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.

8. Part 1 - Chapter 8 (False Conduct)

PART 1, CHAPTER 8

-[1]-

Academy City was a walled-off metropolis occupying the western third of the city of Tokyo. Its dedication to the pursuit of science and education resulted in it producing and hoarding enough advanced technology to be able to make the claim of being 20 to 30 years more advanced than the outer world beyond its walls. The pride and joy of that organisation was its Power Curriculum Program, a process of developing young minds towards the manifestation of incredible psychic abilities that could greatly alter the world around their users.

Today, Academy City's Power Curriculum Program showcased another great victory.

Standing at the zenith of Academy City's psychic youth were the level-5s. While their population numbered only in the single digits, each of them possessed truly awe-striking power which held strategic value that rivalled entire armies—or so was claimed.

This day marked the birth of another into their ranks. Mikoto Misaka was named as Academy City's newest level-5 electromaster.

This was a day that would go down in history. Academy City as a whole had much cause to rejoice.

So why hadn't Masaya Misaka celebrated his sister's astonishing achievement?

Why had he instead turned his hopes to away from the institutions which had brought that girl such success—and towards the words of the dubious stranger standing before him?

Did that young man really hold the key that could liberate Masaya from his crises?

Either way, it was too late to turn back now.

-[2]-

"Arh! So that just doesn't get any better, does it?" groaned Masaya Misaka with his head clasped between his hands. He felt like he had one of those plasma globe lamps running amok inside his brain.

He was not alone here on this quiet dusk-lit rooftop away from the rest of the world.

"Reconfiguring the terms written in the anchor will do that." shrugged Aureson Waterleiner. "It's setting up and installing the anchor that knocks the host out instantly to allow for a proper Revelation setup, so be glad that we're already well past that stage, otherwise we'd be here a while."

What nonsense is that? Masaya wanted to think, but couldn't.

That psychobabble would've sounded like a whole load of nothing to most people, yet Masaya found himself unable to reject it as simple gibberish. It wasn't as though he personally understood the terminology; rather it was like something within him was telling him that those words were indeed important.

Eventually, the washing machine-like tumbling motions he felt within his skull came to a quiet standstill. He removed his hands from his temples and raised his gaze to meet that mysterious older boy.

"So you're a mental esper. This had better not just be some rubbish where you make the words 'Believe in yourself! ' appear in my mind whenever I'm feeling down and then call that a fix-all solution."

Despite his snark, usually slow-to-trust Masaya found himself surprised with how accepting he was being about this whole situation. That stranger had definitely done something to his head to that end.

The stranger smiled.

"A mental esper, huh? Close, but not quite." Waterleiner chuckled.

"Not quite, huh? scoffed Masaya, "What makes you so special?"

"Imagine, for instance, that Academy City were to have labeled me as a simple mental esper, rather than what I truly am. That would then constitute a misclassification of my esper power that would rob me of the opportunity to develop my unique ability to its true potential. In such a case, Academy City would have set me along a curriculum designed for the development of an esper ability that I do not truly possess, but is close enough that I would be able to follow said curriculum to a seemingly satisfactory level, all without anybody noticing the other applications of my true power being entirely ignored, or perhaps never even discovered in the first place. In time, I would only know my ability as that which Academy City has told me it is. My entire ability development would have taken place under false pretences, with everybody involved being left none the wiser, and my true potential would never be known to me. I would find myself trapped in the fate of the middling esper. What a sad story that would be."

Masaya had no clue why Waterleiner was going off on such a fantasy tangent all of a sudden.

"Nice fable you've got there, but what does that have to do with what you've done to me?"

Waterleiner stepped forward and dropped a firm hand onto Masaya's shoulder. The look in his eyes demanded absolute attention.

"Misaka-kun, you'd best start believing it."

"Why? Is this your sad backstory or something?"

"No." Waterleiner uttered without an ounce of humour, "It's yours."

Ha? Oh sure…

"…" Masaya's eyes narrowed and his lip curled, "Yeah, rig…"

Something flashed within his mind and prevented him from finishing his remark. Masaya's smug countenance disintegrated and the finger he'd raised in objection soon fell back to his side. It was as though he no longer even believed in his objection to Waterleiner's proposition—or rather, he was struck with the sudden realisation he didn't.

But how?

It was like a truth had been imprinted into his mind as so blatantly obvious that it wasn't worth debating.

Why am I actually believing this tripe?

Masaya took a few seconds to process what had just happened, before lifting his gaze back to Waterleiner with a question.

"Wh-what did you do to my head?"

"I gifted you a Revelation. Is that not what you asked for?" smiled Waterleiner.

Masaya certainly couldn't see any grand bombshells appearing before his very eyes to reveal to him the great truths of this world.

But still, even so.

Something had absolutely changed.

Waterleiner continued.

"Make no mistake Misaka-kun, with my power, I have gifted you the answers which you seek." he pointed to Masaya's forehead. "They are in there, you must only find them."

Those charlatan words again.

Masaya scowled at the questionable older boy.

"So when exactly can I have them, huh? All you've done so far is give me headaches while acting like you're helping, so I'd appreciate it if you showed me something worthwhile already."

Masaya's brain had seemingly been placed into a state of compliance with Waterleiner's logic and processes, so he wasn't currently being allowed to reject his words—probably.

But at least impatience was apparently still on the table.

Waterleiner chuckled a bit to himself.

"Yeah, I don't blame you for getting irritable. I may have installed the answers into your mind already using my power, but who knows when you'll be in the right mind-space to summon them to the forefront of your brain? You might know the three measurements for all of your ex-girlfriends off by heart, but exactly how often does your brain call upon that information—for instance?"

That specific example drew up a glare from Masaya. Waterleiner ignored it.

"Anyway, since I don't feel like following you around for the next week waiting for you to figure it out on your own, how about I give you a little…push or two? I for one look forward to seeing your face when I tell you that Ohm Sight isn't even your real ability—for instance."

Ohm Sight isn't…Excuse me?!

Something again flashed from within. Masaya blinked once, twice, as the words sank into the depths of his mind and established themselves as unexplained truth. The words seemed to catch something, but Masaya couldn't tell what. Something of an idea was being assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, but slowly. He needed another hint.

Waterleiner was more than ready to provide just that.

"Of course, just making claims like that doesn't qualify as evidence. You already know the statement to be true, but you don't know why—in that case, how about another push? What if I were to point you towards the reality behind all those blackouts you hate so much—for instance."

…!

Masaya felt something calling to him from deep within himself. Something big was down there. He plunged into the depths to uncover that truth calling to him.

"The path to the truth exists already in your mind; I simply installed the missing pieces of the road. Now you must only follow it." Waterleiner urged.

The gears of his mind began turning fast. He had to catch that mental bell before the calls it made slipped away—possibly forever.

The blackouts—The cause of the blackouts—No medical professional in Academy City has been able to pinpoint it—The cause of the blackouts—Could the cause not be medical?—They only affect me—I began getting them after a year and a half at level-3—I am the only level-3 Ohm Sight user—The cause of the blackouts—Only me—I'm the only esper of my classification and level in existence—Ohm Sight has no precedent at higher levels—OTHER POSSIBLE EFFECTS AND APPLICATIONS HAVE NEVER BEEN DOCUMENTED BEFORE…

A piece of information arose that Masaya had never before considered, as though it had been helpfully whispered into his ear by something small seated atop his shoulder.

Other effects—Effects?—Side effects?—The cause of the blackouts—Ohm Sight—But…he claims…OHM SIGHT…IS NOT…MY REAL…ABILITY?—If Ohm Sight isn't it, then what is…

Masaya Misaka's eyes slowly widened.

"Have you reached a great truth yet?" asked Waterleiner.

Masaya stood across from him, dumbstruck.

"The blackouts… Are my real ability?"

"Very good." Waterleiner commended.

"The blackouts… are my real ability."

Masaya felt the need to repeat himself—to cement that fact securely into his brain so as to not lose the bombshell he had just gone through so much to finally uncover.

He felt his legs suddenly lacking in strength. He stumbled back towards the rooftop railing for support.

His mind was spinning—hunting avidly for the reasoning behind that truth he suddenly knew. Even then, he still didn't feel like he was giving a jaw-dropper like that the respect it demanded. This information was life-changing—if he learnt to make proper use of it.

Tried as he may, he didn't even know what that information actually entailed.

The answer yet eluded him still—for now.

But Waterleiner wasn't finished.

"Reach deeper. Why are the blackouts your true ability?"

Masaya's mind got to work once again. The answers were apparently in there. He just needed to hunt them down.

The blackouts—They happen when I overload Ohm Sight—Too many conductivity readings?—No…Why do I try to get more readings?—The detail falloff—No… The increasing margin of error for reading positions—What happens when I approach a blackout?—More reading samples to use—More readings to keep track of—More effort to maintain—I apply more attention towards maintaining them?—No…Not more attention—Mental effort…To decrease margin of error—To keep them in place—Hold the readings in place—Hold—Press—More PRESSURE—PRESSURE!

Masaya once again unearthed a magic term he had never considered before—or perhaps it really hadn't been there before. That information felt artificially present, lacking in natural connections to his own experience—like the subliminal messaging found in TV commercials, but even more unnatural.

Pressure!—I apply something!—Simple mental attention?—A physical force?—Not physical?—Psychic?—A Psychic force—Psychic force application—Psychokinesis?!—PK!—Not ESP?!—The two fundamental kinds of esper ability—ESP and PK—Am I actually the other kind than I thought?—Ohm Sight falls under Extra-Sensory Perception—ESP—But…OHM SIGHT…IS NOT…MY TRUE ABILITY—The blackouts are my true ability—A form of PK—I'm not an ESP user—I'm a PK user—PK is being used—PK used to increase reading number and stability—To improve fidelity—Fidelity is highest…At point-blank—Myself—The PK…Is affecting me—No—The blackouts are—When I trigger a blackout—I'm…Hitting myself…With a type of PK— A form of PK tangentially connected to what is called Ohm Sight—My true PK ability is mistaken for Ohm Sight—My ability is not ESP based, but PK based—That means—Ohm Sight's conductivity readings…

A moment later, another light bulb moment occurred. Masaya's eyes were sent even wider.

"What did you find this time?" prompted Waterleiner, showing better patience than most teachers.

"What was labelled as Ohm Sight, a form of ESP, was actually PK all along."

"And…"

"Ohm Sight's conductivity readings…Weren't simply environmental ESP readings…But reactions from applied PK."

"Gold star for you, Misaka-kun." commended Waterleiner with just a drop of celebratory enthusiasm—which seemed like a lot for such a seemingly deadpan person. "In regular physics, we've got the good old uncertainty principle to consider. According to that, you can't measure something accurately without affecting it in some way. Since ESP violates these laws on a fundamental level, you can get the signals coming in for free without giving anything out. Sounds great if you're an ESP user—but what if you're not? What if you're a PK user, but you're mislabelled as an ESP user? If they think you're doing ESP, then they won't be looking for anything you might be sending out—or, for instance, anything you might be hitting yourself with."

"My ability…Is not ESP…It's PK." Masaya reiterated to himself.

"Good. But what actually is your ability? You know it's PK of some form, but what is it actually doing when you use it?"

Not ESP—PK—I'm sending out a psychokinetic force—I thought I was simply reading the conductive coefficients of space—But if it's actually PK—Therefore…

Another eureka moment.

Masaya had his answer.

"I…I'm directly affecting and altering the conductive coefficients of space itself." Masaya's wavering speech had vanished entirely by the end of that declaration. "When I blackout, I'm applying psychokinetic pressure onto local conductive coefficients to the point where I'm overwriting the conductivity of the space my brain and nervous system is occupying. Electrical signals within my nervous system are being made to follow the wrong paths, and my cognitive functions and most basal brain processes are being interrupted, causing instantaneous cessation of consciousness! That's the true cause of the blackouts!"

With each statement, Masaya's resolve grew, as did his excitement. By the end, he had even done a little hop with energetic clenched fists.

This realisation was a game changer.

"So, let me put it this way, for instance." proposed Waterleiner. "The way you've been wrongly using your PK ability as ESP is akin to throwing dimly-glowing ping pong balls into a pitch-black room to navigate your way around by seeing where they bounce off something. A few ping pong balls being thrown at a refrigerator won't be enough to move it, but that will tell you where it is. On the other hand, if you were to throw thousands of them at your own head all at once, then that's a different story entirely." he chuckled.

"What does that have to do with altering conductivity coefficients in space?" Masaya thought that Waterleiner's analogy was downright terrible.

"Nothing at all—I simply found the image of that happening to be quiet funny. That said, it does describe your predicament with the blackouts rather aptly, if in a roundabout way."

Masaya was beginning to get the hang of uncovering these great reveals. His satisfaction was rising, and he was starting to develop a good mood and productive drive.

He wanted to keep the train going until all of his questions and issues were addressed. Something deep within him happily agreed.

Alright! Onto the next big discovery! he cheered to himself.

Masaya already knew what his next question would be.

"Okay. All that aside, how do I stop the blackouts and turn my PK into something useful?"

"Figure that out for yourself." Waterleiner shot back immediately, as deadpan as usual.

Masaya's train of joy and discovery was stopped dead in its tracks.

"… Excuse me?"

"The solution to your conundrum does not yet exist in the world, even if it is potentially possible. My Psycho Proxy may be a psychological miracle, for instance, but it's not a magic answer-giver."

Masaya raised an eyebrow.

"Psycho… Proxy?"

A thin smile grew across Waterleiner's face.

"To date, you've seen 15 different psychological specialists, each with their own cutting edge methods of delving deep into the human mind. You came to them with the hope that one of them could have found out the root of the blackouts. Not one of them succeeded, yet here we are with the answer anyway, and all it took was a little help from my power—Psycho Proxy—the power to understand anyone, inside and out through the gift of Revelations."

The power to understand anyone inside and out.

To Masaya, that sounded like a rather roundabout way of saying something much less fancy.

"So you're just a regular old mind-reader?"

"Of course not." Waterleiner responded immediately.

"What makes you so special then?"

"I share Revelations."

He really likes saying that word.

"You already said that."

"And I shall say it again. Everyone at some point wishes for their own perfect little someone to sit atop their shoulder and guide them through that which they do not understand—or to make the necessary choices they could not—while still remaining respectful of their point of view. In other words: they desire Revelations. Some go to God for those; the truly blessed come to me. I have the power to grant those perfect Revelations to those who need them." Waterleiner's expression then developed a mildly morbid quality. "Alternatively, the wrong Revelation to the wrong person could spell their undoing. Once I understand someone to the level allowed by my Revelations, their fate more or less sits in my hands depending on what Revelation I select for them—or don't. You agreed to my help, and received one of my gifts, so it would be wise for you to keep that in mind, Masaya Misaka."

Those words sounded like they could've been a very serious threat, but Masaya saw otherwise.

"Hmph. You know, acting all enigmatic and mastermind-y like that makes you look a bit of a chuuni. Aren't high-schoolers a bit old for that?"

Waterleiner didn't like that.

His grey eyes almost seemed to flash in response to a perceived affront.

"I told you, Masaya Misaka," he reiterated, "My Psycho Proxy can understand people both inside and out. Frankly, I know you better than you do. You've fired jab after pointless jab at your own liberator, like an undisciplined pup. Should I so feel like it, all I need do is utter a few words in the right order at the right time to send you into a crippling panic attack—or perhaps I could reveal another, less blissful truth to you that could undo all of the good help I've shared with you today. Would you like that? Would you like to go back to being a worthless middling esper with more complexes than levels—fated to never unleash your true potential? Well, do you, kid?" His stern yet flexibly-jovial teacher-like countenance had vanished, as though he'd run short of patience tokens. Surfacing now was something not unlike the vicious punkish qualities shown by Kuno and the rest of that group. It was a stark reminder that Aureson Waterleiner was one of them too. "Middle schoolers—I swear to God." he muttered to himself.

"Relax. It's just an observation." Masaya conceded.

"Next time, keep that shit to yourself. Character observations are my specialty. Remember that, Masaya Misaka." Waterleiner reminded with a cold glare.

Masaya's questions about that young man further grew in number.

-[3]-

It was now some minutes past sunset on that quiet rooftop.

Waterleiner had seemed to settle down somewhat, and Masaya's situation was finally beginning to settle in.

The blackouts which had tormented him and stunted his growth for the better part of the past year were in fact caused by his true ability becoming strong enough to activate entirely by accident. The Ohm Sight he had known as his power for the past seven years was in truth simply a single application of this greater ability.

It made him wonder what other applications could be possible.

If the devastating effects of a blackout were the results of an accidental activation…

…Then what could an intentional controlled activation do?

The possibilities were beginning to present themselves. Excitement for the future seeped into Masaya's soul for the first time in a long while.

It felt good. It felt very good.

Masaya had just had countless new opportunities opened up to him this evening. He realised then that he needed a way to navigate this new and overwhelming future. If he didn't have a plan for going forward, then he could squander a very valuable advantage which might have been life saving under the right circumstances.

It had been a while since Masaya Misaka had actually needed to consider multiple options for his future like this.

At Aureson Waterleiner's hand, Masaya's suspicions had been allayed, his prospects had been opened wide, and his hopes had been returned to him. Now, Masaya had one last thing to ask that other boy before he escaped the rooftop for the evening.

"So my real power isn't Ohm Sight. Does my actual ability have a name?"

Waterleiner replied in between chuffs from an e-cigarette.

"I've heard of a vaguely similar ability called 'Insulation', but that's a subset of Telekinesis which directly moves electrons. Your ability is overwriting of the electrical conductivity of space itself, so I don't think your power would fall under such a label. It's probably something very different."

"Do you think the esper ability bank would know about it?"

Waterleiner blew a cloud of vapour from his mouth.

"I doubt it. Since Academy City only has four users possessing anything that could be called 'Ohm Sight', and none of the others are at your level, then I can't imagine these other effects would have been documented before."

Masaya had to be the only person who regularly recalled the number of his kind, so Waterleiner really had to have been rummaging through his head in some way. That frank invasion of privacy was disconcerting; Masaya tried to ignore it.

"So my actual ability is currently unnamed?"

"Does it need a name?"

"Well I can't just keep calling it 'Ohm Sight', now can I?"

"Ohm Sight is still your official ability, so there's no problem in using that to refer to the '3D Clairvoyance' part—the part that people think is ESP."

"What about the actual Psychokinesis part? That can't be called 'Ohm Sight'."

"Then call it 'Blackout' or something—that's what it does."

"No thanks. That's not a fun name for me."

"So, you want a new name for your 'other' ability that overwrites conductivity in space—the ability that you haven't even figured out how to use properly yet?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Waterleiner took a long drag from his vape, held, and released.

"Alright then, how about something like… False Conduct?"

-[4]-

I must start learning to use False Conduct at once! Masaya declared to himself.

He was now back at his dorm. It was around 8:00pm. After parting ways with Waterleiner, Masaya had rushed home and gotten his dinner and shower done and out of the way as quickly as possible.

Masaya had too much motivation to do just about anything else.

He needed to figure out how to make use of False Conduct without hitting himself in the brain with it and effectively wiping out his own central nervous system.

On the plus side, he was already sitting on his bed. Blacking out now would just mean an early night. There was practically no downside to starting right now.

His first objective was simple.

Activate False Conduct somewhere other than my own brain.

He thought back to how he activated it by accident.

Whenever he approached a blackout, he was always in an effort to improve the fidelity of his Ohm Sight visualisations by forcing the scattered readings into place and reducing the margin of error regarding their precise locations.

Ohm Sight operated by gathering countless conductivity samples at specific coordinates to assemble a map of the Masaya's local surroundings. The coordinates were always absolute according to his calculations, and the volumetric imagery assembled by Ohm Sight was always matched to that coordinate system. The problem that arose was that where the conductivity samples were gathered from in reality had a margin of error from the precise coordinates they were supposed to be—and that margin of error increased with distance.

Masaya now knew that his ability was in fact a psychokinetic one, so when he was trying to force the sampling points to match the coordinates his calculations were using, he was in fact applying some kind of actual psychokinetic force onto those points in space, which apparently had the potential to overwrite the conductive indices of the matching space at a strong enough potency.

So why was he only hitting himself with this conductivity overwriting—his False Conduct?

There had to be a direct cause–effect relationship here.

He broke the conundrum down.

False Conduct is overwriting the conductivity in a space that includes my brain, but is that only my brain? Is it only my nervous system? Perhaps, is it affecting my entire body?

Could it be possible that Masaya's entire body, or at least a portion larger than just his brain, was also being directly hit by False Conduct during a blackout? He only blacked out when he was trying to increase the fidelity of his whole Ohm Sight map, after all, so it would make sense if areas other than just his brain were being affected.

It was an interesting theory, but it would not be easy to prove. In order to measure it, Masaya needed a proper and reliable testing method. He may have been prepared to black himself out for testing, but he needed some kind of way to keep measurements going even while he was unconscious. Ohm Sight was the perfect tool for gauging differences in conductivity, but it wasn't much help when he wasn't awake to use it.

How was he going to set things up?

Was he going to need to wrap stripped copper wires around two of his fingers and hook them up to an electrometer to see if a stable (safe) current became interrupted in any way during a blackout when the resistance levels in his body changed? That sounded like an annoying setup, especially because Masaya did not own an electrometer, and it was currently around 8:00pm—past curfew, so not exactly an easy time to go out and instantly obtain one.

Every large building has a sophisticated electrical system installed. This dorm building is no exception. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the maintenance rooms or supply closets have some simple equipment like electrometers to gauge whether things like electrical outlets are working properly.

Masaya knew of these sorts of spaces around his dorm building. He even knew that they were packed with various bits and bobs by using Ohm Sight to look inside, but it wasn't as though he was specifically keeping an eye out for electrometers or other such equipment during any of the times he'd been especially near them. He could see those rooms even now using Ohm Sight, but not with anywhere near enough fidelity to identify small bits of electrical equipment.

Masaya didn't particularly feel like slipping out of his dorm to appropriate the dorm staff's tools.

Besides, I'll also need a reliable power supply that won't blow my fingers off, as well as a monitoring system of some kind to properly record the data since I won't be able to see it for at least 10 to 15 minutes after I black out. Of course, there's also the matter of precise timekeeping to monitor the exact moment I black out. All in all, I don't think I'll be meeting those requirements with only stuff I find in a maintenance closet. I need something better, more precise—something much more specialist grade, or perhaps even medical gra—!

Something clicked.

Fucking bingo!

Masaya knew exactly what he needed—and even better, he already had it. He already possessed the perfect electrical monitoring tool he needed right on his person, or rather, in it. The answer had been right under his nose the entire time—quite literally.

Despite the hour, Masaya made a phone call. He was pretty sure that man would still pick up.

The dialling ended as a familiar voice came through.

"Good evening, Misaka-kun. What business exactly do you have calling at this time, might I ask?"

"Hey Doc. Would it be too big an ask for you to take another look at my heart implant data? I need to know if there are any anomalies recorded at the exact moments I undergo a blackout."

At the end of the day, Masaya's heart implant for managing his arrhythmia was a precise medical-grade electrical device with a built-in monitoring system. As something dependent on electrical signals and pulses, it would've been especially prone to the effects of False Conduct. If False Conduct also affected the rest of his body like Masaya theorised, then there was a good chance that the implant might have picked up something irregular in its recordings at the exact moment of a blackout. If it did, then that just about confirmed the theory.

"Hm. Your school informed me that you had another one of those today during your System Scan. Did something unusual happen?"

"Not really; I just overdid it as usual. I just really feel like there could be a link here."

"Misaka-kun, your neurological and cardiovascular health troubles have largely been regarded as separate issues, so we haven't had much reason to compare the two datasets. Is something specifically telling you that they could be connected?"

"It's just something of a revelation, I guess. I feel like it's a blind spot we shouldn't be ignoring."

Masaya had gone to 15 other psychological and neurological specialists with the hope of uncovering the cause of the blackouts that ailed only him. Masaya had overloaded Ohm Sight and blacked himself out many times under the close watch of each of those specialists and their preferred types of precise neurological monitoring equipment—CATs, MRIs, and all the rest. There was an issue with that, though. There was only one man in all of Academy City who had access to Masaya's heart implant data—the man he was currently speaking with: the miracle doctor Heaven Canceller—Masaya's personal physician.

"I see. I suppose it should be feasible to check for anomalies in the recorded data if we could match the time codes with the precise moment of a blackout." the doctor said.

Anomalies in the heartbeat could be caused by many factors—that was just life. The heart could run faster or slower, or skip a beat, or whatever else—all in response to certain stimuli in life. However, if a recorded anomaly could be specifically matched to something that was absolutely not normal, like a blackout, then that confirmed False Conduct's effects outside the brain.

"Hey Doc, do you have the data and recordings from those other specialists? Those should be precisely time-coded, right?"

"Yes, I'm checking through those datasets right now" The doctor was already two steps ahead. There was a pause from his end, and the only sound coming through the phone was the tapping of a keyboard.

Soon enough, he spoke again.

"Right, there they are. I've got the precise times of a couple of your recorded blackouts according to their data. Now we need only match the times with your implant data."

There was another, longer silence. Heaven Canceller was no doubt lining up the time codes between the two datasets and checking for anomalies in data recorded in the heart implant.

Eventually, he spoke.

"Hm. That is surprising."

"Did you find something, doc?"

"Of a set of twelve closely-recorded Ohm Sight overloading events, I've found some anomalies in three of them at the exact moment of a blackout."

"What kind of anomalies?"

"In one case, there is an extended ventricular contraction. Instead of relaxing in-rhythm, your ventricles instead tried to contract again despite already being contracted. In the other two cases, it's a double atrial contraction—that is, the beginning of the heartbeat was extended. Almost immediately after each anomaly, your implant restored itself to the proper rhythm as it is supposed to, so the anomalies that occurred at the precise moment of a blackout wouldn't have been dangerous. Still, it is most bizarre that these anomalies lined up perfectly to the blackouts."

"So the implant works by sending out electrical pulses, right—in line with the expected rhythm of my heartbeat—to make up for its reduced reliability. Did all three of these anomalies happen right as an electrical pulse was being produced?"

"Yes, that would seem to be the case." confirmed the doctor.

"Then what about the times when there were no anomalies? Do the precise moments of those blackouts happen to take place in-between pulses from the implant?"

There was another pause from the doctor's end.

"…Yes, that would seem to be the case with the other instances without anomalies in the recordings." he soon confirmed.

"So could there be, hypothetically speaking, something that happens during the moment of a blackout that causes my implant to misbehave, like causing it to keep producing an electrical pulse longer than it should?"

"Something like that would seem to imply that your blackouts could directly interfere with electrical signals beyond the nervous system somehow."

Beyond the nervous system.

That just about confirmed it.

False Conduct was able to affect Masaya's entire body.

"I must ask," the doctor continued, "By the sound of you, you seem to have expected this answer. Do you perhaps have a hypothesis regarding the cause of your specific ailment?"

No, I now know what's causing it.

Masaya didn't say that out loud.

"I don't know, just a hunch. I need to do some more thinking and testing on my own before I'll be able to say anything for certain. Thanks for your help tonight. This might give me something to work with."

He had gotten the answer he needed right now with the doc's help, but he wasn't too interested in an extended recount of his great discoveries today. Tonight was experimentation night—not chat night.

Besides, he didn't know if he was ready to reveal anything yet. He wasn't sure why, but something told Masaya that it was better to keep False Conduct on the down-low for the time being—at least until he understood it better.

"Okay, Misaka-kun. Do let me know if you figure anything out. This correlation could change things. I'll do some thinking on my end as well. We can compare what we've come up with at our next meeting. Does that sound good?" asked Heaven Canceller.

"Yeah. Sounds good." confirmed Masaya.

"Very well then, have a good evening, Misaka-kun."

"You too, doc."

The call ended.

Masaya had learned something very useful.

False Conduct's effects reaches beyond my brain and even nervous system. This is especially useful information.

-[5]-

It had only been a few minutes, but Masaya was already starting to figure out the conditions of his new ability—False Conduct.

Condition 1: the effects of False Conduct can cover my body beyond my brain or even nervous system.

A condition like that begged the question—just how far could it actually reach?

It was time for the next test.

This one would be much easier than what he was considering trying before.

Masaya leaned over and opened the draw under his study desk. Inside it was an older model of mobile phone. It was the phone he previously used before his current one. The reason he had replaced it was because the internal battery was no longer able to hold a charge. That battery was not replaceable, and the phone could only remain on when plugged into an external power source. The exact moment it was unplugged, the phone would turn off. As a mobile phone, it had become absolutely useless to Masaya—until now.

Masaya set that old phone atop his desk, plugged a power cable into it, and turned it on. Following a lengthy boot-up, it was on and otherwise usable.

Then, Masaya unplugged it.

The screen went black and the phone was turned off instantly—as expected.

This could work he thought.

After plugging it in again and waiting for the boot-up to complete, he tried again. This time, he did not unplug the cable, instead only wiggling it slightly.

Off. Instantly.

The phone ceased to function at the exact moment power to it was interrupted by even the slightest amount for even the briefest time.

So, hypothetically, if some sort of ability altered the conductivity in the space occupied by either the phone or cable, thereby interrupting power delivery to the phone for even the briefest moment, then the phone should power off instantly following that ability being used in its vicinity—of course, assuming the ability could reach it.

Masaya was sitting on his bed, with his study desk and the phone on it just to his left. Assuming False Conduct reached beyond his body, were he were to overload Ohm Sight and blackout here and now, then by the time he awoke, he should find that the phone was off. If False Conduct did not reach that far, then that confirmed the effects were restricted to his body, or at least to a smaller range.

It was a perfectly simple test.

There was only one thing left to do.

Actually no, there's something else.

Picking up a sticky-note, Masaya wrote something on it before sticking it to the side of his study desk. Laying down in his bed, he rolled over to his left, facing the desk just past the edge of the bed. He could see the written words clear as day:

'Check the phone on the desk. Is it on or off?'

Blacking out essentially meant that Masaya was scrambling his brain signals. He didn't know in what state he'd find himself upon coming to; it would be especially unlikely for him to immediately realise what he was trying to do before blacking out. A reminder would always be helpful.

Now he was ready.

Blacking out was never a particularly fun experience, but this was for science.

The volumetric world of Ohm Sight grew in complexity. Fidelity rose. The far distances came into form.

And then nothing.

-[6]-

Masaya eventually came to.

The moment his brain became organised enough to process thoughts more complex than 'huh?' or 'eh?', a question was quickly forming on his mind.

That happened again, didn't it?

Following that, his awareness of his surroundings gradually returned to him.

Huh, soft? A bed? Nurse bed, or my bed?

His eyes opened and eventually, he became able to recognise what they saw.

My room? Why did I blackout at home in my own bed?

He looked around his room for clues. He was immediately met with a big one when he peered to the left.

Check the phone on the desk. Is it on or off? Did I write that?

After eventually figuring out how to move his body once more, he pulled himself up to a seated position atop his bed. Then, he looked over at his desk.

That's my old phone. It's plugged in and on. Is that supposed to mean something? Hmm. Anyway.

Masaya then rose from his bed and headed to his kitchen for a snack.

It was only when he had already stuck his hand into the cookie tin (no sewing supplies in this one) did something occur to him. He paused mid–cookie-grab.

Wait. It was on. That means…

Speed-walking back to his bedside (biscuit in mouth), he gave it another look.

It took him longer than he would have liked to admit to catch what was going on.

I see. Not affected by False Conduct at this distance. What about closer?

Masaya wrote another sticky note with more precise instructions this time, then grabbed the phone and placed it right next to his pillow. It was time for test number two—closer range.

The world vanished.

Following a similar wake-up procedure, Masaya caught on much sooner with the clearer instructions on the sticky notes. He looked down at the phone beside his pillow.

Still on. Hmm.

There was still no effect at a shorter range.

What about at no range?

Could he get False Conduct to affect anything other than himself.

Test number three.

He held the phone cable in his hand. Perhaps the False Conduct reaching his hand would interrupt the flow of electricity into the phone and cause the phone to power down. Settling himself into a relaxed and stable position so as to not tug on the cord when he lost consciousness, he blacked out once more.

Another slow wake-up later.

Still. On.

Was False Conduct only able to affect his body and nothing else? Clearly not, since his artificial heart implant was not a biological part of his body, and that had evidently been affected.

Could it have been more a matter of what he considered to be part of his body? Esper powers were based off a 'personal' reality, after all. Personal perception was more important than many little technicalities in these circumstances.

Masaya made a loop in the phone charging cable.

And then he stuffed that loop into his mouth.

Test number four.

Some minutes later, Masaya extracted the cable from his mouth and looked at the results.

It's on!

Something was not adding up here. Was he going to have to push that loop of cable right down into his stomach? That didn't sound terribly enjoyable, and the alternative routes of entry sounded even worse.

It was time for a change in the testing method. There was something important that he wasn't considering.

Oh! Could it be time?

How long was False Conduct active for? If the data from his heart implant was anything to go by, barely a split second. That made sense, of course. The very moment his brain became scrambled, he wouldn't be able to continue performing esper calculations, so the ability would naturally cease being active from the moment that the calculations ended. That left a very short window for the ability to be active.

Maybe something needs to happen during that short window of time.

Masaya pondered the possibility.

Something that changes with time? What about position? Could the key be motion?

There were many things that could change with time. Position was a good place to start.

Test number five.

Masaya once again placed the cord loop in his mouth and pressed it against the roof with his tongue. The cord was now tightly surrounded by 'him'. Differently from the previous test, Masaya held his head a foot or so above the pillow. This time, he would black out while in motion.

He decided to do a simulation run first. He surrendered his body to gravity and dropped himself down upon his bed. Once he checked that the phone hadn't been tugged at by the movement of the cord in his mouth, all that was left to do was to run the real test.

Masaya crunched his abs to raise his body up.

Then he dropped himself back down…

…And blacked out mid-fall.

-[7]-

Masaya had been through this routine enough times to recover his mind to where he left off rather quickly now. Upon awaking and regathering his thoughts, he opened his eyes—and was met with something very interesting.

It's…Off.

The phone was absolutely off now.

He had done a test run beforehand, so the movement of his head should not have dislodged the cable from the phone in any way.

So, what had turned the phone off?

Could it have been False Conduct?

Masaya realised something else.

Parts of his mouth felt numb, some other parts slightly stinging, even.

He felt a peculiar taste in there—as though he had been sucking on a metal coin.

"Ah. Ab duh. Did I dust jock by own bouf?" he tried to say.

False Conduct was the power to overwrite electrical conductivity values in space—and he'd just done that to a power cable inside his own mouth.

Overwriting the high conductivity of the copper wires inside the cable also came with overwriting the high resistivity of the rubber around the copper, which could free the electrical current. Masaya didn't know exactly what he was overwriting it all with, but it seemed that the electricity coursing through the cable had decided to take another path when the copper ceased to be such a good option—and gone right through his mouth.

Did that count as mission accomplished?

Masaya had apparently successfully managed to apply False Conduct onto another object by interrupting the flow of electricity to his old phone. On the other hand, in order to do so, he had just electrocuted himself in the face.

Luckily he had blacked out right as his head was hitting the pillow, which gave the current an easy way out. It seemed that only bits of his tongue, the roof of his mouth, and left cheek had been affected. It was a good thing he was using an old phone charger too, since those only supply a current with a few volts and amps to them. If he had had an appliance power cord in his mouth instead, then that would have been big trouble.

Minor self-electrocution aside, Masaya had gotten some kind of result here—but what did that mean? The movement seemed to be a key factor here, but why?

I'm overwriting the conductivity of space itself when I trigger False Conduct by blacking out. False Conduct is probably being applied to my entire body, or whatever is considered to be part of my body. The cord in my mouth was not affected when my head was stationary, but was affected when in movement. In the very brief moment that False Conduct was active, could it be that the cord actually moved into the space that had just had its conductivity altered? Is that it?

False Conduct scrambled the electrical signals in Masaya's brain whenever it was activated during a blackout. That also included times when Masaya was in motion, like during his fight with Kuno.

Wait, actually…

The individual neurons that made up a person's brain were absolutely microscopic. There were billions and billions of them all packed inside a human skull, so the actual paths and connections inside the brain were extremely tiny. It was probably next-to humanly impossible to keep your body completely, absolutely still—at least when you're alive, so that probably meant that every one of Masaya's blackouts happened while in motion. With such minuscule wiring inside his brain, even a positively-microscopic amount of movement of his head meant that his neurons were probably being moved an immense distance on their scale.

Every single blackout happened while in motion—enough motion for the neurons in my brain to be moving far from their original precise positions, relatively speaking. Could it be…

Masaya had a theory.

Could it be…That whenever I trigger False Conduct, I'm locking the space my body occupies into having a certain value of conductivity, while my body is moving out of alignment with it? Could it be that the conductive index of a portion of space is being forced to stay at some value—perhaps the same value—regardless of what matter is occupying it—all while that matter is moving away from where it should be?

Was he actually altering conductivity—or fortifying it?

That would have made sense with the moving power cord test. False Conduct wasn't actually affecting the power cord itself, but only his body. False Conduct could have been locking the conductivity of the space his body occupied at the moment of activation—that area of space was stuck with the same conductivity, regardless of what was moving through it. In the split second False Conduct was active, the cord entered the conductivity-locked space, and thus was unable to function as an insulated cable, with conductivity high on the inside, and low on the outside—it could only be what False Conduct said it had to be. Then it was able to send its current through Masaya's face and towards the ground instead of continuing through the cable to the phone, and since Masaya's face wasn't actually all that conductive, that produced a mild electric shock.

This was getting interesting, but it wasn't anything certain just yet.

Masaya wanted to try to reproduce this result—preferably without shocking himself in the face this time.

He turned on the phone and set the test up again, this time holding the cable in his hand. He would drop his hand, and activate False Conduct right before his hand hit the bed.

He did just that, and many minutes later, once recovered, he checked the result.

Yes. The phone is off. The current was in fact interrupted—and my fingers and arm are now tingly.

Test number six was also a success.

He was in fact pushing the cord into an area where the conductivity of the space had been overwritten. He had a theory that the conductivity of space was being forced to stay the same as the matter that occupied it at the time of activation, regardless of how that matter moved out of alignment with that space—but he hadn't actually managed to prove that part just yet. Actually, he really didn't have any idea what the conductivity value was being set to whenever False Conduct was activated—it being the same was still only a theory. That would have to be his next test.

But as Masaya thought about how to figure out a reliable setup for that test, something unexpected happened.

There was a knock on his dorm door.

Steeped in his testing methods and frequent blackout recoveries as he was, Masaya had neglected to reactivate his Ohm Sight, so the sound actually caught him by surprise.

Why would anybody want to see me right now? Lights out is probably coming up soon.

Masaya got up from his bed and walked over to his front door. He turned on Ohm Sight to check who it could have been.

"Misaka. Open up." came a voice from the other side.

Masaya did as instructed. He was met with a disgruntled look from a large and well-built man who looked like he took no attitude. Masaya knew him well—he was the building's dorm supervisor.

"Ah, Mr Ryoukan. What brings you to my door tonight?"

"Why are your lights still on, Misaka?"

"Ahh, should they not be? It's not lights-out yet, is it?"

The dorm supervisor's eyebrows furrowed. He was looking none-too-pleased.

"Lights out was almost two hours ago, Misaka. 10pm, everyone in this complex knows that."

"Excuse me? It's almost midnight already?!"

Masaya had apparently neglected to keep track of time after each his blackouts. The time to regain consciousness again following a blackout was almost random—usually from around ten minutes to up to an hour—and Masaya had just done six of them in quick succession.

He really should have been paying better attention to the time.

"What's your excuse for being up this late?"

"Damn. I think I dozed off while studying. Thanks for actually waking me up, sir. I might have had my face to the desk all night otherwise." Masaya made up his excuse, with the whole hand behind the head and everything.

Strictly speaking, he wasn't actually lying. He was studying something, and he was also dozing off, in a way.

"The semester's just started. I seriously doubt a known troublemaker like you is already cramming." the supervisor narrowed his eyes.

"No, it's not cramming." Masaya feigned a sigh and an exhausted look, pinching the bridge of his nose for emphasis. "It's just that…I've had a hell of a day. I thought I could get some study in after it all, but apparently not without crashing out."

Masaya was not lying there either.

The dorm supervisor held his glare a little longer, and then sighed.

"Alright, then." The man appeared to believe him. "This will just be a warning then. Off to bed with you—now!"

"Okay then. Thanks for the heads-up. I definitely needed that."

As the dorm supervisor turned to leave, Masaya noted him holding a box filled with some items. That box would have come from the supply closet on the upper floors, most likely. After closing his door and turning off his lights, he recalled what he had seen in there.

Various advanced hygiene testing sprays that react to assorted germs, filths, and molds, black light lamp, checklist documents, among other things.

Masaya knew what that meant.

Oohh! Randomised room inspections are coming up for someone!

Room inspections for the Tatenkara boys' dorms were a particularly brutal affair. They were done randomly and without warning, and they were especially thorough. It didn't take a genius intellect to figure out what the black light lamp was used for when inspecting the rooms of middle school boys.

Of course, keeping your dorm clean and tidy wasn't the only thing to worry about—there was also the issue of contraband. There were of course things that were technically not allowed like violent 15 rated video games and movies. A 14 year old couldn't legally buy those, but the dorm management didn't seem to care if you owned them, since they were often traded around. On the other hand, equally traded around were 18 rated sexy video game or movies, but unluckily, having those would land you in big trouble with the management if they were found in your dorm. Another big no-no was alcohol and any sorts of illicit drugs, for obvious reasons. The most questionable items Masaya owned besides violent games and movies was an assortment of lock-picks, a natural curiosity for an Ohm Sight user who could look inside any mechanical lock—but those were very easy to hide reliably.

The inspections weren't done on a dorm-by-dorm basis, but rather a floor-by-floor one. Masaya's floor had apparently been inspected while he was in the hospital last week, so the impending inspection wasn't for him.

Maybe it's Hisao Sagara's turn. That'd probably scare the hell out of him.

Masaya joked that, but it wasn't very likely if the equipment was from this building, and not Hisao's.

The Tatenkara boys' dormitories consisted of four rectangular buildings sat in a row atop a single larger plot. The four buildings shared some amenities, like the garden, bike rack, staff parking—and staff. Hisao Sagara was in the building on the opposite end of the complex from Masaya, but they were still essentially neighbours. Luckily for Masaya, he didn't have to share a building with the likes of Hatano or Tachikuro. On the other hand, unfortunately for him, he did share his building with Amine, who was on the top floor—the seventh.

Either way, it seemed that the looming random dorm inspections weren't going to affect him too much.

Masaya had much more important things to address right now.

It didn't matter if it was nigh-on midnight.

A dorm without light wouldn't be enough to stop him; he could see and work just fine in the dark.

The experimentation must continue.

-[8]-

Right now, Masaya did not have a way to check what False Conduct was setting the conductivity to in the space it affected. Additionally, right now, he could not acquire any equipment to help him to remedy that in his testing. He already had Ohm Sight, which was a perfect tool for that job, but it couldn't be used when he was activating False Conduct on himself, for obvious reasons.

Because of that, he decided to switch up his approach to something much more helpful. He would try to activate False Conduct—but entirely away from his brain. He would blackout, but without the whole blacking out part. Should he succeed in doing that, then that would kill two birds with one stone.

That was definitely the way to go.

So, as he sat there on his bed in the darkness of the night, Masaya ran over what he knew.

False Conduct affected his entire body, but no further.

Why did it affect his whole body?

He thought back to the basics.

What am I doing when I blackout? What has been my method for activating False Conduct this entire time?

Of course, Masaya knew that answer very well—he'd been overloading Ohm Sight. He'd been apparently applying some kind of psychokinetic pressure onto space in order to reduce the margin of error regarding his conductivity samples that he gathered from points in space. He'd been doing that to increase the fidelity of his Ohm Sight map. In other words, he'd been applying that 'pressure' over his whole map—everywhere.

If he had been applying that psychokinetic pressure everywhere, and changes could only actually be made in space occupied by his body, then False Conduct would be active only where both applied—everywhere occupied by his body. That was simple enough.

So, could False Conduct become active in a more precise space? As long as he didn't hit his own head with it, then Masaya should be able to see the outcome with no issues.

Masaya held out his right hand. That would be a good place to start; it was easy to observe, and carried minimal risk.

He would try to activate False Conduct only inside his right hand.

Masaya focused. He recalled the exact process that he regularly used to overload Ohm Sight and trigger False Conduct to activate.

He had to apply this 'pressure'.

Since it was less than two feet away from his head, Masaya's Ohm Sight could see his hand in very high detail—the flow of the blood—the individual fibres in the tendons—the internal structure of the bone. He rarely ever needed a higher fidelity for something so close. The margin of error was already quite minimal at this range.

But he wasn't after fidelity here.

He needed to force the conductivity samples into place either way—but only the ones he gathered from the space covering his right hand.

He began applying that 'pressure'.

Oh. Careful!

Masaya tried to apply this pressure, but accidentally started trying to apply it everywhere. Doing that would inevitably lead to a blackout—as usual.

This was tricky.

That approach was not going to work. He needed a new way to visualise the process—a way to overwrite conductivity with surgical precision.

How did he do it usually? He thought properly about that.

When I did it before, it was always about forcing something back into place—like holding it down with both hands—wide open hands trying to hold it all, preventing it from moving—something like that.

So what would have been a more precise approach?

Perhaps like pushing something with a single finger?

That was worth a shot.

Seated in the darkness, Masaya focused on his right hand. He probably needed to define a specific space for False Conduct to become active. Esper abilities required precise calculations, so just saying 'my hand' for the target probably wasn't going to cut it.

Luckily, Masaya Misaka's Ohm Sight worked according to a precise coordinate system.

He defined a small cube of space, a very simple domain defined by his coordinates. All of it fit within his right hand—it was therefore all 'within his range'.

False Conduct should definitely work in this domain.

And so, Masaya focused. He visualised a single finger pressing on the conductivity sample points in that space and only that space, trying to pin it down with high precision.

He upped the 'pressure', forcing the coordinates, and their associated conductivity samples, into place. He didn't feel nearly as much mental strain as when he tried to apply that force everywhere at once—it was surprisingly easy, actually. That was a promising sign. He pushed further, harder—like a finger pinning a beetle to a table, preventing it from scurrying away.

Shouldn't that be enough?

Now, he was probably applying more 'pressure' to that domain than he had over his entire body at the moment of a blackout—but nothing seemed different. Ohm Sight showed the same old hand and its conductive variations that Masaya saw every day.

That was, however, until he moved it ever-so-slightly.

What?!

Something was now definitely different.

Under Ohm Sight, his hand looked like it regularly did, apart from one part of it—the part within the targeted coordinates.

It's not changing!

His hand wiggled just slightly to and fro, but the targeted domain was not changing or moving at all, like a 3-dimensional snapshot in space that covered up anything that crossed it.

It was like when movie editors put one actor in the same shot twice by combining two different shots filmed at different times. Another comparison could be if you took a photo of your friend's face, printed it out in real size, and sticky taped it over their real face. Even if they were talking, you would just see their motionless face instead of their moving one.

A small piece of Masaya's hand was staying still in space, while that same piece of his hand was moving around that spot as part of his real hand—at least according to Ohm Sight. The movements were only slight, and the affected domain was still inside his hand—within range.

Masaya noticed other strange effects.

There were nerves inside his hand which carried electrical signals that helped him feel things. One of those bigger nerves going to his middle finger went through that affected domain. When Masaya's hand was not in alignment with the domain, he could not feel that finger—or any part of his hand having its conductivity overwritten by the domain. When he realigned the nerves in his hand with the domain, thereby re-linking the nerves, he could once again feel his finger, and move it too. It was a bizarre feeling.

Masaya watched as that strange effect continued. He could block off any nerve in his hand by passing it over the domain altered by False Conduct.

Masaya's mind had been focused on just playing around with that effect created by False Conduct, but eventually, the implications of his achievement finally sank in.

Wait a minute…I…I fucking did it! That's False Conduct!

He had done something that would've been unthinkable to him only hours before.

I'm not even knocking myself out with it! This is my real ability! I'M ACTUALLY AFFECTING THE WORLD WITH MY ABILITY!

Masaya didn't say any of that out loud, due to it being well past lights-out, but he celebrated internally nonetheless. His head was positively filled with fanfare. He even bounced a bit atop his bed and shook his fists in victory—all in relative silence.

This was a real game changer.

Masaya Misaka relished in the moment. He felt like he was being reborn—into something greater—something less hopeless—something more than just a middling esper.

A radiant grin spread across his face. In the darkness of his dorm, nobody would ever see it, but it was there. A joy enveloped his entire essence that no pleasure derived from 'contraband' could ever hope to match.

He had truly done it.

He collapses back onto his bed and let himself wallow in that joy for as long as he could.

But then, at the pinnacle of his bliss, Masaya Misaka noticed something—something most peculiar.

His Ohm Sight focused towards a certain spot in space. He was quite familiar with that spot by now—he had just been paying close attention to it.

It was that small domain that he had used False Conduct on—the one his hand had been at, but no longer was.

"Why the hell…?" Masaya muttered.

There was something especially strange about that spot now. False Conduct only worked in space occupied by Masaya's body—or so he thought.

"Why the hell…Is that spot still being affected by False Conduct?"

That little cube of space showing electrical conductivity patterns matching the inside of Masaya's hand…was still there, unchanged.

"Well..." he uttered quietly, "That will most certainly require some more testing."

Instead of a smile of genuine joy, Masaya's face donned a grin of pure hopeful intrigue.

With it came a joy not of what he had just achieved, but of what would come next.

I'm absolutely getting to the bottom of this.

It was a good thing Masaya had just blacked out a number of times already—because he probably wasn't going to be seeing any more sleep tonight.

-[9]-

Tuesday morning.

Masaya yawned as he made his way to school—and rightly so.

He had experimented with False Conduct all the way until the very first light of dawn—and only then did he allow himself any more sleep before the expected wake-up time.

It wasn't much, but combined with the rest he got during the repeated blackouts, it would be just enough to get through today.

Masaya had made some very good progress in his experimenting. He now had at least a decent beginner's understanding of False Conduct—not bad for something he'd only known he even had since sundown yesterday.

He went over what he now knew.

The very basics of False Conduct are as follows.

1. False Conduct can be applied any space occupied by what I consider my own body.

2. False Conduct can overwrite the conductive indices of space, but only with the conductive indices from the part of my body within the domain at the moment of activation. I cannot choose the precise conductive value, at least not yet.

3. False Conduct can remain active outside of space occupied by my own body, but cannot be applied there. In this way, I can use False Conduct to leave 'trails' of altered conductivity behind.

4. False Conduct interferes not only with the biological nervous system, but also any electronics that enter the modified space.

5. False Conduct and Ohm Sight are applications of the same ability, and thus are heavily linked. The complexity of False Conduct's alterations cannot exceed the fidelity of Ohm Sight at a specific range. As I increase my distance from an altered piece of space, the alteration will degrade in fidelity in accordance with Ohm Sight's fidelity. Afterwards, the fidelity of False Conduct's altered space will not improve if I then approach that space again. To restore the complexity of the alteration, False Conduct must be re-applied to that space from scratch.

6. The upper limit of space that can be applied is the same as the amount of space viewable under Ohm Sight—therefore technically limitless, fidelity notwithstanding.

7. I can cancel False Conduct's effects at any time by recalculating the relevant pieces of space under Ohm Sight.

8. False Conduct can still be dangerous to me if I cross into altered space without cancelling it.

Masaya wasn't sure exactly how useful False Conduct would have been for combat purposes with his current development and understanding, but perhaps it could come in handy in some unexpected way—but that was a conundrum for another day.

Masaya Misaka had had a major issue for him resolved. He would probably still keep blacking out if he pushed Ohm Sight too far, but now at least he had a concrete understanding of why—and could make some kind of use out of those previously purely-adverse effects. One day he might be able to push Ohm Sight past its limits—but that too was an issue for future Masaya to handle.

Reflecting on his progress and growth breathed enough life into Masaya Misaka that any sleep deprivation was effectively nullified.

This was good news, since he'd need that energy to survive what was coming next.

"Ooh! It's senpai!"

A pair of excited feet hopped and skipped in a B-line towards Masaya's location. Another pair was dragged along in-tow.

It went without saying who was coming.

"Hey senpai! Wait for us!"

When the two of them arrived behind him, Masaya turned his head with modest perfectly-uniform speed like a half-interested robot.

As they resumed walking, the girl was quick to start chatting, as usual.

"Senpai! It's really crazy how we beat that water guy yesterday. It wasn't until I was at home and already in the bath that I realised how crazy that all was! He was really dangerous! We could have died and all that! He ruined our hangout and hurt you and Hisao before, and then he hurt you again, so it's good that we taught him a lesson! Senpai, the hangout is still on right? If it's not still on then how about we set up another one but without Hisao this time? Heehee." Rika Sagara had really turned on the word tap. Her on-brand Rika Sagara smile and mildly cheeky expression was on full display as per usual. "Senpai do you think the mean water guy will come back? He has buddies and they're not going to like us right? We work really well together as a team so we can handle them right? Senpai, am I strong? Like, really strong? Do you like strong girls, senpai?"

As she continued her seemingly-endless chatter, Masaya looked over to that girl's twin brother, Hisao Sagara. He returned only a sympathetic look. He had no idea how to handle this side of his sister either.

They made something of an unspoken agreement to just space out and wait for the Rika word-storm to pass.

"Senpai, don't you think it's actually really crazy that I fought someone, like really fought against somebody using my ability? My ability is good, right? It was helpful, right? You might have been turned into human jam if I didn't help, right? I didn't want to see senpai turned into human jam. I almost got turned into a human donut like Hisao nearly did last week, but you saved me, senpai. Hisao helped too. He made it so that the water guy couldn't see us, but you could see all of it, right senpai? We are a good team. We should have a team name. Something like—um—uhhh—maybe like uhh—ehhhhh—hmmm—ummm… Hey senpai, why didn't you tell us about Mikoto?"

That name coming from such an unexpected source sent a shudder down Masaya's spine.

His neck swivelled like a sprinkler head.

He had reacted instinctively, but hadn't actually organised any words to shoot back.

Instead, he merely narrowed his eyes.

The announcement of Mikoto Misaka's level-up to a legendary status had hit him hard, but his mind had been so thoroughly absorbed in the matter of False Conduct that his displeasure on the whole affair regarding his sister had been largely put aside for the time being.

But that also meant that he was far behind in processing that news.

Rika Sagara stared back at him with large espresso-dark eyes.

"Senpai, why didn't you tell u—."

Masaya cut her short by dropping an index finger over her mouth.

"No." was all he said.

He didn't really have the right words to express his stance and displeasure, so he opted to keep the message simple.

Besides, he didn't need to justify himself. Rika Sagara was a child.

Like she could ever understand.

Rika continued to stare back with a little pout, as though she wasn't too intent on letting a big matter slide away; however, eventually, the prolonged eye contact and physical contact with Masaya touching her mouth caused her face to begin heating up in a bright blush. When Masaya at last removed his finger, she didn't seem too interested in opening her mouth or maintaining eye contact.

That should keep her from bringing that up for a while.

With a certain relative of Masaya's being the big news of the day, the Sagaras finding out was inevitable. Them asking questions about her would be entirely natural—but Masaya was in no mood to answer any of them.

He really didn't have his feelings on the topic organised in the slightest.

He wasn't ready for that conversation at this stage.

He caught Hisao returning a confused look. It was clear that he was debating with himself whether or not to pick up the subject himself. A quick glare sent that debate to bed.

The rest of the walk to school happened in relative silence.

Until.

"Hey, is that the one who…"

"Yeah, it must be."

As the density of Tatenkara students hit a critical point within the last few blocks separating the trio from the campus. Whispers from other students began to fly.

It was expected that such big news would spread especially fast and wild here.

Those whispers were all spread with eyes in Masaya's general direction.

As they walked, the chatter thickened.

"Really? Them?"

"I couldn't really believe it either."

"Does that mean we shouldn't underestimate 'em either?"

The Sagaras by Masaya's side were beginning to notice now.

"Senpai, who are they gossiping about? It's not us, is it?" mumbled Rika.

You still don't get it?

Something huge had just happened. What's more, someone here had a major connection to it all.

"Should I ask about it? I want to know if it's true."

"I'm not sure. There's still so much we don't know for sure."

The gossipers were getting more brazen.

Eventually, one would make the first move. They would be the first of many.

The school grounds were in sight now.

As he and the twins stepped closer and closer, Masaya could feel the weight of their gazes doubling by the minute.

He didn't want to talk about it.

But it wasn't like he'd be given a choice.

And this was not some sort of mass media scenario where he could make a single official statement and then be done with it. Everyone would want the exclusive scoop for themselves. Having juicy information to oneself was a fundamental point of pride in the middle school world.

He was no doubt in for another eventful day.

And as he stepped onto Tatenkara campus, that day began in earnest.

All eyes near the school gate were on-target.

"Now everyone's looking at us. It's weird." Rika uttered.

"Yeah. it's freaky." Hisao concurred.

Masaya peered around at the spread horde.

Who would make the first move?

Who would give into their curiosity at the cost of another's privacy—sacrificing it as though it were nothing?

Who would it be?

Eventually, someone stepped forward.

A girl—a second year by the looks.

She made her way forward in a direct line towards Masaya's group.

Masaya prepared himself.

An onslaught of extremely uncomfortable questions was imminent.

They would start, and then they would not end until everyone was satisfied.

He fortified his mind, sending anything potentially volatile into that vault within his mind, and donning that 'mask of stone' which had granted him strength through so many trials.

The girl stepped forth with purpose and gusto. She was going to be the first, and she was going to take pride in that.

Masaya's eyes and Ohm Sight were glued to her movements as she approached closer, closer still.

Everyone's eyes were on her.

Masaya was ready for her, and those to follow. He wasn't going to like it, but he had no choice.

As the brother of the city's newest level-5, this was simply his fate—he had no choice but to accept it—to endure it.

Masaya took a deep breath as the approaching girl arrived before him—and then continued right past him.

Huh?

"Hey, um… You're the one, right?" The girl asked, not to Masaya Misaka…

…But to Rika Sagara.

"You're the one who beat Kyoji Tachikuro yesterday, aren't you?" she clarified.

Uh, what?!

Masaya could only stare as the girl's words sent Rika's eyes wide.

"…Eh?"

AFTERWORD

Hello, dear reader.

Welcome back to the story.

This chapter marks the beginning of the next arc. At last, we have the (proper) big reveal—and a name drop, to boot.

Waterleiner has revealed the truth behind Masaya's ability and the blackouts they've been causing. The ability and the blackouts are in-fact one and the same, but Academy City's curriculum had misidentified Masaya's power as being strictly Ohm Sight and set him up for that power development instead of what it should have been. We know that this kind of thing does happen in canon as seen with Kamino in Mental Out, but Masaya here had really gotten the short end of the stick in this case. This problem could be more common in Academy City than many think—but of course, the real scale would be impossible to quantity simply by its nature.

Waterleiner apparently has the ability to understand someone from both inside and outside. Many people (like Masaya) lament that others simply don't understand them, but there can also be a lot that they can miss about themselves because such understanding requires seeing things from another point of view. Waterleiner's Psycho Proxy is able to achieve both points of view simultaneously, which can be especially powerful in the right circumstances. Understanding the cause of the blackouts necessitates being able to understand Masaya's point of view in how they're triggered through Ohm Sight, but also an external view that can see what's happening when he goes down. Masaya's situation was unique enough that Psycho Proxy fit the bill perfectly for being able to unravel its causes. It's unlikely that anyone else could have done it, which is lucky for Masaya (and for moving the story along).

Waterleiner kept the description of his own ability rather vague, but make no mistake, the term 'Revelation' has a very specific meaning here. We don't know much about them yet, but we'll get to see more of them as the story continues, so look forward to it. An earlier draft of this chapter had Waterleiner explaining his power a lot more, but it felt too info-dumpy and out of character for him, so enjoy the mystery instead. I've started becoming more inclined towards the writing philosophy of 'reveal as little as you can get away with', but that then brings about the issue of finding enough good spots to reveal information that really does need to be revealed. It's a careful balancing act that I'm still getting used to. The early chapters were very info-dumpy, but they were starter knowledge that needed establishing early before the real juicy stuff could begin coming. We're past that point now, so I can be more discerning with what I choose to reveal and when.

When writing the False Conduct testing sequences, I actually found myself in Masaya's shoes more than I thought. My thoughts and problem-solving regarding the testing methods became Masaya's thoughts and problem-solving. Coming up with ways to define the rules of False Conduct, and then testing and proving/disproving them was just as satisfying for me as it was for Masaya. I've written over 15 pages about how False Conduct and Ohm Sight operate in my planning document, so it was like I already had all the parameters necessary to just run my own simulations mentally and get the expected answers regardless of what kind of test myself/Masaya came up with. It was a fun and very free-flowing writing process—I managed to put down ~5k words in a single day due to that, which is a new record for me.

Now, at the end of that night of testing, Masaya's got himself a new ability—even if it's only in its absolute infancy. Whether or not he'll be able to put it towards anything useful is yet to be seen, so stay tuned, dear reader.

The new day begins, and news has spread like wildfire—but it wasn't the news Masaya was expecting—like, at all. It seems that many facts got lost in the literal fog of war. What kind of consequences will this have? We'll soon find out.

Now, onto the reviews from last chapter.

Kelk says:

I love this chapter. It marks the end of the cycle that Masaya was seemingly trapped in of getting beaten down continuously (though I'm sure this will happen in the future if in a different way). Masaya finally beating Tachikuro was excellent catharsis, and the Waterleiner return is exciting, if only because it opened the real 'meat' of the story. Aside from that the system scan evaluator seemed incredibly suspicious given how rigorous I imagine the scanning process is supposed to be. Anyway another great chapter hope to learn more about Waterleiner and the 'devil' Masaya had and how that will interact with what happened at the end of this chapter.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Masaya's been liberated from a doomed path, but the awakening of the new part of his power is going to set him off on a wild journey. He's stronger now, but that doesn't mean he's gonna be on easy street from now on. Tachikuro is out of the picture for now, but as we now see, that clash is having its fair share of fallout. It's interesting how you saw the evaluator as suspicious. With more common abilities, the level milestones would be quite well known, but rarer abilities don't have that kind of information floating around—but still, was the evaluator right to say that so openly? You know, 'devil' is a word well known from the bible—I wonder if there's another such word somewhere. Hmmmm…

Guest says (regarding chapter 6):

I'm really enjoying this so far. Not surprised Masaya is a tsundere just like his sister. Though, I'm sure deep down he does love and care about his family. Definitely looking forward to seeing the two of them interacting. I'm also looking forward to seeing Masaya interact with the other characters in the future. In particular, Touma, Kuroko (very curious what she would think of her Oneesama's brother), Misaki, and especially the Sisters. Of course, it'll be a long while before that happens.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. Tsundere is in the Misaka DNA lol. Regarding you looking forward to Masaya meeting the other characters, we'll be seeing plenty of that in Part 2 of the story, so look forward to it (in like a year lol). Don't worry though, Part 1 will still have many interactions with named characters, and especially ones known to be active around this time.

To Broach Or To Put Up says:

is his shoulder devil a foreshadow to some kind of maxwell's demon development? since he felt it was special.
another thing, I hope he stops getting dumpstered most fights, it feels dumb how he doesn't carry tools to close the gap in strength, he could at the very least bring soap to maybe weaken the water cords (they fought 21 times and the most he did was the fucking terrain?!).
Why he doesn't have a taser, slingshot, glass marbles or such is baffling to me, he is show very resouceful during fights but apparently not before them.
tldr: give him bombs, bro needs it.

The devil does have some significance. Masaya only refers to it as a devil because he doesn't know what it actually is—but it is something important.

The primary reason Masaya rarely uses weapons deliberately is because they're largely ineffective against Tachikuro (the soap example is creative, but once Hydro Cords take shape and solidify, you can't really get anything into them), and if he's proven to have weapons deliberately for the purpose of fighting people, then Amine and Judgment will descend upon him with the force of a thousand suns, since it's a charge they can legitimately get him for. These are just schoolyard brawls at the end of the day as brutal and one-sided as they are, and Masaya really is forced into a corner regarding what he's able to do about it—when he gets the rare opportunity to prepare at all before Tachikuro shows up in person (chapter 2's fight was more the exception rather than the rule).

However, now that his new ability has awakened somewhat, this could give him a significant edge in future fights depending on how he uses it. The fights will soon expand beyond the realm of school rivalries and into more dangerous territory, so Masaya may choose to employ some helpful tools that work well with his powers going forward. As he gets better with False Conduct, the more versatile of a fighter he'll become.

Thanks as always for the reviews. It's always great to see them, so keep them coming.

Next chapter we'll see how the consequences of Masaya's actions and connections will play out and who will be affected by them—as well as how Masaya will be putting False Conduct into action for the first time, so look forward to it.

-Lacien