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.

7. Part 1 - Chapter 7 (System Scan)

PART 1, CHAPTER 7

-[1]-

Today was Monday.

Masaya Misaka was now as good as new—at least physically speaking.

But that was not all. Something else was important about today—something he was not nearly as enthusiastic about.

Today was System Scan day.

Masaya was perfectly familiar with the whole affair.

In fact, he was so familiar with it, he was even setting his own personal rules for it.

Just one, actually:

Don't even think about doing that.

-[2]-

"Masaya Misaka. The Ohm Sight System Scan is ready for you now."

Masaya was ushered into the school gymnasium—more specifically, to the stage from the back door behind it.

He was the only student in the building.

From his seat on the stage, he could see a number of tall stands being automatically rolled in on wheeled feet. Once they reached their final positions, they sat at equal distance intervals from Masaya's position.

Atop each stand sat a featureless black box—each of the boxes would've been large enough to contain a single basketball were it hollow.

Masaya was quite familiar with these testing implements.

This was the typical setup for the Ohm Sight ability evaluation.

Strictly speaking, to call it 'typical' would be disingenuous. Ohm Sight was actually a very rare ability; every user who possessed an ability under that definition (or close enough) could be counted on one hand—in a city of approximately 1.8 million espers.

At level-3, Masaya stood as Ohm Sight's foremost user.

As such, this 'typical' evaluation setup had in fact been created with him as its reference.

To minimise potential for distraction of the participant, contamination of the testing area, or damage to the delicate equipment, Masaya's test was the only one happening in the gymnasium at the moment. Other testing areas around the school typically had a bunch of students being tested alongside one another. As a spatial awareness ability, proper testing of Ohm Sight required precise control of the testing space, so Masaya's test necessitated such isolation.

In front of Masaya was a desk with a two sheets of paper on it. One sheet contained some helpful reference, while on the other was written a number of tasks. The number of tasks matched the number of cubes, and they each had their own subtasks.

Masaya understood the process well enough. He'd done it enough times, after all.

Now standing a few feet from his seat was Masaya's System Scan evaluator. Masaya didn't really know him, but he was a teacher in Tatenkara whom Masaya had never had a class with. He'd seen him around here and there.

Masaya had had this teacher as his evaluator numerous times, so they both knew the whole procedure by this point.

Even so, his evaluator made sure to outline the testing procedure regardless—as was proper to do.

"Now, Masaya Misaka, the Ohm Sight System Scan will be conducted as follows:"

The evaluator then proceeded to briefly outline the simple task.

"There are ten black boxes here today—each spaced out in two metre intervals from your precise position. Contained within each of the black boxes is an integer number from zero to nine constructed from a specific material suspended inside a solid mass made of a separate buffer material. The digits are all constructed in the simplified cuboid style showcased on your reference sheet. This number in each box is in turn constructed from an assembly of smaller numbers, all of the same value as one another. Each of those smaller numbers is in turn constructed from an assembly of again smaller numbers, and so on, akin to a fractal. In total, there are six levels of detail within each box, which means six digits of decreasing size to be identified. The space around each number is filled with a buffer material at each size level, not just for the largest number; however, each level of detail features a different buffer material filling the negative space around the digits, not just the largest level. Your task in this evaluation consists of two objectives. The first is to use your ability to read each the six digits of decreasing size in each box, and note them down as a single six-digit value, with the digits in order of largest to smallest. Any number you are unable to read due to the limits of your ability can be left blank or guessed, so you are allowed to submit numbers with less than six digits, or simply guess the rest if you're not certain—as this helps to gauge the precision level of your ability. Your second objective is to identify the buffer material in each box, at each level, and then finally the material that the smallest digits are cut from. On the table beside you is clear, precisely–temperature-controlled box containing a sample-set of every material used in inside all of the boxes, each labelled from A to Z. Their conductive indices should perfectly align with the matching materials inside the black boxes. Simply identify the sample materials that match the conductivity of the buffer material at each level and write the corresponding letter in the 'buffer materials' field for each box below the field for the six-digit number. In the end, that field should contain seven letters in total, six from the buffer materials surrounding each level's digit, and then the final material of the smallest digits as the last letter of the string for each box. Please be sure to write all of your answers in clear block letters and numbers for easy grading. You will have fifteen minutes to identify and note down as many digits and material letters as you can. You are not allowed to leave your seat for the duration of the test, in order to ensure the accuracy of the data at specific distances. Do you have any questions, Masaya Misaka?"

"Not at the moment. I understand the task."

The evaluator had let loose quite the mouthful, and nobody could be blamed for missing some crucial details upon hearing that flood of information for the first time.

But this was far from the first time for Masaya Misaka. He knew how the test worked perfectly well.

At the end of the day, the Ohm Sight System Scan was essentially a 'volumetric eye test', just using digits and conductivity values instead of printed letters, and completed with Ohm Sight instead of eyes. Those differences aside, the objective was largely the same, just with more things to look for, and you had to do it ten times over in order to provide data for a range of distance values.

"Very good. Feel free to ask me any questions for clarification during the course of your evaluation, but just know that I am unable to provide you with any answers."

"Will do."

The evaluator nodded.

"Excellent. Masaya Misaka, your System Scan begins…now."

Masaya got straight to work. His Ohm Sight kicked into gear.

3-7-0-3-6-8-4-2-1-9

The numbers strings for each box were supposed to be six digits, not ten.

But that wasn't what Masaya was doing.

Instead, he identified the largest digits of every box instead. It was satisfying to get the easy stuff out of the way first.

G-R-B-S-X-C-J-L-A-E

He also identified and matched the first buffer materials to their samples with ease. Instead of filling his answer sheet row-by-row, he was effectively going column-by-column.

He then did the same thing for the second level of detail. This also went by largely smoothly; however, the last box or two were already nearing the limit of his detection range at that level of fidelity. The second-level digits at that distance of around twenty metres were already beginning to defocus out of recognisability, but he managed to identify them using process of elimination using his digit reference sheet. All of the digits were effectively made up of simple cubes arranged into the shape of a number, like a 3D version of the blocky pixelated numbers you might find on an old scientific calculator, so they were easy enough to distinguish from each other.

On the other hand, identifying the last boxes' buffer materials at the second level was especially difficult, since the conductivity readings from the buffer material were blurring into the readings from the digits. This could have been manageable if he could know the material of the level two digits, after which he could check averages using mental combinations from the sample set (since the materials were kept separate, he didn't have to worry about conductivity readings being contaminated due to chemical reactions or alloying), however, the digits were already composed of a combination of materials including the level three buffer material and the level three digit material (which itself was a combination of the level four buffer material and the level four digit material, and so on). Luckily, due to managing to identify box ten's second-level digit as being zero, Masaya had a nice big hole in the digit to record the buffer material with minimal interference from the digit materials, after which he managed to find a close enough match in the material sample set. That was lucky for him, but the fact that he was relying on tricks like that meant that he was already reaching his fidelity limit at the range of twenty metres.

He definitely wasn't going to be getting any further in detail within box ten—or probably nine or eight for that matter.

Still, completing the second level felt nice. He'd also managed to achieve that during his last System Scan, but it had taken him a lot longer to do it back then.

Masaya's ability hadn't really grown in strength much, due to unfortunate circumstances beyond his control. On the other hand, he was still growing in experience with using it, giving him more tricks up his sleeve for tight calls like back there in box ten, which was something of a consolation.

That wasn't going to raise his level, though.

Masaya continued on with the test. The fifteen minute time limit wasn't so much like a time limit in a regular written exam, but more to keep Masaya from wasting time by getting indecisive with his answers. It was a 'know what you can and can't do and then focus on what you can do' time limit more than a 'keep pace or fail' time limit.

The third level of each box was harder. The nearer boxes were as trivial as always, the required volumetric fidelity was still easily doable at those closer distances. On the other hand, Masaya only managed to identify the digits up to box seven, and just barely; boxes nine and ten were simply not going to happen, and box eight was only just beyond him. He also had to give up on identifying box seven's buffer material—the blurry digit two was not going to be nearly as forgiving as a nice open zero when you were trying to identify what was filling the gaps.

Ohm Sight had a resolution falloff consistent with an inverse of distance. Using a distance of two metre as a baseline, a distance of four metres would have half the detection fidelity, and a distance of sixteen metres would have one eighth. Box one was two metres away, and box eight was sixteen metres away, so it made sense why it would getting difficult at that range. That also meant that something fourteen metres away and something sixteen metres away would have one seventh and one eighth fidelity respectively in comparison to two metres away. That was not a whole lot of difference in fidelity between seven and eight, so box seven for instance was only barely more readable than box eight. Sometimes, that distinction was very difficult to make, and a more readable shape at a slightly greater distance might have actually been easier to identify than a slightly closer shape that was of a less legible form. All in all, it was just a big grey area.

Masaya didn't feel too bad about not completing the third fidelity level on the last boxes. This wasn't a pass or fail exam. This was a stress test, designed to find Ohm Sight's limits. He doubted that even a level-5 Ohm Sight user would be able to pinpoint the digits and buffers on the last boxes at the fifth or sixth level of detail. Even if they could, the next System Scan they did could've just added even more boxes at even greater distances. There was simply no getting a perfect score in this test. That was the point.

Masaya realised that he was going to use up all of his time if he kept focusing on the far end. He shifted his attention to the nearer boxes, where he could nail some more easy points. The first box was quick and easy. He identified and filled in all six digits, matched the rest of the buffer materials, as well as the material of the sixth digit itself.

Box one was completed perfectly.

He moved onto box two. At four metres away, Ohm Sight could see the interior of the box at up to half of the maximum fidelity of box one. That was actually enough to pinpoint the fifth digit and its buffer, and Masaya managed to identify even the sixth blurry digit, if barely, but separating its material from its buffer was not going to be feasible at this distance.

And so, Masaya continued using his ability to peer inside each box, going as far deep in detail as he could, identifying digits and matching buffer materials as far as possible, and then filling in his answers.

After that, he took a look at his answer sheet. It was about what he had expected. If he turned his sheet on its side, the filled in answers may have even roughly resembled a graph measuring Ohm Sight's typical inverse fidelity falloff.

"…"

Indeed, completely typical.

Un-extraordinary.

Level-3.

That didn't make for anything that felt like a satisfactory performance in Masaya Misaka's eyes. In that moment, something compelled Masaya to twist in his seat—and ask his ability evaluator a question.

"Hey. I have a question."

"What is it, Misaka-kun?"

"Do you have an exact baseline for what could qualify as level-4? What would that milestone look like for someone in my position? A number I should be striving towards?"

Being the leading Ohm Sight user in the city meant that he couldn't just look that information up, like with more common abilities.

That made sense—nobody had achieved level-4 in Ohm Sight before.

There was simply no precedent.

The evaluator was probably one of very few who could even hope to answer that question.

Although, whether they would surrender that sort of information was another matter.

"Well, Misaka-kun. I'm not really supposed to tell you this…"

Well that's to be expected. It was worth a shot.

"…But I've seen how hard you work during these scans over the past two years—so, if you can keep this between you and me…" His evaluator brought his voice low with a somewhat gentle smile.

Masaya realised that he should probably pay more attention to the names of the other teachers in this school. Perhaps there were still some hidden allies who were rooting for him from the shadows here and there, despite his diving reputation.

The evaluator continued delivering with his words the gaze of a silent supporter.

"Level-4 Ohm Sight should showcase a consistent inverse falloff with a box five midpoint claiming a precision of stage-four-buffer or higher. Just for the record, you didn't hear this from me."

Box five, level four buffer. If I can do that…

Masaya wasn't expecting such a straight answer from the evaluator, but he put that information straight to work. Time was of the essence now.

Box five. Stage five digit. Is that doable? Here, box five!

Masaya pinpointed the box in question on his answer sheet, and received a surprise.

Wait, I already have the stage four digit! Could I really get the stage four buffer and the stage five digit too?

Masaya recalled just barely managing to identify that digit through process of elimination. Identifying the buffer material was definitely harder than identifying the digit at the same level. Using Ohm Sight to identify a specific material by its conductivity required the reading to be well enough in focus that no readings from a different material could blur into it. It was like using an image editing software's colour picker on an overly low-resolution image—the neighbouring colours would be averaged and contaminate the precise colour you were after—the only real solution for that was to get a better resolution to work with. Identifying what a low-resolution image was showing, however, was much easier in comparison—just like identifying the digit in the case of this evaluation.

Identifying the buffer was going to be harder and require more intense calculation than identifying the digit, and Ohm Sight was already reaching its safe limits already with just that.

The safe limits…

But…

A very dangerous idea crawled its way up from the pits of Masaya's mind…

As it very often did so—only stronger.

Masaya recalled that one and only rule he'd set for himself.

Don't you even dare think about doing that!

That was his one rule, never to be broken.

…Anyway, what if I were to push just a little bit further?

Too late.

Thoughts like those were akin to temptation from the Devil himself.

Masaya swatted that treacherous prospect aside immediately.

No. Absolutely not. I'm not risking that.

There was of course no point in listening to what felt like a little cartoon devil on his shoulder. He knew his absolute limits. He'd been punished for crossing them more than enough times.

That was it. There would be no more thinking about it. The entire idea (and the little shoulder-devil promoting it) was to be put to bed—in a coffin—wrapped in chains—and filled with rocks—and sunk directly over the Mariana Trench, never to be seen or heard from ever again.

"…"

But still…

That level-4 baseline is way too close.

"…"

Masaya's eyes gazed at nothing in particular. His pen sat still in his hand.

He wanted that level-4. He really wanted it.

Alas, it was simply out of reach.

…Or was it truly?

A stream of sweat slid down his brow. He sat completely motionless in his seat with the same dread one would have felt if an escaped tiger had just magically wandered into the room.

"…"

His fight or flight instinct was kicking in.

Masaya knew what would most likely happen were he to go for it.

But…

On the other hand, what would most likely happen were he not to?

Which of those two possible futures was actually scarier for Masaya Misaka?

"…"

The dilemma was agonising.

Oh so agonising.

Masaya was feeling his muscles and chest tightening. A tingling sensation like being wrapped in slightly-electrified wire overtook his body. He began to witness his rationality being eroded away in real-time. That little devil was crawling its way back onto his shoulder.

Even figuratively dropping it to the bottom of the ocean had not been enough to silence it completely.

"…"

With only a few minutes remaining in his System Scan, Masaya needed to make his choice.

And so he did.

Masaya was far from clueless. He was all too aware enough to know how bad of an idea that was. It was a truly horrible idea—a downright next-to-suicidal idea…

…But not a worthless one.

"…"

Were it to actually pay off…

Maybe… Just this once…

Masaya Misaka smiled.

As did that little devil.

-[3]-

Later, Masaya Misaka stared up at a familiar ceiling through closed eyes.

Ohm Sight was useful for things like that.

It had been a while since he'd come to terms with his immediate situation. Nonetheless, he made no efforts at moving from his exact position.

He felt like his blood had been replaced with worms. He felt sickened, not so much in response to any physical ailment, but more so towards himself.

He'd screwed up—horribly.

He had gotten greedy.

He just couldn't help himself.

That little devil was laughing at him.

And this was the result.

Just like every other time.

In that moment, Masaya was disgusted with himself.

He had no excuses this time.

That little devil was laughing at him now.

This failure had been entirely his own fault. He knew he deserved no pity, no sympathy, and no remorse.

He had deliberately made his choice knowing the risks—no, the inevitability of failure—of doing so.

And yet he had done it anyway.

In the end, he had pushed his ability to its absolute limit, and at that push had managed to identify and record that fourth-level buffer in box five, but not the next level digit required to showcase a level-4 Ohm Sight proficiency.

And then he'd been rewarded with a big fat blackout—entirely as expected.

Naturally, he had then regained consciousness here, on a bed in the nurse's office.

By this point, his anger, grief, sorrow, and whatnot had already been spent. He had no business shedding neither tears nor curses following this disaster of entirely his own doing.

By this point, he just felt tired.

After simply lying in that same spot for almost two hours, eventually, Masaya concluded that he couldn't simply lie there forever. Using Ohm Sight to read the analogue clock in the office, it appeared that classes were already out for the day.

There was something inside Masaya's jacket pocket.

At last, he managed to put forth the energy to examine it. Opening his eyes, he pulled out that small piece of printed card and gave it a proper inspection.

It was an ability grading card, as expected.

Also, as expected, there was a big fat number 3 on it.

Shocker.

What wasn't expected was that one of the minor parameters had actually risen by the smallest increment. That was no doubt a result of pushing himself to catch that stage four buffer in box five.

That was by a thin margin his best Ohm Sight System Scan performance yet.

So what?

It wouldn't be nearly enough to help him against what was coming for him next.

-[4]-

The door to the nurse's office clattered open, and in strode three boys.

They made a beeline straight towards one of the curtained-off beds.

It didn't take a genius to guess which one.

"Hey, thunder-boy! How're ya holdin' up in there?"

Even before he had opened his mouth, Masaya's Ohm Sight had identified the intruder as Hatano. It appeared that he'd regained some of his misattributed bravado following his recovery from that beating at the hands of a certain hydraulic menace.

When will he stop calling me that?

Two of Tachikuro's other 'dogs' were there with him. They were big burly jock types that made Hatano look like a shrimp in comparison, but Masaya didn't really know these two; they were probably new recruits to Tachikuro's 'kennel'.

Were this just the typical instance of a friendly classmate checking up on their injured desk neighbour, then the backup wouldn't have been needed.

Hatano swung open the curtain with an energy unbefitting of him.

"How's it hanging, fellow level-3?!"

Ah. That'd explain it.

Masaya stared back at the face that had come to greet him. Hatano's rotten smug grin glimmered with an especially toxic aura; it was almost as though he had replaced his toothpaste with fly-spray.

"I see you're finally awake, level-3 thunder-boy."

Masaya instinctively slipped that ability evaluation card still in his hand away from view.

"No need for that." smirked Hatano, "I've already seen it. I'm the one who was asked to bring it to you after all—you know, since you couldn't even finish your System Scan and all."

Masaya said nothing.

"Don't give me that." continued Hatano, "I believe that the two of us should learn to get along with each other a bit more—you know, especially since we're now equals."

Masaya didn't know how he felt being described as Hatano's equal. He might have risen to level-3, but the guy was still filth.

"We're going out to celebrate the big news. All the guys are gonna be there. You should really join us, thunder-boy."

Masaya finally sat up on the bed, placed his feet on the floor, slipped his shoes on, and stood up.

"That sounds cool and all, but I think I'll pass."

Being in the nurse's office was no longer granting him the peace and quiet he felt he needed right now. He stepped past Hatano and the others, and made his way to the door.

In response, Hatano sighed.

And his smirk widened.

"Oh—you think you have a choice?"

The other two boys chuckled.

Masaya ignored them.

Hatano was none-too-pleased by this.

"Get his ass."

Masaya was in no mood to deal with this.

He made a run for it.

Three boys gave chase.

-[5]-

Like most schools, Tatenkara Middle School had a rule forbidding students from running up and down the hallway—but what about directly across it—and straight out the opposing (conveniently opened) second-storey window?

Masaya's three pursuers grunted with dissatisfaction when they witnessed him leap out into open air, clear from their grasps. Reaching out, Masaya managed to catch the branch of one of the still-blooming cherry trees that lined this part of the school. Still a bit too narrow to firmly hold his weight, the branch bent down, and Masaya was lowered enough that he easily drop the remaining two metres to the ground without too much difficulty. When he let go, the branch flicked back up, letting loose a cascade of blossoms.

Masaya had no time to enjoy that view, though. Three sets of feet were already shuffling down the nearest staircase at top speed. He was still being pursued.

And so, the chase was taken off of Tatenkara's campus, and into the city.

Hatano's lack of urgency to touch Masaya while he was on the bed told him that he had already been tagged as a tracking target earlier on—probably when delivering the evaluation card.

It was a match of Ohm Sight vs. Cell Stalker.

Short range detection and mapping vs. long range tracking.

If anything, Masaya had a serious advantage here, even if he was up against a now equal level-3 Hatano.

Cell Stalker gave Hatano the direction and also distance to Masaya, but that was it. On the other hand, Masaya could detect just about anything as long as it was within his practical range. He could detect and keep track of not just his pursuers, but also helpful tools, terrain, options for paths, threats of taking a certain direction, and all that.

Strictly speaking, Hatano wasn't all that much of a threat. Taking him out would free Masaya from the tracking, and it wouldn't actually be all that difficult. Even with those other two there, Hatano had painted as much of a target on his own back as he had on Masaya's.

Getting out of the school was primarily to avoid any troublesome summons from Amine later—or at least try.

Darting through streets and alleyways, Masaya maintained a good pace, keeping far enough ahead of Hatano's group to prevent visual contact around the countless twists and turns, but close enough that he could keep track of them under Ohm Sight. The tight twisting alleyways were especially helpful in that Hatano's distance readings would become impractical. Masaya could double back with an alternate route that brought him surprisingly close to his assailants (as the crow flew), bringing up their hopes that they'd caught up to him, only to find that Masaya was actually on the other side of some wall and thus completely uncatchable. He found some joy in using Ohm Sight to read the displeasure on their faces after finding out that they'd been given the slip.

Hatano wasn't just blindly following his ability, however. Cell Stalker gave Hatano the direction and distance to his tagged target. With a good memory, that ability could be used to construct a system of relative coordinates that one's target had been at during each step of the chase, effectively creating a trail that could be followed with very high accuracy. Masaya had already employed some semi-hidden and out of the way paths to shake off Hatano's pursuit. Since Hatano had had no problem finding and making use of those obscure paths, it appeared that he was indeed making good use of this coordinate memorisation method to follow Masaya's exact path.

In that case.

So, in order to make that whole method useless, Masaya just needed to choose a path that Hatano and the others would be physically unable to take.

And he found just the spot to do it.

This alleyway was tight and lined with plenty of cables, pipes, and other wall clutter.

Masaya's jog accelerated into a sprint.

With a jump and a quick wall run, Masaya managed to reach an air conditioner unit bolted to a wall over three metres up. The bracket was thick, and the bolts went deep; Ohm Sight had made sure that it would be sturdy enough to hold his weight. Pulling himself up onto it. He jumped again and grasped at a thick pipe poking out of the wall. Wedging his hands into the gap between it and the wall, he pressed his feet firmly against the wall and shimmied up to the top of the pipe. Another jump over to a duct system and he now had a clear path to the roof of that four storey building. Upon reaching the roof, he looked down from on high to see Hatano's group finally catching up to him.

Although far from a parkour expert in the traditional sense, Masaya's Ohm Sight allowed him to close much of the gap to the professionals rather easily, and even exceed typical human capabilities in some respects. Years of developing his Ohm Sight granted Masaya effectively perfect spatial awareness, the ability to gauge the viability of climbing surfaces and their hidden structural integrities, the capacity for fine observation and control of his body's movement, and crucially, the ability to observe and correct his centre of mass with inhuman precision to gain balance without equal. All of these skills granted to him by Ohm Sight tended to come in very handy for anything involving climbing and parkour, effectively negating the years of practice required to develop these skills organically. Of course, one needed more than just that limited skillset to be a true parkour master, such as proper development of the relevant muscle groups and a finely tuned muscle memory, but Masaya, from his years of constantly running around and getting into brawls, was already at a respectable physical baseline and capable of most typical manoeuvres. He wasn't going to be scaling El Capitan harness-free any time soon, but he was confident that most dense urban environments like these could be comfortably navigated vertically with his ability's assistance.

With a quick mocking salute, he left the sights of the exasperated trio down below and darted over to the other side of the building. He easily cleared the narrow gap between this building and the next and, after reaching the other side of this new building, Masaya dropped down onto a convenient fire escape which made his journey back down utterly trivial.

He could have jumped across more gaps to make a greater distance, but this was perfect. From where he had climbed up, the ground-level path would be especially troublesome to navigate, with numerous twists, turns, and blocked off paths necessitating detours. With Ohm Sight, Masaya could easily see the way there, but Hatano's group wouldn't be so lucky, especially without an easy memorised trail to follow.

Masaya had easily earned himself a couple of minutes to sit back and relax while his pursuers scrambled about, trying to find the path to him, and tiring themselves out further in the process. If he wanted to be especially diabolical, he could wait until the group was right in the centre of the labyrinth of alleys before taking an easy exit to escape the complex of buildings entirely and get some good distance from them, all while Hatano's Cell Stalker was telling him that his quarry was escaping and that there was nothing he could do about it until he was free of the labyrinth himself.

If he really wanted to, he could even catch a bus or train in that time. They would more or less have to give up after that.

But Masaya wasn't one to flee for the sake of fleeing.

Hatano was his target just as much as he was Hatano's.

Instead of escaping, Masaya chose to make some preparations in the area, gathering whatever he found that could be useful.

A few minutes passed.

Hatano's trio finally arrived, winded but not yet defeated.

This part of the alleyway complex was just a standard straight pathway between buildings; there was only one clear line of sight and not too many places to hide. Upon quickly catching sight of Masaya, they raced towards him—or, at least, two of them did.

Hatano was familiar enough with Masaya's tactics that he could tell that something was up. He held back and approached more cautiously.

He was right to do so.

In his hands, Masaya held two tightly-tied plastic bags with some messy concoction of something-or-other inside them.

And so, he tossed them—not towards the two goons, but towards the ground right in front of them.

The plastic bags split and burst open, spreading their slimy contents across the ground.

Those two charging boys stepped right into those contents—there was no way they could've avoided doing so.

Inside those bags had been simply some items and materials easily found and gathered from within a dirty old alleyway full of rubbish bins and dropped items—easily found by Masaya's standards, at least.

Dropped coins, metal jar lids, banana peels, pieces of glossy printed cardboard from old cracker boxes, and most importantly, all of them slimed up and slippery in a marinade of used cooking oil.

The concrete and asphalt of the ground here was rough enough that even splashing around the used oil might not have been enough to send those two goons slipping, sliding, and falling on their backs.

However, when used to lube up items and materials that could easily slide over such a rough surface even on their own, they made for a potent combination that nobody could've hoped to keep steady footing atop, even on the roughest and grippiest of surfaces.

Those two charging boys never stood a chance.

Within two seconds, they were already flat on their backs and out of the game.

Masaya probably could have soundly beaten them in hand-to-hand without too much issue—so long as they weren't high-powered espers. Since didn't know the abilities and levels of every student in Tatenkara, it was best not to leave that sort of thing to chance. Taking them out in this fashion might have been rather extravagant compared to throwing fisticuffs, but the brawling option would have been equally reckless against relatively unknown opponents.

Now at least, his last opponent was one whom Masaya was very familiar with.

Masaya approached the stiff Hatano.

Hatano could only sigh.

"Uh, ooof course." he muttered with a grimace of resignation.

Cell Stalker was not going to help him here—it had already finished its job.

In less than three seconds, Hatano was on his back and clutching at his jaw.

Masaya towered over his toppled opponent.

"So, where exactly were you lot intending to forcibly drag me off to this time?"

Hatano glared back at Masaya with venom in his eyes.

"Where do you think?"

The meaning behind that answer was obvious.

"I figured as much. Yeah, I'm not doing that."

"You really think you have a choice, don't you?" spat Hatano.

"Of course." Masaya retorted. "If I have any one choice in my life, it would be to not have to see that fat freak any time soon. I intend to make good use of that choice."

"I suppose we'll have to see whether that choice works out for you." Hatano chuckled.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Masaya chuckled back, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to knock you out now, Hatano."

Like most esper powers, the effects of Cell Stalker ceased upon loss of consciousness. Even if Hatano was unable to follow him, there was still the risk of Hatano communicating and coordinating with his allies using Masaya's relative coordinates under Cell Stalker. It was best to sever the tracking here and now.

"Couldn't you maybe this time do it in a sliiiightly less painful way?" Hatano followed his words with a shameless suck-up grin.

The audacity of this creep.

"Not really."

Hatano's grin evaporated.

A few seconds later, his consciousness did so too.

Masaya left the fallen trio behind on that grimy (and now very greasy) alleyway ground, taking a quick and convenient exit from that complex of tightly-knit buildings.

As he made his escape, his Ohm Sight caught one of Hatano's fallen associates weakly pulling out their phone and muttering something into it.

It was probably something along the lines of "We lost him, boss. He got us."

At least Masaya assumed it was.

-[6]-

Now free from his harassers, Masaya was allowed to wander about the city with a more leisurely pace.

There wasn't a whole lot of leisure to be had today, though.

Especially not after that mortifying stunt he'd pulled during the System Scan.

He really had only paid attention to the 'box four, digit five' part, and not the 'consistent inverse falloff' part. Even if he had managed to obtain the fifth digit in box four, he would have had to repeat that kind of difficulty in all of the other boxes too before finally earning the prized label of level-4.

He had gotten quite cocky and foolish to think that he could've done all of that.

He thought back to what had been going through his mind during the moment before giving in to the words of that little devil on his shoulder telling him "Level-4 or die trying!"

He had had one and only one rule for going into today's System Scan.

Don't even think about overloading Ohm Sight.

Just like that, he had thrown it out like it was worth nothing at all—and in the one moment he needed to heed it the most.

As a growing young man loaded with testosterone, betraying personal stoic values by caving into infernal temptations was not exactly a foreign concept to Masaya—but this felt different.

This time, it really felt like there really was a little devil that had invaded his mind and prompted, provoked him into completely disregarding his self-imposed declarations. He really hadn't experienced anything quite like it before.

Was it just the result of his desperation for level-4 and the pressure of the moment reaching a fever pitch?

Or was it something else entirely?

Maybe I'm actually just losing my mind. Wouldn't that be a shocker?

The idea floated up in his mind that this could possibly be a symptom of the early stages of schizophrenia or some other strange mental condition—perhaps even a brand new one just for him. It sounded quite absurd, but Masaya had been through quite a lot of traumatic suffering over the past year or so. That, in combination with the brain chemistry meddling performed by Academy City meant that spontaneously developing serious psychological conditions as a response to all of that was not out of the question.

Surely it was possible. He often acted like a completely different person whenever he put on that 'stone mask', but that was more of a defensive mental reflex than anything like a split personality.

But what about what had happened today?

His mind entertained that thought for a minute or two.

Yeah, right.

Eventually, Masaya chuckled to himself. Something within him told him that it was probably nothing that serious.

Academy City largely existed for the purpose of psychological research, so they were no doubt discovering (or inadvertently creating) all sorts of new esper-specific mental illnesses to add to the next edition of the DSM. The idea of Masaya himself and his wacky mind being used to contribute to that research by being patient zero for some crazy new condition was just comical enough in a 'woe-is-me' sense to ease his internal distress somewhat.

Masaya then came to a much more reasonable conclusion.

Today was a bad day—just a regular old bad day. The perceived importance of the System Scan made his blunder today feel rotten enough to give it some kind of 'special disaster' status, but Masaya had had to deal with much worse consequences from other misadventures in the past.

He was entirely uninjured, no people important to him had been harmed, and on top of all that, he had shown some minor improvement on his System Scan results. Sure, they came with the caveat that it wasn't level-4, and it took a blackout to obtain those results, but still, an improvement was an improvement.

Masaya found himself being reminded that it was always good to look on the bright side every now and then.

He could leave the screaming into his pillow and what-if mental shower scenarios for later.

Masaya was currently wandering around District 7 rather aimlessly, but the day was not yet over. There were still some ways for him to enjoy himself enough to balance out the goods and the bads somewhat.

Hell, who even said he needed to enjoy himself all by himself? Masaya quickly recalled the impromptu visit from his mother the prior week and the positive effects it had had. Perhaps he just needed some positive socialisation.

He sat down at a bench and pulled out his phone.

He dialled Hisao Sagara, whose number he had obtained while the two of them were stuck together in the hospital.

Hisao picked up the phone surprisingly quickly.

"I-is that you, Misaka-senpai?"

"Yeah, it's me. You busy right now?"

"N-not really. What brings you to ca—?!"

Hisao's end of the line was suddenly interrupted by something noisy with a familiarly high-pitched voice.

"Senpai! Senpai! Are you calling t—?!"

"Rika, give it back!"

Of course they're together.

Masaya waited for the other end of the line to sort itself out before saying anything more. Once the intruder had been silenced, he continued.

"You're still new to the school district, aren't you?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well I'm bored as hell, and after that System Scan I need to unwind a bit."

"Yeah, I can understand that… So, wait, uh, are you asking me to, you know, hang out?"

It was clear as day that Hisao Sagara was brand-new to the whole convention of middle school hang-outs. After spending last week in the hospital, today was technically only his second day of middle school. By now, he was falling well behind in the ever-crucial middle school socialising department.

"Pretty much. I'll show you some of my favourite places to check out, if you're up for it."

"Of course! Where do you want to mee—?!"

"Me too, senpai! Bring me too! Pleeeease! Pretty pleee—?!"

"Give me back my phoooooone!"

Masaya waited again for the other end to sort itself out before instructing Hisao and the person glued to him to meet him in the plaza just south of Seventh Mist. Surely Hisao Sagara's phone map expertise could get him that far.

-[7]-

Masaya relocated himself to the nearby plaza and took a seat. It was a rather small plaza, surrounded on most sides with tall skyscrapers, so it was a pleasantly cool place to sit down after a period of wandering about in the sun.

The Sagara twins were apparently still at school when Masaya had called them. Rika had apparently been catching Hisao up on the lesson content he had missed from the past week.

The fact that they had chosen to immediately abandon those academic duties upon the possibility of a middle school hangout presenting itself proved that they were acclimatising to middle school life just fine. Hisao Sagara probably would have been beyond saving from a social perspective if he had instead elected to continue studying rather than taking that opportunity for social interaction he definitely needed.

Masaya had allowed the other one to come along as well—on the condition that she picked up his book bag, which he had left in his classroom before going to his System Scan in the gymnasium. His own desk neighbour Hatano had certainly not been so kind enough to do so.

This would mark the second time that Rika Sagara had retrieved Masaya's book bag for him. Following the assault and subsequent hospitalisation in the park one week ago, she had had the courtesy to pick up both Masaya's and her brother bags. Luckily, she knew where Masaya had left his that time, due to having been spying on him alongside Hisao all that afternoon.

After this time, she probably deserved an official job title:

Rika Sagara: Book bag delivery girl and shameless inamorata wannabe.

Eventually, Masaya's Ohm Sight picked up a pair of human shapes approaching from the other side of a building. The smaller, more feminine shape was indeed carrying an extra school bag. Ohm Sight could make out human shapes up to a distance of about 100 metres. The plaza here was small enough that Ohm Sight could easily detect the people on the far side.

A pair of ashy-brown heads rounded the building and entered Masaya's field of view. The twins surveyed the plaza and eventually saw him. Rika Sagara waved at Masaya, and the two began their march across the plaza towards the spot where he was seated.

Hopefully they wouldn't act too weirdly today.

Either way, it appeared that the time for a bit of levity was at last upon Masaya Misaka.

However, knowing Masaya Misaka, one might think that that just would've been too easy.

And indeed—they would be right.

Ohm Sight could make out the human silhouette up to a distance of 100 metres. Normally, it would be impossible for someone to sneak up on him—unless they were able to close that distance of 100 metres in under a few short seconds, faster than Masaya could react to such an approach.

That was by all means impossible.

However, in the very next moment, just that happened.

Ohm Sight picked up something slightly larger than human-sized entering its detection radius and closing in at an astonishing speed. That kind of acceleration would be impossible to achieve from almost any direction—except one.

Directly above.

And it was going to land directly on top of Masaya.

Immediately upon recognising the approaching threat, he jumped up from the bench and dove to the side just in the nick of time.

A crashing din followed immediately after as that very bench exploded into splinters, ground tiles shattered, and the whole scene was consumed by a blinding cloud of dust and debris.

Masaya didn't need his eyes to see what, or who, had just crash landed here.

Ohm Sight was picking up a large human silhouette—wrapped in long snaking, coiling shapes.

The coils returned a conductivity reading corresponding to water.

Kyoji Tachikuro.

That true 'Scourge of Tatenkara'.

Everyone in the plaza, including the Sagara twins on the far side, stood petrified as the dust cleared to reveal that fat boy with a vicious gaze and a grotesque toothy grin that would've looked more at home inside a donkey's mouth.

That monstrous tyrant esper spoke.

"You really thought you had a choice, didn't you, Masaya Misaka?"

-[8]-

The monster, Kyoji Tachikuro had just dropped from the roof of one of the skyscrapers adjacent to the plaza, a height well in excess of Ohm Sight's 100 metre human detection range, all to catch Masaya unawares.

By all reason, nobody should have been able to survive a fall like that.

But Kyoji Tachikuro was anything but reasonable.

He carried around him four large snakes of water, powered by his level-4 esper ability Hydro Cord. These four Hydro Cords were wrapped snugly around Tachikuro's torso and legs like an elaborate parachute harness. However, Tachikuro was not standing atop the ground he had just destroyed—no, his entire body was suspended in the air and the lower ends of each Hydro Cord attached to his body was stabbed into the ground like giant watery spider legs. It had been those snaky water legs that had slammed hard into the ground and eased the deceleration for Tachikuro himself to safe levels.

He had come out entirely unscathed after falling well over a hundred metres onto hard ground.

This was Academy City's typical idea of a level-4 esper.

This was Tatenkara's strongest.

Masaya had no intention of dealing with this menace today. He leapt to his feet to make a run for it, only to find his ankle wrapped around by something long and wet, but deceptively solid feeling—a Hydro Cord.

This was the speed and power of a properly-anchored Hydro Cord. Masaya would never be fast enough to avoid that.

"Ooh! Too slow!" laughed Tachikuro.

Masaya was immediately wrenched off his feet and lifted upside-down into the air. Tachikuro dangled him in front of his gaze like a snared animal. For some reason, he had a pair of binoculars around his neck.

"Did you really think that getting rid of Hatano would keep me off your trail?" he smirked with a venomous glare.

He must have been closely watching Masaya's movements from a high enough vantage point that Masaya could not detect him in kind. Precise tracking would not be necessary with a good enough observation position.

"You and I have business to attend to. There's no getting out of that. A little birdie told me that you failed to hit level-4 today. You know what that means—don't you?"

"It means that you're asking for more trouble with Judgment and Anti-Skill." Masaya shot back with snark. "Was a ten day suspension too short for you?"

"I don't particularly care about that. I'll just ask Amine to fix whatever mess I make later."

"You think he can just undo broad daylight assault and destruction of property with dozens of eyewitnesses? You sure do ask the impossible of him. I hope he snaps and kicks your ass for that."

"If you give me any more shit, he's gonna have to undo a lot more than that." his eyes narrowed. "And if he gives me any shit for it, then I'll happily remind him why I'm on top and not him."

The Hydro Cord around Masaya's ankle yanked viciously.

"Now, enough chitchat, ratboy. Let's get down to business." Tachikuro said as he unceremoniously slammed Masaya to the ground like a wet rag.

SMACK!

"Urgh!"

Every onlooker in that plaza took a step back in concerned recoil, including Hisao and Rika Sagara. Masaya's Ohm Sight could pick up multiple bystanders, including Rika Sagara herself, pulling out their phones to make some hasty calls, most likely for Anti-Skill or Judgment to get their butts over here pronto.

Yeah, probably a wise decision.

Outside of Tatenkara, Judgment had the potential to actually be trustworthy and effective at times.

"Now, how many yen do you owe me? What compensation did we agree on? Oh, that's right—we didn't." Tachikuro wiped Masaya back and forth across the ground as though he was mopping up a stubborn stain. "That's no problem at all. Since you're in no position to be arguing with me, I'll just take the liberty of picking a number one of both of us can happily agree on."

"Must be an imaginary number, because you'll never see that money realised, shit-breath." Masaya spat with his face pressed to the hard tile.

Kyoji Tachikuro ignored that standard taunt.

"Two hundred thousand—hell, make it three hundred thousand yen. For the trouble I've gone to, I reckon I deserve it." Tachikuro mocked a gracious demeanour.

The idea of asking Tachikuro why he bothered with him instead of going after easier prey more often arose in Masaya's mind—but he never allowed thoughts like those to leave his mouth. What kind of person would he have been were he to deflect that tyrant's eyes towards innocent people who held even less of a chance than Masaya himself?

Instead, he said something much more expected of Masaya Misaka in these sorts of situations.

"Over my dead body, shit-breath."

"I'm sure we won't need to go that far." Tachikuro's eyes shot into the distance. Something appeared to have caught his interest. "Ah. I know just the thing to help you come to your senses."

Marking the centre of the plaza was a large polished-stone fountain in a modern style.

Fountains were full of water—Kyoji Tachikuro's weapon of choice.

SMASH! SMASH! came the sound of tapered Hydro Cord tips piercing the thick paving tiles as the monster of fat and water dragged his victim through the plaza and towards that unassuming water feature. Tachikuro held Masaya aloft by his ankle over the water's surface.

"Three hundred thousand—comprende?"

The old last chance test—Masaya was quite familiar with it.

What he was not so familiar with, however, was passing it.

"Go fuck a bear trap—the same one your mother was caught in." he smirked.

"Tch." Kyoji Tachikuro clicked his tongue.

He evidently did not like that—not one bit.

That was all it took.

Masaya was immediately tossed into the air, allowing the Hydro Cord to release his ankle—only to immediately wrap tightly around his torso and arms. With a more secure hold on his prey, Tachikuro wasted little time in sending Masaya straight to the bottom of that fountain's main pool.

Ten seconds passed—twenty—thirty. Masaya held his breath steady despite being pinned by a coil of water. Tachikuro didn't seem pleased by the lack of thrashing, as, at the thirty-five second mark, he made sure to squeeze Masaya's abdomen tightly. The now painfully stale air was forced from his lungs, sending a mass of bubbles into the fountain pool—and water into those now-empty lungs.

The pain sent Masaya writhing and thrashing. That sort of wild movement looked to be a lot more to Tachikuro's tastes. As the world began to vanish into darkness, Masaya was forcibly extracted from the water like some finished laundry. Tachikuro held him up and gave him another violent squeeze to expel the water in Masaya's lungs—and to give him a wakeup call of sorts.

"Don't you go sleeping with the fishes just yet, you drowned rat!"

Masaya coughed, hacked, and sputtered until all of the water (and a bit of blood) were at last set loose.

Finally, he was allowed to breathe—at least for. He drew in deep lung-fuls of precious air—as many as he could.

In a surprising display of patience on Tachikuro's part, he waited until he was certain that Masaya was oxygenated enough to ensure a reasonable state of lucidity before continuing. He pulled Masaya in close.

"Three hundr—."

"Fuck off." Masaya coughed immediately.

"Ha! Guess where you're going!" he scoffed, before tossing Masaya into the air with a spin.

Instead of grabbing him and pushing him down with the same Hydro Cord, Tachikuro elected to summon three more Hydro Cords from within the fountain itself. They launched out from the water's surface like the tentacles of a great kraken, and, upon catching the currently mid-air Masaya, pulled him down into the two foot depths of the fountain pool where they swarmed, coiled, pulled, poked, bashed, and squeezed at his helpless body like voracious eels.

There was simply no defending against an assault like this; the incompressibility of water made each Cord stronger than a hydraulic press, and much more versatile. Not only that, Hydro Cords made of water, swarming about in water were entirely invisible to not only regular vision, but to Ohm Sight as well, due to there being no conductivity discrepancies to detect between water and other identical water from the same pool. The only thing to go off was the fact that Hydro Cords never had bubbles in them—which wasn't much.

Instead of thirty-five seconds, Masaya wasn't going to last even ten under these conditions. Several impacts to his head from the deceptively solid-feeling Hydro Cords rampaging around him came close to robbing him of his consciousness entirely. On top of that, his lungs were once again rapidly (and painfully) filling with water. Once again, Masaya's world was turning black. This time, however, the Hydro Cords in the pool gathered beneath him and pushed upwards to forcibly catapult Masaya from the fountain like a buoyant swimming kickboard that had been pushed down too hard and then let go.

He landed onto the pavers with a painful wet thud, then immediately got to work evicting the fluids from his lungs. The puddle that appeared below his mouth was a good bit redder than what was considered healthy.

After regaining the ability to breathe, Masaya collapsed prone on the tiled ground. He was almost entirely incapable of moving until his muscles were able to be re-oxygenated. The lactic acid built-up in them made his whole body scream in pain.

Of course, the enemy here was not going to give him that sort of time to recover.

One of the fountain Hydro Cords reached out and grasped Masaya again by the ankles, lifted him into the air, and shook him about like a soaked, dripping ragdoll. Then, Tachikuro readjusted the grip and brought Masaya in close once more, eye to eye.

"So, are we finished yet? Three hundred thousand. You have one week. You got that, you fucking rat?"

Masaya's breathing was laboured and raspy; he barely had the energy to look up at that villain's eyes.

But eventually, he did.

"Fuck. You." he managed to force out.

Of course that would be his answer. Anyone who held even a basic understanding of Masaya Misaka's modus operandi would've known that.

Something had switched in Masaya's head back when the assault had begun.

A figurative stone mask had been donned.

Defeat may have been inevitable by this point.

But submission? Impossible.

Of course, Kyoji Tachikuro was more than familiar with this side of Masaya Misaka—and he liked it not one bit.

"Do you want to die, Misaka?" Tachikuro tried his best to plaster a negotiation face over his look of growing frustration. "It's only three hundred thousand yen. Are you really going to give up your life over a measly 300K?" His words were doped with serpentine venom.

Making it seem like Masaya was the unreasonable one in even the most outrageous of scenarios (of entirely Tachikuro's doing) was almost a trademark point of attack for Tachikuro.

"Are you really willing to take a life over that same measly 300K?" Masaya shot back, making certain that his opponent knew who the unreasonable one here really was.

"Misaka, I'd kill you for free any day." Tachikuro grinned his toothy villain's grin.

Logic regarding reasonability did not apply to Tachikuro—or at least, he refused to acknowledge it when it went against what he wanted.

As it most often did.

"I think it's about time you suffered a very bad accident, Misaka." Tachikuro muttered impersonally under his breath, before flipping Masaya around in his Hydro Cord's grip. "Time for another swim, I think!" he declared aloud.

Masaya figured out precisely what Tachikuro was intending to do. The Hydro Cord was going to violently pull him back into the water, but in a way where Masaya would no doubt crack the back of his skull on the hard stone edge of the fountain's main pool.

That meant death, or something very very close.

And then of course, Kyoji Tachikuro would claim it as an accident afterwards—or worse, the victim's fault.

Only a week ago, Tachikuro very seriously considered burying the injured Masaya and Hisao Sagara in order to hide evidence of assault from approaching Judgment officers. That also would have meant death for the both of them.

But now he was going to try it in broad daylight with numerous witnesses.

Masaya's once-undefeatable logic of 'I win or I die, and he can't kill me so I win by default' was now completely falling apart.

Kyoji Tachikuro was just that far-gone.

"Enjoy your swim." he chuckled, before whispering "Try not to hit your head."

There was nothing he could do.

Masaya was sent plunging towards the fountain as a wet meaty impact rang out.

-[9]-

Masaya's body hit the fountain with a splash.

His mind was plunged into a state of confusion. He could not tell up from down.

Quickly reactivating his Ohm Sight, he managed to regain his bearings and rise to his feet in that shallow pool.

Wait, why can I move?

Indeed, he was in fact free from that Hydro Cord's grasp. The water was actually behaving as it was supposed to.

Masaya quickly caught on as to why.

Towering beside the fountain was Kyoji Tachikuro, supported in the air by his set of four spider-like Hydro Cord legs.

He stood there with stillness very unlike him.

And he held his hand pressed against the back of his head. Blood trickled down from the gaps between his fingers, and a look of searing pain painted his face.

"Ffffucking hell!" he spat as he sucked air through his teeth to deal ride through the pain.

On the ground beneath him sat a chunk of stone—a broken piece of a plaza paving stone, no doubt broken by one of Tachikuro's stomping Hydro Cord legs. One corner of it was soaked with blood.

It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

It looked as though the tables had been turned against Kyoji Tachikuro. Somebody had given him a taste of his own methods. The impact to his head had disrupted his calculations on the Hydro Cord preparing to smite Masaya against the stone, causing it to disintegrate back into regular water and drop him into the pool.

Masaya had just been saved.

But by who?

A quick look behind Tachikuro gave Masaya his answer.

You're kidding me!

It was Rika Sagara.

Masaya had had it explained to him during his hospital stay, but this was his first time seeing her esper ability being used offensively.

Punch Stock—The ability to apply force to something multiple times and have the impacts stack into a single combined application of force.

Level-2.

Rika was a small girl of not quite five feet tall and not a whole lot of muscle mass. With an esper ability like that, even she had been able to throw that almost two kilogram chunk of stone hard enough to hit the back of Tachikuro's head with considerable punch behind it, even as high up as he was.

Even now, she stood there steadfast, launching mock-throws on another loose chunk of paving. Instead of the chunk leaving her hand after each swing of her arm, the momentum was being stored within it, more and more potential energy building up with each motion.

She was certainly brave…

…But very, very foolish.

"Don't just stand there, you idiot!" Masaya shouted as he leapt out of the fountain pool. "Get out of there!"

Rika had managed to land a good hit, but the fact remained that she was a level-2 facing off against a level-4.

A lucky strike like that would not be allowed to be repeated.

And then she would no doubt be crushed.

Kyoji Tachikuro turned to face his new opponent.

"Ahhhh… Fuck. Not bad, girlie. That's the first proper hit I've taken in a while."

Rika Sagara said nothing. She merely stood there with a fire of hatred in her eyes.

And then at last she spoke.

"You're—you're the one who stabbed my brother last week—and broke senpai's arm. You're evil!" she accused.

"And you must be the one who did that whole screaming performance back then." he smirked with a villainous intrigue. "I would've gotten away with what I did, if not for you summoning Judgment like that, you bitch."

"Is that any way to treat a girl, you ugly creep?" retorted Rika.

"I'll show you how I treat sassy little cunts like you, just you wait." Tachikuro declared.

He prepared to strike with one of his four spider-like Hydro Cord legs, but Masaya had not just been watching idly by during that back and forth, instead choosing to take after Rika's example and snatch a broken piece of paving. Darting beneath Tachikuro, he pelted that chunk of stone with all of his strength directly upwards—straight at Tachikuro's crotch, conveniently unguarded by the coils of Hydro Cords wrapped around the rest of his torso and legs (most likely for comfort).

"Ghraiaiiick!" whelped the beast as the stone hit true to its mark. The Hydro Cord strike against Rika Sagara missed, ploughing through and dislodging numerous stone pavers beside her. Tachikuro flipped his attention downwards to hunt down the pest directly below him, sending thrusts of his Cords at Masaya, who dodged and weaved to avoid each and every one. Rika made use of the opening to launch her now-prepared projectile. Without even moving her arm, the stone was set loose with surprising speed in a path ending at Tachikuro's jaw.

"Nice try, bitch!" Tachikuro laughed as he effortlessly parried the stone away by unwrapping one of the Hydro Cords from his torso to deflect it. While still launching strike after strike against Masaya below him, he retaliated with a quick additional Hydro Cord thrust directly at Rika herself.

Tachikuro had lost all interest in holding back his strikes.

Were something like that to hit her directly, she would be impaled.

Once she knew what was about to hit her, it was too late. She could never dodge that incoming spear of water in time.

"RIKA!" came a shout.

And then it was over.

The Hydro Cord smashed the area Rika Sagara occupied to pieces. A huge cloud of dust and debris was sent flying. The dust shrouded that disastrous scene; nobody could even glimpse what horrific mess remained of that poor girl.

Actually, was that even dust?

No. It wasn't.

It was fog.

It was Micro-Refractor.

"You idiot!" came an angered hiss. "You nearly ended up like me, but way worse."

"Hisao?!"

With his Ohm Sight being unaffected by the fog, Masaya had witnessed the whole thing. Hisao had tackled his sister out of the path of the Hydro Cord spear in just the nick of time, and then occluded the area with his fog for the perfect escape smokescreen.

"Where the fuck? Ohh, this shit again!" cursed Tachikuro.

Micro-Refractor's thick fog limited visibility to no greater than two metres in any direction. With his Hydro Cords holding his body up over two metres above the ground, that meant that Kyoji Tachikuro's visibility was as good as zero—there was nothing he could use as reference to orient himself—or to pinpoint his targets.

Masaya wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste. Tachikuro's strikes against him were slowing down due to attacking blind. This gave him just the opening he needed. Picking up piece after piece of shattered paving stones left from the prior missed Hydro Cord strikes, Masaya had no shortage of ammunition to toss around to distract Tachikuro, who only had his hearing to go off.

But Masaya had something much more effective up his sleeve, and, unlike Tachikuro, he wasn't attacking blind.

He removed his belt from his uniform trousers, placed both ends in one hand, and settled a nasty big chunk of broken paving stone into the created loop.

In essence, it was one of humanity's most primitive weapons of war—but none the less deadly.

It was a sling.

Then he spun his body, and then spun some more. Like a hammer thrower, Masaya managed to build up a colossal amount of angular momentum into that stone in the belt sling. He was even able to do it while also avoiding Tachikuro's blind thrusts.

This was how building up power for a strike was done when you didn't have the convenience of Punch Stock at hand.

And then, when everything was lined up just right, he let one end of the belt loose.

The stone was sent flying with much more force than Rika's had had, and was a good bit larger to boot. What happened when it reached its target surprised no-one.

All other sound in that plaza seemed to slip away as stone met flesh and bone with a morbidly satisfying SMASH!

That monster Kyoji Tachikuro was sent flying as the stone hit him square in the mouth. Despite the fog, Ohm Sight detect multiple of his beastly teeth being chipped, smashed, or knocked free of his mouth entirely, and there was no shortage of blood too.

The impact appeared to have knocked him out or at least come close, as all of the Hydro Cords holding his body aloft in the air disintegrated immediately into an out-of-place rain shower.

Tachikuro's unconscious body hung in the air for a beat or two, before landing hard in the fountain pool with an impressive SPLASH!

His high fat levels must have made him especially buoyant, as once the water settled, Tachikuro simply laid there belly-up on the surface like a floating starfish.

It was over.

"It's okay, Hisao Sagara. I got him. You can drop the fog now."

At last, the fog surrounding the fountain dissipated to reveal that new addition to the water feature.

A strange realisation occurred to Masaya.

Wait, what do I mean 'I got him'?

His eyes went wide.

Did I just beat his ass?

Tachikuro:20

Misaka:1

-[10]-

"You two alright down there?" Masaya asked as he approached his twin kouhais, who were still hunkered down on the ground.

"I'm fine." Hisao reported, "Rika, what about you?"

"Uhh, I think I'm okay."

"That's good to hear." Masaya sighed.

"How'd you get him, senpai?" enquired Hisao as he pulled himself up off the ground, before lending a hand to his sister.

Masaya began putting his belt back where it belonged.

"The good old belt sling technique." Masaya explained, "It doesn't usually work on him, but your fog kept him in the dark enough for me to land a really good hit. Good work Hisao, but don't do that again."

"Senpai, what do you mean?! I had to save Rika?! I couldn't let her be killed!" Hisao protested.

"I suppose you're right." Masaya conceded, before switching targets, "Rika, you're a suicidal idiot. Don't do that ever again." he scolded.

"But senpai, he was going to use you to paint the fountain red! I wasn't just going to stand there and watch that happen!"

"You almost got yourself turned into paste, you moron."

"Senpai, admit that I saved you. Right now." she pouted.

Masaya was not in the mood to play this game.

"You did, but what good is that when you're just going to stand there, waiting for Tachikuro to turn you into a Hydro Cord shish kebab?!"

"Uhhmm…" Rika didn't have a good response for that—so she went with a bad one instead. She tilted her head like a puppy, "Senpai, you were worried about me? Hee-hee. That means you care about me, senpai?"

It appeared that Rika Sagara was back to her regular self again—for better or worse. She immediately got back to work slinging her usual nonsense.

"Senpai, I saved your life, so you have to go on a date with me."

"Alright, but Hisao's coming too."

"Ack?!" Rika's words caught in her throat as her plan crumbled to dust. A cheeky suck-up smile crawled across her face as she slowly turned her head to her twin. "Hisao? Are you sure you're all fine? Your old injuries might have opened up. Are you absolutely certain you don't need to spend a couple more days in the hospital?"

"Yep. I'm doing just fine." he smiled back at his sister innocently, having missed her intentions entirely.

"…" Rika returned a blank smile, "…Are you suuuuure?"

Absolutely shameless! thought Masaya.

-[11]-

A girl watched that scene from afar, just beyond a certain distance.

It seemed as though the crisis today was resolved on its own—she didn't need to get herself involved this time.

Still, even if her presence didn't end up being required, she appreciated the heads-up.

She knew about how he often struggled—especially against those kinds of cruel people. She knew how he would get beaten down again and again, but stubbornly fight on anyway—perhaps too stubbornly.

Well, they were quite alike in some regards.

Today, however, he had managed to stand up to his enemy under his own power, and with a little help from his friends.

That made her smile just a bit.

His great victory today felt more earned than even hers—and hers was, well...

"…"

Before turning to take her leave, she gave that dear boy one last look from far away, where she belonged.

Could this have marked the beginning of a new Masaya Misaka?

Or perhaps the return of the old one?

-[12]-

"If you think about it, senpai, I've actually saved you twice now, but you've only saved me once—back with the Skill-Outs. That means I'm a better hero than you."

"What are you talking about? Do you have memory issues? I saved you not three minutes ago by stoning Tachikuro in the nuts with that slab. He would've obliterated you with a Hydro Cord otherwise."

"Oh yeah, hee-hee. Silly me. So we're an even 2-2 now? Wait, no! I don't want to be even! I want there to be an illusion of obligation between us! That's what brings people together!"

Rika Sagara was once again delving into some weird human relationship logic. Her large dark eyes squinted with a playful glimmer. She did not sever her intrusive eye contact with Masaya even as she slowly relinquished control of her centre of gravity and began stiffly toppling backwards like an upright plank of wood.

Almost out of instinct, Masaya caught her before she could get hurt, but quickly realised that letting her fall on her butt might have been the wiser option.

When Rika Sagara's eyes sparkled—Masaya knew he'd made a mistake.

"Senpai, you saved me yet again! I am now in your debt. Allow me to repay you by treating you to a lunch date sometime, just the two of us—no Hisaos!"

Expressionless, Masaya turned to the other person there, the aforementioned Hisao.

"Hisao, how do we fix her?"

"No clue. This side of her is all new to me." muttered the weird girl's twin as he pinched the bridge of his nose in his own bafflement.

"Senpai, I don't need fixing! Senpai, I'm cute enough the way I am, right? Senpai, you should be nicer t—."

"Oh, Anti-Skill's finally here." Masaya remarked.

Masaya's Ohm Sight caught a number of the associated heavy vehicles rounding a corner before entering into a regular line of sight. Eventually, they parked themselves at the edge of the plaza.

"What happens now? They're not gonna arrest us for fighting, are they?" asked Rika.

"It'll probably be like back with the Skill-Outs: lots of questions, some injury checks—the regular, really." Masaya commented. "But I don't doubt that we've got a lot of explaining to do. Expect to be here a while. Also, go get our book bags, they'll want our student IDs, as usual."

"Ah, right!" Rika trotted off to where she had left both hers and Masaya's bags to retrieve them.

In that moment, Masaya actually had something else entirely on his mind.

Eh, who cares about the questioning right now? After finally giving Tachikuro a good what-for, nothing Anti-Skill can do or say will ruin my day.

Just like that, Masaya Misaka had flipped his opinion on whether today constituted a good or bad day. He had finally gotten his long-awaited victory over none other than Kyoji Tachikuro himself (with some help, of course). Not even a horrendously blundered System Scan could spoil a day like that.

With that win, some long-lost confidence returned to him.

The stone mask he had worn throughout the fight slipped and fell, replaced by a smile—a genuine smile—small, slight, but real.

"You're so handsome when you smile, senpai!" Rika noticed the change immediately upon returning with the bags. That made sense of course—when was that girl not staring as Masaya. "You should smile more often—like this!" she said, returning an especially bright one of her own as she handed Masaya his bag.

"Maybe. If fatass over there has learned his lesson today and cuts it out with the torture bullshit, then maybe I will." he proposed, while peering back at the fountain's new resident whale floating belly-up in the pool. Just like many whales, he was rather lacking in teeth.

"Hey, you three! What on Earth happened here?" called an approaching Anti-Skill officer.

"That creepy guy tried to kill us!—It's not even the first time!" shouted Rika while gesturing towards the culprit.

The officer peered over at the fountain and what was in it.

"God! You didn't kill him back, did you?!"

"No. We just knocked him out." Masaya assured the officer, "Apart from the minor skull fractures, shattered jaw, loose teeth and good old whack in the nuts, he'll be fine." Masaya was keeping track of Tachikuro with Ohm Sight. He was breathing, his heart was beating just fine, and he wasn't bleeding too severely, so he wasn't going to be dying anytime soon.

"That doesn't sound too fine to me."

"Compared to what he was trying to do to us, that's nothing. We barely got out of that alive. Look at how wet I am—bastard tried to drown me in the fountain!" Masaya played up his body language a bit, but he wasn't lying.

A second officer joined the conversation.

"We'll see what the security camera footage has to say about that. For now, just let me check your student IDs so we can hear your eyewitness reports."

The twins quickly complied and presented their IDs from their bags, as did Masaya.

Something about Masaya's ID caught the interest of the Anti-Skill officer.

"Misaka, huh?"

"Yeah that's my name. What about it?"

The officer checking Masaya's ID asked something to their colleague.

"Hey, didn't that all-girls' school Tokiwadai just announce a new level-5 today with that name?"

"…What?" said Masaya weakly.

Just like that, Masaya Misaka's smile was gone.

-[13]-

'Tokiwadai Middle School Electromaster Mikoto Misaka Declared 7th Level-5' appeared written across the side of news blimp passing through the red sundown sky.

Masaya slipped away his (luckily waterproof) phone following a dreadfully uneasy call from his father. He had presented the call as something more off-the-cuff, but with all of the deliberate tiptoeing around the elephant in the room, it was clear that Masaya had been called second, and as a consolation prize of sorts. No amount of "I'm proud of you, son." or "Great job finally showing that asshole what we Misakas are all about." would remove that sting that had lodged itself in Masaya's spirit.

Some time had passed following the conclusion of the extensive formalities with Anti-Skill. The testimonies of Masaya and the Sagara twins were corroborated with what the security systems of the area had shown, so they were let more or less off the hook for now; however, Masaya was certainly expecting some trouble with Amine later. Defeating Tachikuro decisively would probably be taken as an act of war on his end—once he woke up in the hospital he had been hauled off to, of course.

Whether he would ever be seen again in the halls of Tatenkara was still up in the air, but Masaya wasn't counting on it. Amine was in for a horribly difficult task on his hands, what with Tachikuro employing no-less-than lethal force against multiple people in broad daylight in the middle of a public plaza.

But none of that was important to Masaya at this moment.

Following his release from Anti-Skill, he had bid the twins farewell for the day (thereby postponing the hangout) before finding a nice quiet rooftop to climb onto and be alone for a while.

He needed to clear his head.

Just when he thought he'd gained the kind of win that might have made a difference, a growth of self that might have one day helped him to develop the strength to face that girl once more…

She's gone and widened the gap again.

It was like no victory he could ever achieve would be allowed to go unchecked and not-outdone by her.

It was like she was reminding just how little his life and victories meant.

This was all he could think about now.

A level-3 might have held a hope of one day catching up to a level-4 who had overtaken them…

…But when that gap now extended all the way to level-5, of which only six—no—seven now existed, what kind of hope was there to return to the way the world had once been—the way it should've kept on being?

None, that's what.

Masaya could tell that his future self would officially be doomed to a state of constant comparison with that prodigal miracle child. From now on, the name Misaka would refer to her by default, and he'd just be that 'other one' that also existed as little more than a footnote.

He was now forevermore the unimportant one, the worse one, the failed one.

He hated that.

He hated her.

She always ruined everything.

It was a good thing that he had cut short his hangout with the Sagaras when he did—they shouldn't need to see their upperclassman's tears.

And those tears were certainly coming.

As Masaya Misaka leaned over the railing on that isolated rooftop and gazed emptily over that quieting city, his soul continued to sink in line with the dropping sun. Just like with day turning to night, he felt like a long darkness sat in his immediate future.

"Fuck this." he muttered to himself. "Why does everything always go so swell for her, even after what she did to me?" he spat. "I hate her. I want her to disappear, at least for a while."

"…!"

A bright flash of electric light, and echoes of the ensuing agony—those were what his memory served him—a reminder of the unforgettable aftermath of the first time he had expressed similar sentiments.

His chest heaved. Cold chills and a rising heart-rate (assisted by that implant his sister had involuntarily subscribed him to for life) helped him recall what antagonising that girl would lead to, just as it had before. It was like Masaya was being told which of his own emotions were not allowed.

All of that only made him feel even more hopeless.

He couldn't stand her, but he was also too terrified to do anything about it.

So, would he just be fated to live on in this state of pained purgatory forever?

Was such the inevitable fate of this middling esper?

In that moment, as he slumped over that steel railing, Masaya began to concede that it most like was. The tears began flowing against his will.

Men weren't supposed to cry, but here he was, unable to stop.

The very last of Masaya Misaka's hope for a positive future was slipping away like water down a drain.

Until.

"Are you having a big cry, Masaya Misaka?" came a voice seemingly out of nowhere.

…Who the—?!

Masaya spun around in a panic to a person standing there a few metres away.

He had absolutely not been there before.

Impossible! Why did Ohm Sight not detect him approaching?!

Despite his strained emotional state, running Ohm Sight was more or less something he did by default, as easy as walking, so it was absolutely on.

He could detect the intruder just fine now, so how had he been snuck up on like this?

Masaya could only stare—wide eyed, wet eyed, and dumbfounded.

"Oh, so you were crying." the intruder remarked.

"I wasn't crying." Masaya wiped his eyes in a belated attempt to remove the evidence. "I was just yawning."

"I see you're a liar on top of a cry-baby, Misaka-kun." said the intruder.

As Masaya cleared the vision-distorting tears from his eyes, a familiar figure entered his view.

An Ikubokatan High School uniform.

Wavy black hair.

Slate-grey eyes.

Not remotely Japanese-looking in the slightest.

"…You?" he muttered in stupefaction.

"I have a name, you know." said that older boy, "I'm sure in time you'll be glad to know it well."

"Something-or-other Waterdrinker."

The tall foreigner narrowed his stony eyes before correcting him.

"Waterleiner. Aureson Waterleiner. Unlike Kuno and the others, I didn't get the pleasure of a proper—introduction—with you" he chuckled, emphasising his fist to ensure Masaya knew just to which kind of introduction he referred.

That sounded like trouble to Masaya.

"So you're here for that, huh—to give me a good kicking while I'm already down?"

Waterleiner chuckled.

"Of course not."

The light of the disappearing sun caressed Waterleiner's back like he was some holy herald, but Masaya wasn't convinced of any claim of non-hostile intentions. He'd already seen for himself how Waterleiner's buddies liked to do things.

"So why are you here, then? Also, how did you slip past my detection? That shouldn't be possible!"

Waterleiner responded only to Masaya's first question.

"Following your little display last week… Let's just say that I took an immediate interest in you."

Masaya was immediately reminded of his earlier shameful outburst.

"The hell's that supposed to mean? You got a thing for miserable boys or something?" Masaya scoffed. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't swing that way, you weirdo."

"Neither. Don't go slinging assumptions about when I'm here trying to help you."

Masaya glared at the bizarre intruder.

"Help me?... And why do you think I would need helping?"

Waterleiner answered without a pause.

"Because Academy City has failed you, Masaya Misaka."

Masaya felt his stomach drop.

His hairs stood on end.

He'd never heard it being put like that before.

"Wha—?"

He stood there wide-eyed, trying to process those words that had rung him so hard, but they failed to assemble into any coherent meaning that fit with the world he knew.

But something about it seemed fit so perfectly—only somewhere else, somewhere hidden. It was like a recovered jigsaw piece that slotted neatly into a hole that had been present so long you forgot something had even been missing.

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

Masaya's voice wavered.

Aureson Waterleiner's did not.

"We espers live under the illusion that development of the self, development of our strength, of the reality we create within our selves, can only be achieved under the strict and impersonal guidance of the city's Power Curriculum Program—that program that presents itself as infallible—that it could only ever be by our own failure that most of us fall through the gaps and are unable to obtain greatness."

He spoke as though he was describing universally-established fact.

Masaya could not tell where Waterleiner was taking this.

"… And?" he asked.

"I am here free you from that illusion." he declared, "You have lived under it for too long, and I believe that has squandered your potential."

Masaya was dumbfounded.

But he was also not-so-quick to just accept empty words.

"…Oh yeah, so you're just saying there's some magic alternative that will instantly fix all of my problems? Masaya's unsteady voice cracked a bit, but he didn't care.

"Yes." the foreign boy responded immediately, "Although it's not magic, but something much more real. It is something that I have, and am willing to share with you."

If something sounded too good to be true, then it probably was.

What was Waterleiner's angle here?

"And if it's such a miraculous thing, then why would you share it with me of all people?"

"Because I help people, Masaya Misaka." there was not a hint of joking in Waterleiner's words. "I help them in ways that no-one else can, because I am the only one who can. I desire to use my gift for the benefit of the people who need it most. Right now, Misaka-kun, that means you." a small smile appeared. "You have just such a problem—one utterly unfixable by anyone else—one which prevents you from becoming your ideal self—don't you, Misaka-kun?"

He was absolutely right.

Even so, he could feel his soul beginning to open to Waterleiner's words against his will—the same kinds of words routinely employed by salesmen and charlatans. Masaya was none-too-happy to find himself becoming responsive to them.

He stopped himself from getting too excited.

He curbed his hopes, as he often did.

It was absolutely too good to be true—and vague enough to mean just about anything.

He needed to end this before he got himself scammed in via some outlandish emotional manipulation.

"Enough talk. You have ten seconds to either show me one of these miracle revelations—or fuck off. What's it gonna be, Miracle-Man?"

Waterleiner's smile grew.

"Very well, then."

He approached Masaya.

"Allow me to heal you from the shackles of your crippled existence."

He held forth his right hand.

"Allow me to destroy your illusion!—Retrieval!"

Masaya's world spun as an undefinable electric feeling flooded his brain.

-[14]-

Masaya held his rattled head in his hands.

His expectations had been low, but this was just horrendous.

"You almost got me excited with that 'destroy your illusion' bullshit. You call giving me a headache a fucking miracle?"

Were it not for Ohm Sight, Masaya would have lost his balance and collapsed across the rooftop by now.

Standing opposite him was Aureson Waterleiner.

Despite Masaya's complaints, he was looking awfully pleased with himself.

"Haha. Not quite. I was simply recovering what I already gifted you earlier. The answers we seek are in that."

The vague answers only made Masaya's headache worse.

"Uhh—Excuse me?! The hell did you already give me?"

But Aureson Waterleiner did not answer his question.

He only grinned.

"Masaya Misaka, guess what?"

Masaya slowly removed his hand from his throbbing forehead and returned a glare.

"What?!"

Waterleiner reached his hand out towards Masaya once more.

"Your Neo-Destiny awaits you!" he declared aloud, "Deliverance!"

A single finger touch to his head was all it took.

Masaya's mind was washed over with another stronger wave of that inexplicable power.

Something was changed within him.

Oh, of course he's one of those espers! was the very last thought of that 'old' Masaya Misaka.

Just like that, that miserable mess known as Masaya Misaka was gone forever—and something unstoppable stepped in to take his place.

AFTERWORD

Hello again, dear reader.

It took a little longer than expected to finish this chapter, but here I present it to you.

This chapter brings us to the conclusion of the opening arc of the story.

I think I'll retroactively call this arc the "Ohm Sight" Arc, just like the first chapter following the prologue.

The big turning point is upon us! I promised that I wouldn't go splitting the chapter this time, so enjoy a big old cliffhanger instead (it was that or another infodump).

This is no doubt the biggest writing project I've done thus far in my life, so I'm still a bit new to a lot of the typical experiences one might encounter when writing longer stories. Before starting, I developed a massive planning document covering the scope and setup of the entire story, but after now having a good few chapters behind me, a lot of things have turned out quite different than I initially intended, and for the better.

Were I to do this arc again, I would definitely try to give it more of a better-defined structure. I had some key scenes set in stone, but the gaps between them kept growing, adding a lot more content than I was expecting to have to thematically wrangle for this one arc. I'll definitely be more conscious about story structure going forward. This was a good learning experience for that. Were this a real Toaru story suitable for a manga or anime form, you'd need to show off the point of the story in the first chapter or episode, which wasn't possible the way I had it; False Conduct has a lot of build-up.

I had some considerable surprises when writing this chapter. Could you believe that Masaya really was supposed to lose this fight against Tachikuro (as usual). That was the plan; however, as I was writing the chapter, things got into a natural flow with the inclusion of the twins, and it turned out that sticking to the plan would actually hurt that flow more than help it—and then, Masaya and the twins put their efforts together and then somehow came out on top?! Sometimes Masaya surprises even me with his creativity and cunning in battle. He's just too clever for his own story.

It also felt more thematically appropriate for him to win here, only for the news about Mikoto to effectively nullify it by putting it into perspective and remind Masaya how unimportant his victories feel in comparison—that his hope to return to her level and shake off his fear is a doomed one.

We also have the System Scan this chapter. Hard to believe that only a week has passed since the start of the story—this really is a Toaru story! What did you think about the testing methodology here? Was it ridiculously overcomplicated enough for you? Well, Ohm Sight is ridiculously overcomplicated—and we're not stopping that train any time soon!

In his growing desperation to escape his dire path, Masaya took a serious risk and ended up overdoing it in the test and suffering another blackout this chapter. They really seem like a menace. What could possibly be causing them? Why is only he affected? Stay tuned.

Now, onto the big twist! Waterleiner is back, and he's delivering the revelation that'll change everything! What do you think it could be? What did he mean when he said that Academy City's methods have failed Masaya? He says that as though there was an alternative method… Is there?

Everything it going to get turned on its head next chapter, so look forward to it!

(Of course, I did promise that we'd get the big revelation this chapter, without any more splitting, but the chapter structuring just turned out better to put the preceding cliff-hanger here first. Please don't get too annoyed at me, it is one hell of juicy a cliff-hanger, is it not?)

(I'm coming off as more of a charlatan than Waterleiner right now)

Anyway, onto the reviews from last chapter!

Kelk says:

Not much in terms of progression but helps delve in to Masaya's personality and his family dynamic. This also shows that his aggression towards Mikoto is a more personal thing that he doesn't outwardly express especially not in front of his parents. The delinquent group were all fun in their own ways even if it is a bit hard to find them likeable in context. If what you said about the twist is true then I can't wait for the next chapter.

I was a bit worried about chapter 6 feeling a bit dry compared to chapter 5. They were supposed to be one chapter, after all. 5 had all the action while 6 had all the character drama, so the juxtaposition feels a bit stark when they're separated. I think I'll try to keep things a bit more evenly spread going forward.

Yeah, Misuzu and Tabigake are well aware of the situation, so Masaya has no reason to repeat the situation to them. They're also considerate enough of him to not try to push his buttons too hard by bringing it up too often, as much as they want the family crisis to be resolved. Now in this newest chapter, we also see a little hint of Tabigake's approach to this family drama as well, for better or worse.

The delinquent group picked a fight claiming honourable intentions and were taught a lesson to remember. Expect to see more of them in the future. We'll see if they've taken that lesson to heart.

Guest says:

Had to adjust the link to access this chapter and the site itself seems to be convinced it doesn't exist though that may just be a problem on my end. You may want to repost it though I don't know if that is possible. On another note I really enjoyed this character focused chapter and hope to see more of the story in the future!

Yes, thanks for the heads-up. It seems to be an issue with the site itself, but the error is indeed fixable if you modify the URL into the mobile version. I'll add a P.S. to the chapter 5 afterword so readers how to deal with the issue if they encounter it.

Also, I'm glad you're enjoying chapters like that, even if there isn't too much action in them. There'll be a lot of character growth from here on out, so look forward to it.

Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming, I love to see them.

Today we reached the turning point. Next chapter, everything will be revealed, so look forward to it.

-Lacien.