A Certain Magical Index PLUS: [FALSE CONDUCT]

PART 1, CHAPTER 3

-[1]-

"Haha! Another flawless victory for Tachi-sama!" celebrated Hatano, despite having contributed nothing to the fight himself.

"How many is that now?" asked one of Tachikuro's other 'dogs'.

"Today's success would make it a nice round twenty wins—and zero losses." answered Hatano.

"Shit. Twenty proper ass-kickings and this asshole is still giving Tachi-sama attitude?"

The group was now around the back of a small utility building in that same park, further away from the public eye. That small building had its back to a grove of dense vegetation, which reduced the possibility of onlookers peeking in from most directions.

The public had no need to see what was going to happen next; it wasn't going to be pretty.

Observing that conversation from a very low perspective was Masaya Misaka, still bound tight by one the Hydro Cords. He had been dragged here from the centre of that field, almost two hundred or so metres away, and had received many a face-ful of dirt along the way—in fact, he was still receiving a face-ful of dirt.

He was looking to be in a rather pitiful state right now. If anybody who cared about him were to have seen him in this state, how would they have felt?

That was not to mention the foot also currently pressed onto his head from above.

Kyoji Tachikuro.

The victor stood atop his vanquished foe, quite literally.

"This idiot just doesn't know when to quit. Now that those older level-4s have graduated, this retard here is the only one left in Tatenkara who even thinks about giving me shit." Kyoji Tachikuro rested most of his (considerable) bodyweight onto Masaya's head, grinding his face into the gritty dirt. "Today, we're going to fix that."

That was what he always said.

This was hardly the first time that Masaya had found himself in more or less this exact situation.

It would probably go more or less how it usually did.

Tachikuro removed his foot from Masaya's head.

Then he clapped his hands once.

The Hydro Cord coiled around Masaya instantly tightened its hold. It had been wrapped around him tightly before, but now it was positively crushing him with strength that rivaled an anaconda's constriction. As it contained only around 20 litres of water, the Hydro Cord lacked the girth of an anaconda— with a cross-sectional diameter of about 5 centimetres. This narrowness made the cord dig hard into Masaya's flesh as his circulation was crippled, his bones were creaked, and the very act of breathing was made impossible. The cord's total length of 10 metres was a lot more anaconda-like, and it used every inch of that length to drive the strength and life out of Masaya Misaka.

The pain of that experience would have driven anyone to give up their senseless struggle within seconds. The crushing of the limbs; the crunchy, creaky feeling in the bones and cartilage; the wrenching of flesh and nerves; the lungs screaming for air; the rising blood pressure—all of it combined to create a feeling that would make most people wish for a quicker death. To make matters worse, this was only the first round—the appetiser.

But not a squeak leaked from the mouth of Masaya Misaka. Even in that hell, he did not give an inch to Kyoji Tachikuro—to that tyrannical 'strongest esper' of Tatenkara.

"He's not budging, as usual." commented Hatano. "You should try choking him. You never squeeze his neck much, Tachi-sama."

"And knock him out before the real pain can begin?" nonchalantly retorted Tachikuro, "There's an art to this. We also can't leave identifiable evidence of Hydro Cord on this scum's body. Squeezing his bare neck like that will leave a cord-shaped bruise. He's simply 'falling down the stairs', remember?"

Kyoji Tachikuro was an expert in torture using Hydro Cord.

With another clap, Tachikuro commanded his Hydro Cord to readjust its coil around Masaya. For a brief moment, the horrific crushing sensation creaking through Masaya's whole body ceased, leaving only a body-wide throbbing ache. The respite lasted but a second, as the cord clamped down once again. It was now wrapped around the areas of his body that it had previously missed.

Simply remaining in that first position would have imprinted a coiling bruise that wrapped across Masaya's entire body. He would have looked a bit like a human candy-cane. That would have been easily identifiable as the work of Hydro Cord.

So, Tachikuro had arrived at the simplest workaround—ensure that no part of Masaya's body was to remain un-bruised.

It was like running a document through a printer multiple times to make it nigh-unreadable.

The excruciating pain was back, and the single breath that Masaya had managed to quickly suck in during the very brief intermission was forced back out of his lungs in an instant.

But that exhale was the only sound he made.

Masaya's world began to go dark. His Ohm Sight calculations were now unsustainable in his current state; the world beyond his eyes' field of view vanished. His vision was now disintegrating into a uniform grey as well as his eyes and brain became starved of oxygen. His felt his consciousness fading away. With his last remaining lucidity, a single thought arose in his mind.

He'll stop in 3, 2, 1—.

As predicted, the Hydro Cord loosened its grip right at the last moment before Masaya fully passed out. It took a few seconds for Masaya's lucidity to begin to return. When it did, he found himself choking up phlegm and gasping desperately for air while writhing like a worm on the ground. The nerves all across his body were firing involuntarily, causing him to twitch uncontrollably.

"Not budging. I guess it's on to part two… Unless…"

Tachikuro turned to kneel down before Masaya.

"Now, Misaka." Tachikuro cast a pair of unimpressed eyes down upon his grounded foe, "We can finish up our game right here and now, if you'd like."

Masaya did not bother to return the fat tyrant's gaze. Tachikuro continued anyway.

"Here are my terms. We'll let you go for today if you agree with our terms on the System Scan bet—actually, scratch that. You pay the full 100000 if you fail. If you win and somehow qualify as a pitiful excuse for a level-4, we owe you nothing. You also have to never oppose me in anything ever again. What I say goes, always. All you have to do to accept these terms is admit that I'm the strongest esper in Tatenkara—and kiss my dirty fucking shoes." Tachikuro stood back up and placed his right foot on the ground inches from Masaya's face. "So, Misaka, what's it gonna be?"

It took a few more seconds for Masaya's breathing to stabilise, and a little longer for him to remember how to speak. Masaya could then speak only the following words in response.

"Fuck you, shit-breath."

Upon hearing that, Tachikuro spun on his heel to address his audience of four underlings. His monstrous grin was back.

"Looks like the fun continues, boys!"

As the 'dogs' each gave their laughs and cheers at the news, Tachikuro clapped once. The large Hydro Cord unravelled itself from Masaya's body, threw one of its ends over a horizontal tree branch overhead, then back down. It wrapped both ends around Masaya's wrists and hoisted him up. A second smaller Hydro Cord jumped out from under Tachikuro's sleeve, where it had been staying since the fight (its other half had been dismissed after the fight ended), corkscrewed itself into the ground below Masaya with one end, and coiled its other around his now-dangling ankles.

The two cords pulled taught in sync.

Masaya had found himself in something not unlike a medieval torture rack.

Such a device had the power to dislocate joints, break bones, or even tear a person limb from limb. Hydro Cord had more than enough strength to achieve any of those results.

Once again, Masaya had no power to do anything here. There was no counterplay, there was no chance to fight back.

With only Ohm Sight for Masaya to fight back with, and nothing more, the will of Hydro Cord, of Kyoji Tachikuro, was as good as absolute.

Hydro Cord was an ability that packed true power. Ohm Sight was not. That was simply the way of the world in this city.

Despite the numerous advantages that it could afford Masaya in everyday life, in combat, his ability would not allow Masaya to exceed the natural limits of what the human body could do. Ohm Sight would not make him faster. Ohm Sight would not make him stronger. Ohm Sight could not shoot lasers, nor could it make him laser-proof. Despite those shortcomings, Ohm Sight was enough to allow Masaya to fight confidently against Skill-Outs, who were similarly limited to their human bodies. Against strong espers, however, with their fine control over unusual and powerful phenomena entirely unrestricted by the limits of humanity, Ohm Sight was severely and hopelessly out of its league.

It wasn't even entirely a matter of a level-3 going up against a level-4. Masaya was simply also weak by level-3 standards. While it certainly had its everyday uses, and it could hold its own well against level-0 Skill-Outs, trying to repurpose Ohm Sight to work well in inter-esper combat had to be nothing short of Sisyphean.

Masaya had tried time and time again to create a more level playing field that made Tachikuro's ability less effective, while taking advantage of anything that Ohm Sight's information could employ. Even then, the Hydro Cords themselves were practically invulnerable to anything Masaya could hit them with, and Masaya was granted zero opportunities to land even a single good hit on Tachikuro, the target that actually mattered—even after 20 battles, 20 different approaches, and 20 decisive losses. Today's fight might have been his best attempt yet—this had certainly been Masaya's longest fight with Tachikuro to date—but even on a (partially) levelled playing field, Ohm Sight had zero good ways to directly oppose Hydro Cord and take out its user.

For an experienced Ohm Sight user, an experienced Hydro Cord user was simply not beatable. This was as close to an unwinnable matchup as it got. Past a certain point, power levels became irrelevant. Even if Masaya had sat amongst the ranks of those legendary level-5s, able to observe the entire city in micrometre-detail with Ohm Sight, winning against Kyoji Tachikuro in one-on-one combat would remain a simple impossibility.

As far as the unspoken laws of Academy City's esper community were concerned, Masaya Misaka defeating Kyoji Tachikuro in a fight was simply not going to happen—ever.

As far as being able to hold one's own in esper power balances, Ohm Sight was without doubt a worthless ability to have.

Yet, even after Ohm Sight had long since fallen short, Masaya Misaka continued to hold fast against Tachikuro's malice, refusing to submit before him even once, even after all the pain and misery Masaya had been subjected to by that tyrannical esper. Why was that?

"Well, thunder-boy, you asked for it, and I'm a man of my word." Tachikuro turned his attention from the strung-up Masaya. "Hatano, how would you like to beat the shit outta your cocky desk-neighbour with a bad attitude?"

"Oh man, Tachi-sama! Now you're speaking my language." Hatano hopped forth with glee, only to be blocked by Tachikuro.

"Then you'll have to wait your turn, you runt." chortled Tachikuro, before twisting around to drive one hell of gut-punch into Masaya's abdomen.

"Hyaar!" shouted Tachikuro as he delivered his violence.

More of that vicious pain rocked his body like an earthquake as Masaya felt his guts getting rattled by the impact. With his Ohm Sight now back, he could even watch it happening. His already-bruised body screamed. He was already exhausted from the constriction, but that punch now made him go limp entirely.

Still, he didn't submit.

Just a little further.

Despite his miserable state, and general all-round agony, there was something still keeping him going from deep within him. His body was screaming at him to let it be over, but a force drove Masaya to persist regardless.

Just what was that driving force?

Masaya slowly raised his head, looked Tachikuro dead in the eye.

"That all you got, shit-breath?"

"Grrrraah!" growled the tyrant, before rapid-firing punch after punch into Masaya's stomach. Blow after blow sent shockwaves and surges of horrific pain echoing throughout Masaya's whole body. After exhausting himself, Tachikuro stepped back to admire his handiwork. He was none-too-pleased with what he saw.

Or what he heard.

"Your punches are weak, fat boy. Those arms are all fat, no muscle."

A voice just barely managed to sputter out those words in between blood-spitting coughs and wheezes.

Masaya Misaka's will remained unbroken.

Kyoji Tachikuro gave a face that looked as though he was about to snap.

This is what Masaya had been wanting to see.

That meant that he was winning—in a way.

-[2]-

The earlier fight out in the park's field was play at best—a prelude.

There had been no question that Kyoji Tachikuro was going to come out on top.

But here…

This was the battle that really mattered.

Tachikuro could break Masaya's body as much as he wanted.

But Tachikuro's spirit would break before Masaya's.

Masaya would make sure of it.

He had to.

Tachikuro was getting close to losing his composure. A little more, and Masaya could claim a sort of messed up victory.

Kyoji Tachikuro had a limit to the kind of damage he could do to Masaya. Any grievous bodily harm would get Anti-Skill involved. Masaya knew that Tachikuro needed to avoid that from happening.

Anti-Skill was beyond his control, and would oppose him—unlike Tatenkara's Judgment branch.

Following the graduation of last year's third years, Tatenkara Middle School's Judgment branch now consisted of only five members—three of them were under Tachikuro's thumb. Any incident that took place on Tatenkara's campus could be twisted by Judgment to his favour—often with Masaya as the default scapegoat. As the only real victim, his calls for an anti-corruption investigation had fallen on deaf ears; Judgment's corrupt crusades against Masaya had landed him a rather questionable reputation in Tatenkara. It was a self-perpetuating cycle of filth.

Masaya had learned to side-step the Judgment issue by luring their confrontations off-campus, where Tatenkara's Judgment branch lacked jurisdiction, and had to work more closely with Anti-Skill when incidents did occur on their watch. Masaya had dragged Tachikuro out into the open where his friends in high places couldn't cover his rear if he got caught in the act. Masaya could tell that this alone had vexed Tachikuro to no end.

Out here, Kyoji Tachikuro's appetite for violence could never be properly sated. All he could do was the kind of damage that could be interpreted as something Masaya could have done to himself, as if he'd 'fallen down the stairs', as he'd call it.

But that still included quite a lot that Tachikuro could do.

Kyoji Tachikuro managed to control himself. He managed to avoid breaking face.

He took a deep breath, and spoke to Masaya.

"As you know Misaka, I fight using my cords. They've proven time and time again to be vastly superior to regular old fists—like yours." He plastered on a smug expression, a tenuous one. "A weakling like you has nothing but his fists. Besides…"

The two Hydro Cords holding tight Masaya's wrists slithered and coiled themselves down his arms. The one on his left arm continued to further wrap itself around his torso a few times; the right one did not. Tachikuro then clapped his hands together once.

CLUNK!

"Rrrrgghg!"

They Hydro Cord gave only a quick tug. That's all it took. With such a casual motion, Masaya's right arm was effortless wrenched and dislocated from its shoulder socket. Horrific pain shot through Masaya's shoulder. It instantly overpowered any of the decentralised pain from what had come before.

Tachikuro then completed what he was going to say.

"… Who exactly has the weak punch now?"

The pain was excruciating. It was unbearable. For most people, pain didn't get much worse than this.

But Masaya knew better.

This was far, far, from the worst pain he had ever had the misfortune to experience in his life.

He refused to let anything lesser than that break him.

His ceased squeezing shut his eyes and sucking in through his teeth. He contained the agony, isolated it, focused on it. He saw it for what it truly was. There was a wild circus of pain within his shoulder, but that's all it was. It was a circus. It was a show, something to be watched—but it wasn't real life. The pain would only hurt him if he let it hurt him.

Masaya stared dead into Tachikuro's eyes—and roared.

"Rrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagghggghhg!"

"Give up?! There's a lot more where that came from!" taunted Tachikuro.

"You're gonna need all of it, shit-breath!" Masaya growled from his very core, "You're never breaking me, you hear me!"

As if he would ever give in now. He was this close to winning.

And besides, he had an audience to hold himself to, whether they enjoyed what they were seeing or not.

Tachikuro's facade really was on the verge of breaking now. He kept in his boiling frustration—only just. He muttered under his breath.

"Very well."

Kyoji Tachikuro moved to clap his hands together.

SNAP!

The sound of something snapping clean in half rang out through that area.

-[3]-

"Huh?" Tachikuro paused just before he could command his Hydro Cords.

SNAP!

Another loud snap echoed out.

"What was that?" questioned Hatano to nobody in particular.

Just where had that snapping sound come from?

Tachikuro certainly hadn't caused it.

Rustle. Rustle.

A rustling sound could also be heard. Like foliage being pushed around.

"There's someone in the bushes!" shouted out one of Tachikuro's underlings.

The group had settled around the back of a small utility building in that park, which was backed up against a large grove of dense vegetation. There wasn't too much open space between the small building and the grove, which made it a rather secluded spot, reducing the possibility of onlookers peeking in from most directions.

From most directions.

There was one direction from which an onlooker could easily look in on that scene.

From inside the grove itself.

Masaya's Ohm Sight had detected them there long ago.

In fact, he knew that they had been following him all afternoon.

All five members of Tachikuro's party swivelled around to look into that grove of trees and bushes behind them.

And they saw nothing.

It wasn't that they couldn't see anybody in the bushes—they couldn't even see the bushes.

"What the hell?! What's going on?!" shouted out an underling.

"What the shit?! I can't see shit?!" panicked another.

A thick haze or fog had suddenly engulfed that small area. Visibility was reduced to only around two metres.

Masaya's vision was crippled to only two metres. His Ohm Sight, however, could see straight through that fog as if it were not even there at all. He could see exactly where everyone was standing, including that person coming out from those bushes.

Masaya did not know this ability, but he knew the shape of the person presumably creating it.

Hisao Sagara.

This must have been his esper ability.

In his hands was what appeared to be a sturdy wooden stick.

What the hell does this kid think he's doing?!

This was no place for a first year to be getting involved.

Yet here he was anyway.

"Would this fog happen to be from a friend of yours?" asked an intrigued Tachikuro, still close enough for him and Masaya to see one another, if barely, "I didn't know you had friends."

Those words. That disrespect.

That had been the trigger.

A new fight had begun.

-[4]-

Hisao Sagara stepped forth blindly into that invisible battlefield. Tachikuro's 'dogs' stood in place, trying to ascertain where the sound of each step had come from. Masaya, still strung up by the Hydro Cords, was the only one who could observe the whole area clearly.

"Well don't just stand there, catch the fucker, whoever he is!" commanded Tachikuro. With a clap of his hands, he commanded his larger Hydro Cord to let go of Masaya's arms and return to its master. The large Hydro Cord dropped Masaya gracelessly to the hard ground, swung down from the tree branch it had slung itself over, and moved to defensively circle Tachikuro like a python protecting its nest. With Masaya still with his back on the ground, the smaller Hydro Cord unanchored itself from the ground and released his ankles, but quickly slithered over his body and up to his neck before pinning it to the ground like a tent peg. Masaya remained trapped.

Tachikuro's four underlings stepped blindly about, hunting for their mystery assailant.

CRACK!

One had evidently stepped wrong as Hisao Sagara spotted him from behind and dealt a downward strike to the head.

"Ugk! Fuck!" that dog yelped, collapsing to the ground, reeling, head in hands.

"Arono!" yipped another of Tachikuro's goons.

Masaya's Ohm Sight caught Hisao Sagara swivelling about trying to catch the source of that cry.

"Screw this, I'm out of here!"

Masaya could also see Hatano panicking before running off in a random direction out of fear. Unfortunately, that random direction was right towards Hisao Sagara from the side. At this rate, Hatano would collide with the kid and knock him down, after which he'd be vulnerable to dogpiling.

"Kid! Thrust nine o'clock!" Masaya called out into the white void.

Hisao Sagara perked up at that voice, identifying its source, before realising what the words meant and prodding his stick out to his left, which Hatano then ran his face straight into the end of.

"Agh! Shit!" cried Hatano.

Hisao Sagara then finished him off with a downward swing to the dome.

CRACK!

"Hatano's down!" called out a goon.

Tachikuro was less than pleased with the way this battle was going.

"I gotta fucken do everything myself." he muttered.

The Hydro Cord circling his feet wrapped itself around his torso and extended its now narrowed and tapered end forth, like a long flowing whip.

"I'm going fishing boys, watch out now!"

His 'dogs' knew what that meant instantly. The two remaining underlings dropped the ground and Tachikuro extended the end of the Hydro Cord into the void.

"Kid, get down!" shouted Masaya, before receiving a tightening grip from the Hydro Cord around his neck, as though it was Tachikuro's way of telling him to shut up.

Hisao Sagara dove prone as the long thin Hydro Cord swept from one side of the small battlefield to the other like a whip. It went over the heads of Hisao and the two underlings, and caught nothing. After performing a few whip-like sweeps, it returned to Tachikuro empty-tentacled. Tachikuro turned in Masaya's direction. From this distance, Tachikuro should've been able to see Masaya's feet in that thick fog, but not his face. He spoke to where he thought Masaya's face would be anyway.

"Remind me to impale you later."

Masaya knew that impalation was off the table as far as torture was involved, but that malice in Tachikuro's voice was some of the most bitter he'd ever heard from him.

Masaya knew that he could not allow Tachikuro to capture Hisao Sagara as well—that kid would be broken forever if that were allowed to happen. Despite the tight loop of solid-feeling water clamping around his neck, Masaya managed to choke out a warning to that first-year.

"Get out of here, kid! I'll be fine. Five o'clock is a clear path out. For the love of God, escape now!"

Still on the ground, Hisao Sagara looked over his right shoulder.

Yes. That way!

Hisao Sagara paused for a second, and then made his decision.

He got on his feet, and started running—towards where Masaya's voice had come from.

You fucking idiot!

No, he was running to where the whip of water had appeared from out of the white void. He held that sturdy stick forward as if it were a spear, and he charged.

Hisao Sagara's silhouette came into Masaya's regular vision as he charged. Hisao Sagara leapt over Masaya and towards the one standing just beyond him. He performed a great forward thrust of his weapon the moment that large, vicious figure came into view.

A meaty impact echoed through the world of white, and in a shocking turn that nobody saw coming, that fight was ended in an instant.

-[5]-

The void of white fell silent.

Masaya didn't even need his Ohm Sight to know that the fight was over—the final blow had been dealt from right next to him.

Hisao Sagara stood there, weapon thrust forward.

As did Kyoji Tachikuro.

Hisao Sagara's weapon had been thrust toward Tachikuro, and had met empty air.

In quick reaction, Tachikuro's weapon had been thrust toward Hisao, and had not.

"Ugh." sputtered Hisao. He lowered his weapon from the space beside Tachikuro's head, and then he looked down. "Ah. Ah shit." he muttered.

Tachikuro also looked down at where he had thrust his Hydro Cord forth—and lodged its sharpened end deep into Hisao's gut. "Oh shit indeed." He seemed more intrigued than shocked.

Things had gone from bad, to worse, to absolutely catastrophic.

"Ah… Oh no." the 12 year old child shuddered as he tried to comprehend being stabbed in the abdomen by a spear of water. His eyes went wide, and tears welled up within them. A child's first instinct upon being hurt was to begin crying.

He must have forgotten about maintaining his ability's calculations, as the empty world of fog vanished an instant later.

Masaya had seen the whole thing happen from on the ground, but he could no longer remain quiet.

"Kyoji Tachikuro, I hope you rot in hell." Masaya growled with all the vitriol his damaged form could muster. At this point, he had completely forgotten about the pain rampaging through his own body like uncontrollable stampeding elephants.

Tachikuro didn't even bother responding to those words. His mind had been in a shockingly inappropriate place.

"I've been wondering when I'd get to try that." he patted Hisao on the shoulder while his Hydro Cord was still inside him, "Sucks to be you, kid. Hehe."

And then he pulled it out with a yank.

"Ahh… Ahh." Hisao didn't even scream. He just yelped, confused, panicked, as blood began cascading from the new hole in his gut. Clearer tears similarly cascaded from his eyes.

He was just a kid, after all.

"Don't just bleed out! Put pressure on it! Hold it tight!" Masaya shouted out in desperation. There was nothing else he could do. His body was broken, and his neck was still pinned to the ground by a loop of water. He could do nothing but shout, or watch.

He chose to shout. That was the easiest choice in the world. The Hydro Cord loop around his neck had forgotten to remain tight due to all of the distractions. That had given him just enough room to shout his lungs out.

Hisao Sagara finally snapped back to reality.

"Ah! Ahh! Aahhh!" he cried, before finally pressing his hands onto his punctured abdomen. "Ack! Ahh!" he cried again in response to the additional pain of holding a wound.

Tachikuro's remaining underlings had been watching the whole thing from the moment the fog cleared.

"Shit! What do we do now?!" one asked with a panicked tone.

"Hell if I know." responded Tachikuro, "Maybe we can quickly try burying them or something. We've gone and done it, now, I'm afraid. At this point, our priorities should be eliminating evidence."

Perhaps he was beginning to panic inside, leading to irrational thinking—or perhaps he genuinely thought that he might possibly get away with it. Either way, Tachikuro was absolutely out of his mind—much more so than usual.

That maintaining of a calm façade in a situation like this was the clear mark of an absolute psychopath.

Masaya was going to ensure that this psychopath was not going to get away with it. Anti-Skill was going to find him guilty sooner or later, but Masaya easily preferred if he and Hisao Sagara were going to be alive to see that happen.

But how?

They needed help, and fast—but from who?

Who could Masaya and Hisao call to for help in their current states?

Her!

There was one person they could still count on.

There was one person here who at this point still had yet to play their card.

Like Hisao, she had also been following Masaya all afternoon. Their attempt at being covert had fallen flat in the face of Ohm Sight.

Masaya's Ohm Sight could still see her hiding in that grove.

Masaya chose to shout. That was the easiest choice in the world.

"Rika Sagara! Now would be a good time to scream as loud as you can!" He also shouted as loud as he could.

"What?!" exclaimed Tachikuro.

A moment later, one hell of a blood-curdling female scream could be heard throughout the entire park.

-[6]-

Echoes of that scream rang through the space behind that small utility building.

That had been a good, hard, horror-movie scream.

Help would surely be on its way before long.

With that move, Masaya and his allies had more or less secured their survival.

It's good that she didn't spend too long thinking about it.

Masaya silently commended Rika Sagara's odd, spontaneous nature. She was just the kind of ally he and Hisao needed right now.

"The fuck?! You've got another one in there?" growled Tachikuro. He turned the tip of his Hydro Cord in the direction of the scream, "She'll be going to hell, too!"

"I'm afraid you don't have time for that, Tachikuro." retorted the immobilised Masaya, "It appears that people are already on their way here."

Masaya was not lying. Vague figures were already taking shape at the edge of Ohm Sight's range. Masaya's ability could make out the human form up to a distance of 100 metres; as they got closer, their forms became clearer. Someone was indeed on their way, and they were approaching fast.

"Shit. Looks like I'll have another fight on my hands, then." Tachikuro's Hydro Cord, still wrapped around him, took position, ready to strike.

Tachikuro was already in too deep to get out of this scot-free. That apparently wasn't going to stop him from digging himself even deeper.

"What? Against ten people?" questioned Masaya. "No, wait. It's eleven, now."

"You're shitting me! Ah, fuck it! We're outta here!" Tachikuro finally conceded. "Which way's clear?!"

"No one from this direction!" shouted one of the underlings, peeking out the side of the utility building.

"Hatano! Arono! Get your asses up! We're leaving now!" commanded Tachikuro, before quickly turning to his once defeated foe, "Just so you know, Misaka: this is far from over."

The tyrant esper and his two followers then sprinted from the scene, followed by two more on unsteady feet with heads to their hands. The Hydro Cord loop around Masaya's neck burst into a splash of regular water once its user abandoned it. Masaya was free at last.

Their tormentors had fled the scene—but the fight was not yet over.

Hisao Sagara had been grievously injured and required immediate medical attention.

Masaya was at least unrestrained, but when he tried to get up, he simply couldn't.

Every single muscle in his body had been so beaten and abused that they outright refused to move an inch.

"Rika! Get over here now!" Masaya tried to raise his head, but even that was a chore in itself—his neck and head had been relatively unharmed, but trying to move them made everything else hurt that much worse, and they were already hurting a hell of a lot.

Simply put, he wasn't going anywhere.

Hisao Sagara collapsed to his knees right before his sister burst from the foliage with her and Hisao's book bags in hand and leaves dotting her hair and clothes. She looked like she'd just come back from a crazy adventure of her own. When she saw the state that Hisao and Masaya were in, she paled.

"Hisao?… Senpai?…" it took her a few seconds to fully take in what she was seeing. When she saw the bloody wound that her brother was clasping tight, the true gravity of the situation sank in for her. Her eyes went wide. Her jaw shuddered. Her whole body shook.

"Rika Sagara, scream out 'help' right now. Loud as you can! We need the guys on their way to pick up the pace."

"R-right."

She did exactly as told. A noisy girl she most certainly was, and she was exactly what they needed.

Rika Sagara knelt beside her badly bleeding twin. Her hands were restless in front of her. She wished desperately to help in some way, but she didn't know how.

"Hisao!" she began tearing up in a panic, "Senpai! What do I do?!"

'Hisao, lie down on your back! You'll leak less blood that way!" instructed Masaya. That wouldn't have been an option if Hisao had been fully run through by the Hydro Cord—then they'd have two hellish wounds to worry about. Luckily, the Hydro Cord had only stabbed about 10 centimetres deep—still horrible, but perfectly survivable with some competent medical assistance.

Hisao Sagara was not in any state to be returning affirmatives. He was looking grossly pale, and was staring off into empty space. He simply did as instructed, but that would only do so much.

Without any medical equipment for first aid, Hisao would be in a lot more danger until proper help arrived.

Right now, there was nothing that they could use to help contain the bleeding. Hisao's hands were not doing the job.

No, wait! That could work!

"Rika, in your book bag! You've got one of those things—the girl pads! Use that to slow the bleeding!" As a 14 year old boy himself, Masaya did not exactly know the proper name for those things, but his Ohm Sight recognised the shape and material of one within Rika's bag nonetheless. First day or not, she was a middle school girl, after all.

A typical 14 year old boy would usually know next-to nothing about those unspoken matters of the fairer sex, but Ohm Sight did not discriminate with what it detected, whether Masaya wanted to see them or not.

"Senpai! That's private! When have you been snooping through my b—?"

"Just shut up and press that thing onto the wound!"

Rika quickly shut her mouth and did as she was told. Now was not the time to be worrying about such trivial matters.

The absorbent pad did its job vastly better than Hisao's hands ever could. Still, it was a temporary measure at best.

"Senpai." muttered Hisao through weak breaths, "You said there was a bunch of people coming. When are they getting here?"

About that.

Masaya's Ohm Sight had been keeping track of that approaching help the whole time.

"Well, kid, they should be here in about…3…2…1…"

A moment later, a voice shot through that space behind the park utility building.

"This is Judgment!"

-[7]-

A silhouette stood tall at the entrance to that miserable scene.

Masaya had lied just before.

There were in fact not ten or eleven people rushing on their way to the scene—that had been a lie to quickly get rid of Tachikuro and his goons.

There was just one.

The high school boy was tall and very well-built, with very long dark brown hair that looked as though it belonged in a (women's) shampoo commercial. It was voluminous enough that it almost resembled a lion's mane. With his muscular build, he wouldn't have looked out of place in one of those macho brawling mangas—or sitting shirtless atop a white horse on the cover of a women's romance novel. Atop the sleeve barely containing his robust arm sat a Judgment armband.

"What's going on here?!" called out that three's potential rescuer.

Masaya would not allow any time to go to waste here.

"Don't concern yourself with me! The kid's been stabbed in the gut by an offensive water-based ability! He needs immediate medical attention! Please make sure that an ambulance is on its way here first and foremost!"

"Right." responded the Judgment officer, before pulling out his phone and making the call.

It's good that he got the memo nice and quickly.

This Judgment officer was not wearing a Tatenkara uniform—he was one of the reliable ones who wouldn't fraudulently spin this incident into being Masaya's fault somehow. It was good to see Judgment being helpful for a change.

Masaya did recognise the cream-beige western-style uniform the Judgment high schooler was wearing. It was from that highly-regarded all-boys school. There were a lot of strong espers there. Mr Judgment was probably pretty strong, but nonetheless, getting rid of Tachikuro before he arrived was always going to be a wise call.

The high schooler removed his phone from his ear, "Alright, help is on the way, you two. We just have to sit tight until it arrives." He turned his attention to the bloody mess that was Hisao Sagara, "Let's get a look at that wound." The older Judgment boy pulled a tube of some kind of paste or gel from his pocket. Masaya's Ohm Sight had identified similar tubes in the pockets of other Judgment officers here and there in the past, but he never knew what they were for, exactly.

"Alright girl. On the count of three, remove the, uh, is that what I think it is?" The Judgment boy was thrown off a bit by what he saw plugging Hisao's unwanted second belly button. "Doesn't matter. One the count of three, remove it and I'll fill the wound with this closing agent. Then we'll press it back together. Got it?"

"I think so." responded Rika Sagara.

"Okay. Here we go. 1… 2… 3!"

"Rika removed the saturated sanitary pad, revealing a nasty round hole once more spilling fresh blood. The Judgment boy lined the edges of that hole with the medical gel. Hisao was hissing in pain throughout the entire process.

"An open round hole? That's harder to fix than a stab from a flat blade. We'll have to squash the hole shut. This is going to hurt like hell, kiddo. It's hardly ideal, but it'll have to do for now."

Hisao Sagara could only give an uneasy groan loaded with dread.

"Alright, in 3…21GO!"

"Eeeiihhhahrrhrgh!"

Masaya watched upon that agonising scene.

Yeah, I probably would've done the same thing.

Hisao Sagara probably wasn't going to forgive the older Judgment boy for tricking him like that, but that inelegant wound-squashing had quite possibly just saved his life.

-[8]-

The situation was now marginally less dire. An ambulance was on its way, and Hisao Sagara's bleeding had been largely curbed for the time being. All there was left to do was sit tight and wait for the EMTs to arrive. Rika Sagara had been sent away to keep an eye out and call them over when they appeared.

Following all the chaos, violence, and screaming that had just taken place in that small space behind the utility building, it was now very quiet.

"S-senpai." whimpered Hisao Sagara.

"What is it, kid?" responded Masaya as the Judgment high-schooler was checking over his injuries. He hissed slightly in pain whenever his right arm was ever even slightly touched.

From their positions on the ground (which they were not to move from), it was difficult for the two of them to see one another too well, but Masaya could tell that Hisao was on the verge of tears.

"I… I think that this would probably have to be the worst first day of middle school that anybody has ever had."

Something about that line didn't sit right with Masaya. He quickly figured out why.

"And just whose fault is that, again?"

"Wh-what?"

It seemed that Hisao Sagara had yet to fully process the facts of the situation.

"What the hell were you thinking? You couldn't even handle those Skill-Outs this morning. In what universe did you think that you could take on a monstrous level-4 like Tachikuro all by yourself?!"

"But senpai! He was torturing you! I had to do so—."

"I was going to be fine. There's nothing he could've done to me that I couldn't recover from."

"So that just makes it okay to leave you there?!" Hisao tried futilely to restrain his tears, "And after what you did for me, and for Rika. I couldn't. I just couldn't. If I just sat there and watched you suffer like that, w-what kind of person would that make me?"

So this kid is one of those types, is he?

"It would make you smart. You put yourself, and your sister, in grave danger in a hopeless attempt to rescue me. I've only known you for a day, but I can still tell that this is probably the most foolish thing you've ever done in your entire life, Hisao Sagara."

"So it's only okay when you do it?! Only you get to help people when they need it most?!"

Masaya wasn't buying that logic.

"I knew what I was getting into with those Skill-Outs. I have plenty of experience dealing with them."

"You knew what you were getting into with this guy too! I heard them say you fought him 20 times and lost every time. Your claim of experience doesn't mean a hell of a lot in reality, does it?"

And Hisao apparently wasn't going to buy Masaya's.

That's hardly the same thing!

Masaya had another counter prepared, but before he could us it…

"That's enough, you two." Mr Judgment decided that now was the time to butt in. "If you guys want to help people so much, then I would advise you both to join Judgment."

That seemed to shut them both up.

Join Judgment? Not in a million years.

Masaya would be diving straight into the shark tank if he joined Tatenkara's Judgment branch. The systemic authority he would gain would not be worth the trouble he'd receive from the other members of the branch.

The unsettling quiet was back. It carried on for longer than anyone there probably would have liked.

For the first time today, Masaya's mind was free to begin wandering to bizarre places.

It's that feeling again.

Masaya was starting to experience the 'now' feeling. It was the sudden hyper-awareness that one was stuck experiencing the exact present moment. It usually arrived during moments of stress before unpleasant experiences, such as at the beginning of tough final exams. After all of the outrageous events that took place today, Masaya wondered why it was coming up now, rather than at any of those other times. The Skill-Out battle this morning, dealing with Hatano, the awkward encounters with Fukiyose, the dreaded moments before the fight with Tachikuro, the excruciating torture at his hands—the feeling appeared only now, after all of that was over. Why was that?

Was it that, maybe it happened only because all of that was now over? It wouldn't be the first time it had gone something like that.

Yes, I guess that's it for today.

Masaya felt every one of his bruised and beaten muscles beginning to relax completely. The adrenaline and other hormonal concoctions that had been keeping him on-edge all day were now free to finally drain away. In that moment, Masaya felt that this might have been the most exhausted he'd ever been in his life, or close to it.

He felt himself fading. That was expected; he had really pushed well beyond his absolute limits today. Ohm Sight could tell that Masaya didn't have (much) internal bleeding, or any destroyed internal organs. He probably wasn't dying—but perhaps dying felt a little something like this. It felt rather peaceful.

At one point in the past, Masaya had willingly placed upon his shoulders a set of grand ambitions.

One day, he was going to stand at the apex of the esper hierarchy, useless ability or not. One day, he would rise back above her and reclaim his rightful place. One day, he'd make things right. Perhaps then, things would be able to go back to the way they once had been—the way things were meant to be.

But that was then, and this was now. Right now, Masaya had to fully accept that his first day of the new school year, the next chapter of his life, was going to end with him beaten and broken on the dirty ground behind an old park utility building. Right now, that dirt and mud felt more comfortable than any bed in the world ever could. He could only accept that this was his lot in life.

Right now, he just wanted to rest.

His breathing slowed. His eyelids felt heavier than anvils and he made no effort to resist their closing. The volumetric world of Ohm Sight was next to go as he ceased running their calculations. All that was left of the world were the gentle sounds of the park around him.

"Senpai?"

A new sound managed to reach him.

"What is it, Hisao?" Masaya just barely muttered out after a short while.

"It gets better, right… than this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is every day going to be like this? Is this the best that espers like us can hope to get?" Hisao's voice was weak, like he was holding back tears again. "If it's just going to be like this day in and day out, I don't know if I'll be able to take it." There was a sniffle in between his words here and there.

"I like to believe that things can get better. There's no point in someone like me going on, otherwise." Masaya wasn't putting a single thought into his words at this point. Perhaps that meant that his very soul was the one doing the talking. "I should have died last year, Hisao—I really was dead, but by the will of fate, I'm still here. What's the point of me living on after that, if not without some sort of hope?"

"Do you know where that hope is?"

"Not yet… but I look forward… to finding it one day." Masaya was now fully drifting out of consciousness. Before he fully faded away into blissful respite, he managed to squeeze out just a few more words:

"And… what a… wonderful day… that will be."

And so, as the EMTs finally arrived on the scene, Masaya Misaka's first day of his third middle school year came to a close—beaten, crushed, and broken, on the filthy ground in a nowhere spot between a dirty old utility building and an overgrown grove in a public park.

Such was the fate of this middling esper—for now.

Perhaps tomorrow would fare a little better.

Surely, from down here at rock bottom, the only way for this insufficient esper to go was up, right?

AFTERWORD

Welcome back, dear reader.

I hope you enjoyed [False Conduct] chapter 3.

This may have seemed like a rather dark chapter, but do recall that this is originally going to be the final third of chapter 2. The two parts together probably would have felt a bit more tonally balanced, with moments both comedic and dire aplenty, but as they are apart, the contrast feels much more apparent.

Now, despite his flashy introduction, we see the truth as to the kind of life that Masaya Misaka has found himself trapped into. Since To Aru itself primarily focuses on the high-powered characters first and foremost, and then the helpless level-0s after that, I felt like the middle area of the power scale was often left a little unexplored most times. Level 2s and 3s are assailed upon by both Skill-Outs punching up (and are the ones more likely to fall to Skill-Outs) and higher level espers using them as stepping stones to prove their might. Due to technically possessing talent, and an ability to show for their work, they are given little sympathy from those below them, and are treated as disposable weaklings by those above them. For level 3s who are underpowered by level 3 standards, who possess technically impressive abilities that provide disappointingly little in the way of combat power, how much worse would this situation be for them? What can they do in order to make things feel a bit more balanced?

Due to how much my writing seems to expand in length from what my plans intend, it appears that I've already written over 40000 words of story without so much as touching upon the major focus of the story as outlined in the story blurb. Mikoto doesn't even have so much as a mention yet! This would probably qualify as a rookie error. These 40000 words cover only a single day and are basically just Masaya's introduction; it's a bit shocking how it ended up this long due to me being compelled to keep adding detail whenever I can. Next chapter will start touching upon the proper core of the story in some proper detail, so stay tuned for that.

At least this chapter managed to be a little bit shorter this time around.

As always, feel free to let me know what you think about [False Conduct] so far, dear reader.

-Lacien