome. Regardless, with that much force driving the thug's solar plexus into the broom's tip, it had to hurt like hell. The rigid broomstick also provided a reliable buffer space between Hisao and the charging thug.

In the end, that thug's fist never managed to reach Hisao's face.

But that much force had to go somewhere. The brush end of the broom was pressed hard into Hisao's stomach, and so he suddenly found himself being knocked backwards, colliding with the other thug holding his back. Both Hisao and the thug behind him went tumbling onto their backs, while the once-charging thug collapsed to the side, clutching his chest and gasping for air.

Hisao had used the broom in this way entirely out of pure fighting instinct. He usually would have been impressed with his own quick ingenuity here.

But that had actually been a very bad play.

"Ugh!" choked Hisao.

Shit!

Hisao was lying on his back atop the thug he had fallen onto—and that thug now had him in a headlock.

Hisao was a not-yet 13 year old boy. There was absolutely no chance he'd be able to force himself free of a headlock from a muscular delinquent high-schooler.

The fight was as good as over.

"I got his ass! He's done!" growled the victorious thug.

"Good job, Crow. Keep his ass on the ground." responded a familiar cruel voice from across the fog.

Hisao had found a way to make his useless ability work with the situation.

Hisao had used it and fought well.

But it still wasn't enough to rescue his sister.

He had lost regardless.

He simply didn't have what it took to save the day.

Such is the fate of the middling esper.

The vice grip around Hisao's neck refused to budge. The world started to go dark for Hisao; he could no longer keep running the mental calculations needed to maintain his esper ability.

Just like that, the opaque fog in that small square space dissipated in an instant, replaced by a growing fog in Hisao's mind as his consciousness was beginning to slip away. Hisao knew that he could not let himself pass out now, especially once he saw what had been on the other side of that vanishing fog wall.

"Nii-san!"

"Shut the fuck up."

Two of the Skill-Out goons were still unharmed, and two others were managing to get back onto their feet despite Hisao's attacks. In the middle of the square, there stood one more Skill-Out.

The top thug—he stood there with a vicious grin on his face. In his grip, there was a girl. One of the top thug's hands was violently holding her by the hair.

In the other, he had a knife pressed to her throat.

In that moment, Hisao lost all hope.

-[8]-

"How do you like that, eh shit-wipe?" the monster taunted Hisao, his face transforming into a diabolical smirk, "I'll be frank with you, kid. It's gonna be absolute hell for you from here on out."

"Please stop! I'll do anything!" pleaded that girl in his grip. Her face had gone red, and tears were streaming down her face.

"Oh, I know you will darling." responded the horrid youth. Some of his buddies chuckled at that.

Trapped on the ground, teetering at the edge of consciousness, Hisao was powerless to do anything.

"Please let Nii-san go!" pleaded Rika, "I'll be your girlfriend! That's what you wanted, right?"

"Well," chuckled the top thug, "I never said anything about girlfriend, more along the lines of play-thing."

A fresh tide of tears erupted from Rika's reddened eyes. Upon seeing that, Hisao's felt dampness creeping up in his own.

It really was an absolute travesty that Rika's esper ability didn't work on a moving human target, Hisao lamented. She might have been able to free herself from that monster's grasp, otherwise. Hisao would never blame her for that insufficiency, though. That wasn't her fault.

"But," the top thug continued, staring deep into Rika's terrified eyes, "we're gonna need a way to keep you loyal, girl. We need a way to make sure you'll keep coming back to me, and not run off to report us to Anti-Skill."

The thug's gaze turned to Hisao, laying helplessly only a few metres away.

"And I know just the thing."

"NO! PLEASE NO!"

Rika could surely tell exactly what the top thug was intending to do.

"So, girlie, I'm afraid we won't be letting your dear brother go. I know a lovely little basement he can stay in. We won't even have to feed him. That'll be your job, hahahaha!"

"STOP IT! THAT'S NOT FAIR! PLEASE!"

Rika's pleading was left entirely unheard.

In Hisao's young mind, this seemingly regular old street thug had turned out to be one of the most diabolical human beings imaginable.

"But before you can feed your dear brother, and clean out his shit-bucket and what-not, you're going to have to satisfy my hunger, girlie. Hehehe." The top thug chuckled as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It was the kind of giddy chuckle one usually did when they got a great deal on a second-hand television, yet here the top thug was, laughing about this. How far off the deep end did one have to be to find such joy in this? "Every day you don't come over and see me, gorgeous, is a day your dear little brother doesn't eat. And if you rat us out to Anti-Skill: he dies—simple as that! It really is a perfect arrangement, isn't it?"

Rika had stopped screaming in protest be then. In response to her and her brother's decided fate, she could only weep.

All hope was lost.

Today was supposed to be Hisao's and Rika's first day of middle school. It was meant to be a day of full of brand new experiences. Middle school was sure to have its challenges, but it was supposed to be an enriching time in the lives of these two young people. Hisao had been cautiously optimistic about this new stage of his life.

So how had that exciting first day ended up like this? It had been brought to a horrifying end before it could even begin.

It had been all Hisao's fault.

It was his idea to take the alley detour to bypass that explosive esper fight. The confidence he'd had in his navigational knowledge after all of that prior research was what had led them into this situation. It had been his caution and insistence on preparation that had brought them into a confrontation that they never could have prepared for, even if they'd tried. Skill-Outs didn't show up on maps.

"I'm… Sorry… Rika."

Hisao just barely managed to choke out those words.

And then he cried.

Both of the twins did.

This was the kind of world that those twins had suddenly been thrust into.

There was nothing that either of them could do at this point…

… Except pray.

So that's what Hisao did.

Please God, or gods. Please, whoever's listening, help us! I know I haven't been all that devout over my life, but please do something to save us—to save Rika! Please send a hero, a thunderbolt, a tornado, anything! I promise to be the best person I possibly can be if you hear our prayers and help us!

Prayer was especially uncommon in this futuristic city of science and rationality, but for the first time in his life, Hisao Sagara prayed from the bottom of his heart. He begged for a miracle.

He begged with his heart and soul that a miracle would appear and rescue them from this evil.

Of course, that would have been too easy.

…

Or so one might have thought.

-[9]-

CRASH!

"Shi-. Fuck!"

"Eek!"

Something silver and metallic had flown in from somewhere and smashed into the top thug's broad upper back. The impact knocked him forward and his chest crashed into Rika's back. The force of the impact actually allowed Rika to be popped out of his grasp. She fell onto the ground in front of him with a squeak. The top thug has no time to be worrying about her though. He swivelled around to see what had hit him.

The silver object clattered hard onto the concrete ground behind him and tipped over. It was a dirty old stainless steel bucket—with bricks in it. The top thug only had a split second to process what he was seeing before his gaze was pulled up just in time to catch a pair of feet flying in to collide with his face.

SMASH!

In that split second, Hisao could practically hear the cartilage in the top thug's face being ground into dust. That evil thug was sent flying. In his place appeared a flash of grey.

That uniform.

The top thug flew three or so metres before crashing hard upon the solid concrete. His assailant landed on their hands and feet, as if in the middle of a push-up, in the spot the menace had been standing a split-second earlier. With a quick push-up–like motion, the figure shot back up to their feet like a raised racing flag.

Standing in that spot, that boy was now clear enough for Hisao to see. That grey gakuran, fully unbuttoned, was definitely one from that school—Hisao and Rika's new school. He was rather tall for a middle schooler; he must have been a third-year. His chestnut-brown hair was on the longer side and mostly swept back, but that flying dropkick must have messed it up a bit, as some locks of it had gone rogue. In those matching chestnut eyes, Hisao saw the look of a calculated hunter.

He knew not why nor how, but in that moment, Hisao knew that his desperate prayer had been answered. In that one isolated moment, he felt his faith in God (whichever one was real) stand tall and proud.

A hero had been sent to save them.

But the fight was far from over.

Four Skill-Out thugs were still standing to oppose him.

No—five. One of the thugs that Hisao had knocked out was now getting back onto his feet; it was that "Bones" guy.

The twins' hero was surrounded on all sides. Five on one; most of them were a bit bigger than him. To make matters worse, they had him surrounded on all sides now.

Rika remained prone on the ground in front of him, frozen in place like a hiding fawn.

The real battle was about to begin. Hisao hoped with all of his heart that this hero knew what he was doing.

All stood still. An all-out brawl would be triggered in response to the slightest movement from anyone.

Who would make the first move?

Him!

One thug took the first step forward, toward his enemy.

In response, the hero shot forward like an arrow.

The fight had begun. The circle of other Skill-Outs leapt towards their enemy like seagulls descending upon tossed bread.

That first thug quickly jabbed his fist toward his oncoming foe, but the hero dropped down under it, and before thug number one knew it, he had been met with a nasty uppercut to the jaw from the foe now directly in front of him. Instead of following through with the strike, the hero kept the momentum going by bouncing back towards a second thug now rushing at him from behind. He twisted his body around and delivered a lightning-fast palm-strike right into the thug number two's nose. In an instant, the hero had grabbed the thug's shirt with that same striking hand, and capitalised his own body weight to swing him around before letting him loose into the path of thug number three. With the momentum he had built up with that body swinging, he shot off in a spin to drive an elbow right into thug number four's nose.

All this had taken place in the span of about three or four seconds.

Just who is this guy?

Hisao began to wonder that in a state of awe, before he found something else pressing on his mind—quite literally.

There was still one more thug in this fight: the one who still had Hisao in a headlock—Crow, he was called.

The thug had just altered his grip on Hisao's head. As much as Hisao might have enjoyed the better circulation to his head, the newfound mental clarity led to a sense of abject horror shooting through him the moment he figured out what was happening.

Is this a neck-snapping grip?!

This was nothing like those easy-looking neck-twists you might see done by buff action heroes in the movies, but Hisao instantly recognised what the grip had to be from the moment he felt that horribly painful pressure against the back of his head. He knew that with too much of that pressure, his cervical vertebrae would pop apart, his spinal cord would be severed, and it would be lights out for him—forever.

His horrified suspicions were then confirmed.

"Hey punk! Surrender now or your little buddy gets snapped like a twig!" threatened the Skill-Out.

Fuck!

Hisao had never felt so aware that his life could be instantly ended at any moment. The complete and utter lack of personal agency afforded him, on top of the threat of instant death, made him feel especially lucid in that moment. The default speed of the universe itself seemed to slow to a crawl. Hisao's life now lay in that monster's hands, and the hero's.

Hisao wondered how the hero would respond to the threat on Hisao's life. Hisao liked to think that his life was worth something. What would the hero do in the face of such a threat?

Apparently, the answer: nothing.

The hero simply kept bouncing around the battlefield from enemy to enemy like a violent pinball. He landed strike after strike against thug after thug, his focus completely on the fight—he was completely ignoring the fact that Hisao's life was clearly at stake.

Why did he even bother showing up if he's just gonna let me die anyway? Hisao lamented his unimportance.

"Hey! I said I'll kill the kid if you don't surrender yourself, you bastard!" It appeared that this thug, 'Crow', wasn't taking the complete disregard terribly well, either.

Again, the hero completely ignored the two of them laying there in that filthy little corner. He zipped about the battlefield like a snake, winding around enemy attacks and striking at any openings he saw—or didn't see?

Hisao noticed that. There's no way the hero could've made some of those attacks and dodges—not unless he had eyes on the back of his head or something.

How the hell?

Hisao was so confused that the direct threat to his life was almost of secondary importance now. The thug holding him was quick to remedy that.

"Didn't you hear me?! I'll kill the kid!" shouted Crow.

No response. By this point, there was no way the hero hadn't heard him. It was just dodge after dodge, hit after hit. By now, a few of the thugs in the brawl were slowing down. They were tough for taking that many strikes (often to the face), that was for certain. Granted, the hero's strikes were not that hard, since with five enemies coming at him from all sides at all times, he probably couldn't afford to dedicate too much time or force to any one enemy at one time. If he'd dedicated all of his energy to finishing one thug before dealing with the others, they would've piled onto him and worn him down very quickly indeed.

Hisao thought he was beginning to understand the strategy the hero was employing here.

The hero had to slow them down, break apart the swarm, and then finish them off one by one. That was indeed the only way to win this five-on-one.

The hero launched a jab that landed in the throat of a thug, who then collapsed to the ground, grasping at his neck.

That's one temporarily down, noticed Hisao, but he'll be back up again before long.

But the hero didn't have the time to finish putting that thug down, as the others were in his face again an instant later.

"Listen to me, you punk! I really will kill him!" shouted the thug at Hisao's neck. He was getting quite impatient. Hisao's chest tensed up thinking about what would happen when that patience ran out.

Or would it?

'Crow' was threatening to kill Hisao in order to get the hero to surrender himself. It made no sense for Hisao to be killed if the hero hadn't even thought about stopping yet.

That was it.

The hero had definitely heard those threats, but acting as if he hadn't heard them allowed him to keep beating down the other thugs, knowing that the thug on the ground (a) wasn't going to waste the only ammunition he could use to make the hero submit, and (b) wasn't going to join in the fight until he had made good use of that ammunition. Hisao wasn't actually in any real danger until the thug knew that the hero was well aware of it. Leaving the thug in doubt as to whether his threats had been heard had essentially frozen him in place and made him a temporary non-issue.

Blackmailing someone was useless if you couldn't even get the message across.

Relief washed over Hisao's body; he knew that he was more or less safe for now. He did, however, made sure to continue acting frightened to prevent the thug from threatening and hurting him any further.

Hisao was more or less safe for the time being, but wasn't there someone else he should be concerned about?

Rika! Where is she?!

Hisao scanned the battlefield to locate her. From his awkward position on the ground, and the arms wrapped around his head, his field of view was rather limited. Luckily, he managed to spot her.

There!

The hero had kept all of the standing thugs more or less occupied, so Rika was able to sneak away from the epicentre of the brawl. She was currently tightly squeezing herself into one of the alley square's corners, out of the way of the main fight, and out of the way of the thugs who might think to use her as a hostage or a shield.

Why hasn't she run off? She could have warned Anti-Skill or Judgment.

In the moment Hisao began wondering that, Rika made eye contact with him from the other side of the battlefield. It was plain as day why she hadn't left.

They exchanged a heartfelt look with one another.

Yeah. I would never abandon you here alone either, Rika.

A moment later, their lines of sight to each other was severed. Something was sent tumbling back across the battlefield and fell to the hard ground in the space between the twins.

It was one of the thugs. It didn't look like he was getting back up any time soon.

The number of fighting thugs was dropping. The fight would be ending soon. The twins might just make it out of this.

In response to his buddy's defeat, Mr 'Crow' went to try again with the (thus far ineffective) blackmail.

"Shit! Hey, shithead! I'm gonna kill the kid now!"

To make sure that Hisao didn't get too comfortable after all of the failed threats, the thug made sure to tighten his neck snapping grip a touch, just to keep him on edge.

Hisao knew he wasn't going to go through with it, but he was spooked a bit, regardless. The hold was indeed very painful.

Another thug was sent careening into one of the walls close to Hisao and Crow. With a couple of jabs and elbows in quick succession, the hero knocked his assailants back for a few seconds. With that time, he picked up the fallen bucket of bricks and began swinging it in a circle like an Olympic hammer thrower. One advancing thug had his arm slammed aside by the swinging weight.

The other thugs returned to surround the hero, who accelerated his bucket hammer spin to keep them at bay. He was like a lion tamer spinning a whip above his head.

But thugs are smarter than lions.

It took very them little time to gauge the timing of the spin. They adjusted the timing of their attacks to land in the short window when the hero's back was turned.

So the hero simply let go of the bucket.

SMASH!

SLAM!

In an instant, the free flying bucket collided hard with a Skill-Out thug's face, and the hero rode the centrifugal force to twist around and drive his elbow hard into the face of another thug who was advancing at him from behind.

He darted across to the wall where the thug he'd knocked over earlier was leaning against, trying to regain his footing.

SMASH!

That thug didn't know what hit him, but Hisao did.

A karate kick from the hero had made contact with the side of that thug's head and sent it smashing right back into the wall. He definitely wasn't getting back up.

Immediately afterwards, those three other thugs were back in the fight. They had to be ridiculously tough to shrug off a flying bucket of bricks and an accelerated elbow strike. One charged forward and threw a punch right at the hero—only to hit empty air. The hero had leapt backwards to dodge it—right towards Hisao and the grounded thug, Crow.

He's not going to land on me, is he?

No, that wasn't it.

Ah!

Hisao understood immediately.

"Shit!"

The thug called Crow also understood. The hero's trajectory in his jump back meant that his landing spot was clear to see—right on top of Crow's face.

He had no time to make another threat, so he quickly released the neck-breaker hold on Hisao's head and scrambled to push Hisao off him. As much as Hisao would've loved to get away from that murderous lunatic, payback came first. Hisao grabbed hold of Crow's arm and refused to let go. That monster was not getting away.

For a split second, they made eye contact. A look of disgusted disbelief appeared in the eyes of that thug.

"You fu—"

That gaze was immediately cut off as a pair of sneakers suddenly appeared where Crow's face had just been.

SMASH!

The hero had treated that thug's face as his own personal trampoline. A certain video game plumber would be proud.

Hisao was free at last. He rolled off the unconscious thug as the hero leapt forward into the fray once more.

Hisao agreed that it had been a good idea to take care of Crow now. If he had been the last one left, then the hero wouldn't have been able to continue ignoring the blackmail. That might have actually stalemated the fight. Hisao had found himself quite impressed by his hero's fighting instincts. He felt like he could learn a lot from his hero's fighting prowess.

But he didn't get much of an opportunity to learn any more than that.

For, less than half a minute later, the last three thugs were down and out.

-[10]-

The saviour of the Sagara twins stood tall amidst that square full of downed enemies.

His breathing was deep and heavy.

For how long had that brawl gone on for? Two? Three minutes?

Even professional boxers were usually pretty worn out by that point, and they usually weren't jumping around quite as much as the hero was.

He had to be utterly exhausted.

Still, to face off against five Skill-Outs in a confined arena and come out on top…

Did he even take a real hit?

Hisao had caught him catch glancing blows and clumsy jabs here and there, but nothing much harder. Was taking those hits a calculated manoeuvre to achieve more optimal positioning, or to deliver a superior strike, or simply an acceptable margin of error?

Hisao shakily rose back onto his feet. He had to thank his saviour from the bottom of his heart. He had to race over to Rika to make sure she was okay. He had to get the hell out of here. There was a lot he had to do.

But something happened before he could do any of that.

"Eek!" screamed out a voice. It was Rika's.

Hisao's eyes shot over to where she was standing, still tucked into that corner.

But she was not the only person Hisao saw.

"You know, that's quite the kick you've got there."

Shit! He's back up!

It was the top thug.

In his hand was a small handgun.

But it wasn't pointed at Rika, nor was it pointed at Hisao.

The two of them had been relegated to an afterthought.

The top thug pointed his gun straight at the hero across the square.

Five or six metres separated them.

The hero started turning to face his final opponent.

"Oh no you don't! You stay right where you are, hero boy."

The top thug's face was scuffed and beginning to bruise up badly. His nose was clearly broken, but that wasn't going to stop him. He had the hero dead to rights. No matter how great a brawler he was, the hero could not beat an opponent with a gun at medium range—especially when he was stuck facing away from the enemy. There was simply no way.

"Now get down on your knees, face on the ground." demanded the top thug.

In response, the hero did not do that. In direct defiance of the top thug, the hero turned 180 degrees to face him. Through locks of thoroughly messed-up hair, he stared the top thug dead in the eyes.

"Well fuck you too, then." uttered the top thug.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out through the area.

Fuck! Oh fuck!

Hisao's jaw dropped. He had never seen someone get shot before. Across the square, Rika was also frozen in shock. A chilling sense of abject horror flooded through Hisao's body—and guilt. Hisao's error had resulted in a heroic stranger getting killed right before his very eyes.

It was all Hisao's fault.

I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm so, so sor–"

Hisao paused.

Something was off here.

The gun had been fired while aimed square at the hero. It was natural to assume that he had expected to hear a body fall to the ground after that.

So why hadn't that happened yet?

Hisao's eyes shot to where the hero was standing—to where he was still standing.

How?

"What the fuck?! How?!"

The top thug was thinking the same thing. He quickly regained his composure, and aimed his gun square at the hero once again.

BANG!

The gun fired again. The bullet bored straight into the wall behind where the hero had been standing.

How the?!

Hisao tried to process what he had just seen.

… Holy shit!

The bullet indeed bored straight into the wall—right behind where the hero had been standing.

How the hell did he do that?!

The hero had made it look like the most natural thing in the world.

Did he just fucking dodge a bullet?!

Hisao simply could not believe his eyes.

"What the FUCK?!"

Neither could the top thug. His eyes went wide in disbelief.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Three shots rang out in quick succession. Surely nobody could dodge that. It had to be impossible.

But the hero did it anyway. He wasn't even leaping out of the way like an action movie hero or anything.

With just a simple tilt of the head here, a twist to the side there, a lean to the left, or a step to the right.

Each bullet missed its mark by what had to be millimetres.

That was all it took.

It's like he wasn't even trying.

"What the fuck are you?!" yelped the top thug.

It was understandable that he was freaking out now.

Most of the time, a Skill-Out with a gun would only have to worry about level 5 espers, perhaps some level 4s as well.

But now, against an opponent who showcased seemingly no offensive esper ability, the top thug's gun had proven worthless.

And now, it was that opponent's turn to make a move.

That hero darted towards the top thug like a striking viper.

BANG! BANG!

A simple duck and weave was all it took to ensure that no bullet could hit him. It didn't slow down his advance in the slightest.

That five or six metre gap was closed in next to no time at all.

"Are you fu—?!"

Before the top thug could even complete his reaction, the hero had already landed his hand on the top thug's gun—and twisted it.

"—AGH! SHIT!"

But the gun was not wrenched from the top thug's grasp.

Indeed, quite the opposite.

The twisting of that small handgun into such an unusual angle had resulted in the top thug's trigger finger being painfully wedged inside the trigger guard. His hands were rather large, and the gun rather small; it wouldn't have been hard to get his finger trapped in there. Additionally, the gun looked cheaply made with lots of sharp edges that had to be digging deeply and painfully into the top thug's finger.

But wait. Why hasn't the gun gone off?

That question took sudden priority in Hisao's mind. The top thug might have been able to free his finger from the trigger guard by pushing the trigger out of the way. Of course, that would have set off the gun.

So why hadn't that happened?

Unless.

Hisao didn't know a whole lot about guns. Growing up in Japan and Academy City, his opportunities to familiarise himself with real-life firearms would have been scarce. He knew them from action movies, cowboy movies, and video games, so he wasn't all too familiar with their inner workings.

But there was one thing that even he knew about guns: they all had a safety switch of some kind—a switch that could lock the trigger or hammer in place and prevent the gun from being fired by accident.

Had the hero flipped that safety switch and locked the trigger the very moment he laid his hand on that gun?

That's insane!

The hero further twisted that gun, along with the finger trapped in it.

Hisao could just about hear a crunching sound coming from the top thug's hand.

"FUCK! SHIT! LET GO!"

In response, the hero did nothing of the sort.

The top thug had suddenly found himself in something of a desperate spot. In less than twenty seconds, the tables had completely been flipped against him by that hero.

But Hisao could tell that he wasn't going to just give up then and there. He was right.

The top thug might have been trapped, stuck with the hero.

But so long as the hero held that twisted gun tight, he was also stuck with the top thug, well within his striking range.

It happened so quickly.

The top thug launched a lightning-fast stab straight towards the hero with his one free hand. His knife was now in that hand. At what point had he grabbed it? Hisao could not tell.

The hero had to let go of the gun to dive out of the way of that stab.

Or so Hisao thought.

The hero instead dove clear out of the path of that stab—without letting go. Employing the momentum of his moving body, he yanked on the gun. He yanked hard.

A wet crunch or snap sounded out.

"AGH! FUCK! ARGGH!"

Something red flashed out as the gun flew from the top thug's hand and clattered some distance away. The top thug shrieked in pain and collapsed onto his knees, quickly abandoning his knife to clasp tight his now quickly reddening hand.

What just happened? Hisao tried to process what he had just seen.

Had the gun shredded the skin off the finger like a potato peeler?

Or had that finger just come straight off?

From here, Hisao could not tell. What he could tell, however, was that this battle was now over.

The top thug looked up to the hero now standing tall over him.

"Who the hell are you?" muttered that defeated monster, fear now taking hold in his eyes.

A fist landed hard upon his brow not a second later. That was the only response he received.

The top thug collapsed to the concrete.

Down and out.

And with that, the early morning battle finally came to an end.

-[11]-

"Hisao, are you alright?!"

Rika came running over the moment it was safe to do so. She landed in his arms but quickly started hunting around Hisao's body for injuries.

"Yeah, I think I'm okay, but what about you?"

Hisao's own wellbeing wasn't a major concern to him right now. He had been roughed up a bit, but it wasn't anything he didn't feel he could walk off. He checked Rika over to make sure she had sustained no injuries while he wasn't watching. His family's wellbeing came first and foremost.

Perhaps that meant that Hisao was becoming a man.

The twins shared a relieved embrace, standing tall in a sea of concrete and unconscious Skill-Out thugs.

Their horror story this morning was over—they had been saved from a horrible fate.

Most people who found themselves in similar situations were not saved by some mysterious unstoppable hero—they were instead sent into a hell with no personal agency afforded to them, with no perceivable escape. Many were doubtless still suffering in those hells at this very moment.

The two of them had yet to process just how lucky they were, just how close to a real-life horror story they'd gotten. Once they realised that fact, they'd be powerless to stop the torrents of tears that would no doubt spill forth.

But for now, the torment had passed for Hisao and Rika Sagara.

The twins were safe at last.

But they weren't the only ones here who had been in very real danger.

The Sagara twins remembered almost in unison, and their gazes shot over to that someone who was standing across the small square from them, cell phone to their ear.

That older boy was their saviour—the hero whose name they still didn't know.

The siblings exchanged a quick look, then began to slowly approach their hero, the one who'd put his own life on the line for a pair of complete strangers like them. There was no way that could go without thanks.

Stepping over unconscious goons, Hisao and Rika moved over to their hero. He finished talking into his phone and put it away to address them.

Hisao found himself suddenly on the spot. Just what was he supposed to say in a situation like this, to a person like this? Luckily, his hero saved him the trouble.

"Anti-Skill is on their way here. They were already nearby due to that other esper fight, so they shouldn't be long." He relayed that information to them as if it were a report. His voice was winded and a bit raspy.

Those words hadn't made Hisao's response any easier to construct. He found himself searching for the right words. Rika chose to be a bit more spontaneous.

"Thank you for saving us, senpai! Those guys were going to turn us into prisoners and play-things, but you stopped them! You're the best senpai ever! Thank you so much!" Rika had simply spat out the first words that came to her mind. It was hardly elegant, but it was grateful and sincere, at least.

Hisao noticed the hero's uniform again.

Yeah, I suppose he would be our senpai.

"Uh, it was nothing. I just did what anyone would've done."

Something about the hero's humility didn't sit right with Hisao. He'd just seen the impossible happen with his own eyes. Questions began stacking up in Hisao's mind. Hisao could no longer keep quiet.

"That was no 'nothing'. H-how did you do that? You didn't even fight with any sort of ability, but some of those moves you pulled should've been impossible. You countered attacks you had no way of seeing! You bested five huge Skill-Outs at once! You dodged bullets! How the hell did you manage that?! There's no way you did it without any ability, so, uh… Just, how?" It was apparently now Hisao's turn to start blathering, with excited (albeit very uncoordinated) hand gestures and all. Self-aware embarrassment quickly hit him once he realised how he was sounding and looking. He averted his gaze and appended the part he had missed. "Also, yes. Thank you for saving us."

The hero paused to process that veritable question-dump. His eyes narrowed a bit, and then he spoke.

"Well, a senpai can't just go revealing his secrets all at once, now can he." he said with a hint of a chuckle. "Also, you're welcome."

"Aw! No fair!"

Hisao was quite dissatisfied with that response, but it was his sister who opened her mouth in protest. For some reason, she immediately quit complaining on the spot and changed her tune.

"Well, would you at least let me know the name of my saviour, oh hero-senpai?" Rika asked the hero, employing a deliberately sweet and princess-like tone, with an endearing tilt of the head at the end for some bonus charm. She was employing some of that girlie-talk again, it seemed.

"Misaka." responded the hero to that that wannabe princess, "Masaya Misaka."

It was then, for the first time since before Mr "Blaze Almighty" showed up earlier that morning, that Hisao saw a real smile grow on his sister's face—a genuine Rika grin, with rosy cheeks and a playful squint to match.

Hisao felt a secret joy in his heart from seeing that cheeky grin returned to her face where it belonged.

Whenever Rika Sagara could smile like that, all was right with the world, as far as Hisao was concerned.

That was, until she opened her mouth again.

"You're so cool Misaka senpai! Please go out with me!"

Hisao choked on his own spit.

Hisao Sagara knew that his sister was prone to becoming careless and getting carried away at times, but had this still caught him completely off-guard. Working desperately and ignominiously to clear his windpipe, he started getting a feeling that this kind of nonsense with her was going to be a regular occurrence in middle school.

In response to… that (while doing his best to ignore the violent coughing fit from right next to him), Masaya Misaka paused with a mild grimace to process the words he'd just heard.

"Uhh. No thanks. I don't date first-years."

That hero had come to the most sensible conclusion.

In response to that perfectly reasonable rejection, Rika pouted with a disappointed "Hmph."

Hisao felt that Masaya Misaka had probably just dodged a bullet there… again. Considering Rika's tendencies, it definitely wouldn't be the last.

Yeah, you caught her interest.

This is the kind of crap you gotta deal with.

Better get used to it buddy.

Hisao was immensely grateful that had grown up to be the more sensible of the Sagara twins. He wouldn't be caught dead making a fool of himself in front of his saviour like that. Rika could brush off that kind of embarrassment easily with little more than a "hmph" or a "teehee", but a dosage like that would kill Hisao on the spot.

Nonetheless, he felt a warm and satisfying camaraderie in welcoming another veteran of classic Rika-nonsense into the world.

But.

In that same moment, Hisao realised that he also felt something else.

Was it hope?

District 7 was a dangerous place. It was full of crazy espers, violent Skill-Outs, and God knows what else that could wreak havoc and destroy one's freedom and happiness at any moment. Hisao and his sister had barely even set foot in this new world, and had already come face-to-face with numerous local threats and horrors unimaginable. Without flashy incredible powers of their own to stand up and oppose those threats directly, Hisao had been sure that he and Rika were destined to a life of perpetual caution, doomed to a disastrous fate if they slipped up even once. Such was the fate of the middling esper—or was it?

Hisao had just now seen a spectacular exception to that rule. There was someone who, despite lacking any explosive, respect-demanding esper ability, had managed to stand up to a great injustice dealt by very dangerous people, and bring it to an end with little more than his bare hands. This person chose to outright ignore the established power dynamics of this city and live life in his own way.

Hisao's eyes turned to that older boy standing before him.

Once again, Hisao found himself in complete awe of this person, of Masaya Misaka, of his hero, of his senpai.

His ideal.

Another revelation struck Hisao.

If someone like this existed, then hope and freedom also existed.

Hisao was well aware that he often came across as the paranoid or neurotic type, but it wasn't like he saw this as who he always wanted to be. He had been locked into this mindset out of necessity. Growing up, he felt like he had needed to be this way to counterbalance Rika's cheerful carelessness. Thus far, that balancing act had served them well.

But now, Hisao was aware that the careful, calculating mindset could only get him so far. Here in District 7, such preventative measures weren't enough. If he wanted to keep himself and Rika safe in this crazy new world where danger could lie around any corner, he needed to become stronger. Hisao's esper ability probably wasn't ever going to be enough to protect the two of them on its own, so he needed to become stronger through any other means necessary.

Standing before him now was a prime example of someone who had managed to achieve just that.

Hisao could not afford to let a chance like this go to waste.

As if out of nowhere, he could feel a sudden confidence rushing through his body like a flash flood. For the first time in who-knows how long, that voice in his head screaming "What am I thinking?" and "What if I fail?" starting to sound awfully quiet. His body shuddered not out of fear, but excitement. Something inexplicable had come over Hisao. He did not know what this feeling was, but he knew that it was pointing him the way forward. All he needed to do was act on it.

And so, he stood up straight, he looked Masaya Misaka in the eye.

Then he spoke.

"Please be my mentor, Misaka senpai!"

Following the utterance of those words, the world was plunged into silence.

Masaya Misaka simply stood there with a stiff expression. Even Rika had been completely caught off-guard, standing there with an odd frozen expression as if her entire brain were replaced by a buffering circle.

Eventually, time resumed and Misaka lightly sighed.

"I'm willing to bet that you two are twins, aren't you?" he finally said with a slight grimace.

Hisao's confidence, pride, resolve, relief, joy, and dignity all shattered into a million pieces. An avalanche of embarrassment appeared in their place and almost killed him on the spot.

A moment later, Anti-Skill arrived on the scene.

AFTERWORD

Hello, dear reader.

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

This is my first fan fiction project. It's been in the works for a good while, but it's finally come together enough that I can begin writing it proper.

This fan fiction is written to mimic the style of a To Aru spinoff novel series, as if this could have been a real To Aru spinoff that existed (if I went back in time and forced Kamachi to give Mikoto a brother when he was writing OT3). This story assumes that Masaya Misaka is already an established and well-known character in the world of A Certain Magical Index, but since the versions of Index and Railgun where Masaya appears don't actually exist (which makes them rather hard to get your hands on), I won't make it required reading to follow this story. Lucky you! ;)

Masaya will be on occasion jumping in and out of the plots of Index and the spinoffs during his journey, but this story is mostly concerned with his journey, not theirs, since I don't really want to be effectively rewriting Kamachi's stories with only minor differences. That doesn't sound like a fun afternoon to me.

This sequence from the perspective of Hisao Sagara was initially supposed to be a quick opening scene to introduce the protagonist and primary perspective character, Masaya Misaka (almost in parallel to the opening scene of Railgun), after which I would write the rest (and majority) of the chapter from Masaya's perspective... But then I had too much fun and accidentally wrote 17000 words of it. This is well and truly long enough for a first chapter, so I guess the first chapter is all Hisao's now. Good for you, kid. Now go stand in the deuteragonist corner where you belong.

As it stands, this chapter represents more of a prologue or a chapter 0 than a chapter 1. The real beginning of Masaya's story and circumstances will be showcased in chapter 2.

Although the actual plot of the story has yet to begin, please feel free, dear reader, to let me know what you think of this first taste of [False Conduct].

-Lacien