“C’mon! Shit! Shit! Aaah, dammit, this is way too unlucky!!”

Kamijou Touma didn’t slow down a single pace of his escape, even knowing he sounded like a deviant.

He glanced backwards quickly as he ran through the late-night alleyways.

Eight people.

Even though he had already ran nearly two kilometers, there were still eight of them. Of course, Kamijou had no chance of beating them in a fight, not being Cook-san of the former Foreign Legion, or some long lost cyber-ninja. Don’t even talk about anything more than a three-on-one fight against other high schoolers. With so many of them, it was simply impossible.

Kicking away a dirty bucket out of his way and scaring off a black cat, Kamijou continued running,

July 19th.

That’s right, July 19th was a bad day. The summer vacation starting tomorrow! Which was why Kamijou had been in such uncharacteristically high mood, buying manga he could tell would be a disaster just from the cover, and going to gorge himself at a family restaurant even though he wasn’t hungry. But as he entered the restaurant, for who knows what reason, some aberrant thought processes of being a hero had suddenly taken control of him.

Who would’ve known that so many of their buddies would’ve come out of the restroom.

Yeah, he’d always thought that only women would go to the restroom in groups like that too.

“I didn’t even get to taste my bitter melon and escargot lasagna from hell before having to make a break for it… and being treated like an eat-and-runner. Argh, seriously, what’s with this misfortune!?”

Oof! Wringing his own neck all the while, Kamijou finally broke out of the alleyways into the main road.

Even moonlit Academy City, in spite of being only a third the size of Tokyo, was packed, filled to the brim with couples. It was definitely because it was July 19th. Kamijou, being single, blamed it all on July 19th. The tri-propellered wind power generators here and there were bathed in the pale white moonlight and the city’s night view, glittering like the tears of wealthy, single people.

Kamijou ran swiftly through the night streets, as if he were breaking apart those couples.

As he ran, he took quick glances at his right hand. In situations like this, the power that was there was no help at all. It wouldn’t bring down one of those delinquents, raise his test grades, or make a girl swoon over him.

“Ugh, I’m so unlucky!”

If he ever got completely get out of sight of that gang, they might use their cell phones to call for back up and some motorcycles. Their prey, Kamijou, had no choice but to force them to tire themselves running after him until they toppled from a lack of stamina. It was like letting an opponent hit you on purpose while boxing to tire him out.

All Kamijou wanted to do was lend a helping hand back there.

It would be his victory as long as he could shake them off and make them give up the chase without it all coming to blows.

Kamijou was pretty confident at running long distances after all. And his opponents had all ruined their health with alcohol and tobacco, and were wearing completely impractical boots. They weren’t even pacing themselves, but dashing, not the best idea for a long distance run.

As he crisscrossed back between the alleyway and the main roads, letting his opponents think he was getting out of breath, he watched as one after another of the gang dropped behind, hands on knees. Even while he praised himself on finding a perfect solution that didn’t involve anyone getting hurt…

“Da… dammit… why do only things like this happen in the prime of my life!”

It was vexing. No matter where he looked, the streets were full of couples overflowing with happiness and dreams; Kamijou Toumo felt like he was permanently on the losing side. Even as the days went by and summer vacation finally began, with no love and no comedy in sight in his life, he felt too much like a loser.

And, one of the delinquents behind him shouted out angrily.

“Hey you!! Dammit you bastard, stop running you coward!!”

What was with that ferocious love call… so of course Kamijou had to give a reply..

“Shut it! You should be happy you haven’t been beaten into paste, you IQ 80 simians!”

Knowing they were drained of stamina, Kamijou snapped that right back at them.

(……Really, we should all be happy that nobody’s been injured.)

At last, sweaty and teary after that two kilometer run, Kamijou reached the outskirts of Academy City, right by a large river. And a large bridge over the large river. The bridge was about 150 meters long. Not a single car was on it. The unlit and crude looking steel bridge was painted in unpleasant darkness like a night sea.

Crossing the bridge, Kamijou once again glanced behind him.

And stopped. Some time ago, every single one of the people chasing him had disappeared.

“Fi… finally got rid of them, huh.”

Fighting an urge to simply collapse on the floor, Kamijou looked up at the night sky, and took a deep breath.

Actually solving the problem without anyone getting hurt. He really wanted to pat himself on the back for a job well done.

“Geez, what are you doing. Did you want to feel like a good Samaritan, or are you some over-enthusiastic schoolteacher or something?”

Kamijou started.

Because there was not even a single light on the bridge, he had not noticed. Just five meters away in the direction he had come running from, a girl was standing. With an ashen gray pleated skirt, and a blouse and summer sweater, she looked like any other middle school girl.

Which was what Kamijou mostly thought as he nearly toppled over backwards, still looking at the sky.

But actually, she was the girl in trouble back in the family restaurant.

“So I guess that again? That gang back there isn’t chasing anymore after all.”

“Yeah. They were annoying, so I scorched them.”

Bzzt. A pale blue spark buzzed out loudly.

It wasn’t that the girl was holding a stun gun. Her brown hair, waving softly around her shoulders, was releasing sparks as if each strand was an electrode.

A gust of wind blew a plastic bag close by her face that moment, and like an automated defense system, a pale white spark lanced out, blowing it apart.

A small sigh of surprise was the only sound Kamijou could utter.

Today was July 19th. Which is why he he had been buying manga he could tell would be a disaster just from the cover, and going to gorge himself at a family restaurant even though he wasn’t hungry, and when he saw a middle school girl getting into an argument with some obviously drunk delinquents, without thinking decided to come to the rescue.

But, Kamijou couldn’t remember saying anything about “saving a girl.”

His only thought was to save the delinquents who had unknowingly gotten involved with this girl.

Kamijou sighed. She was always like this. After nearly a month of passing each other by, he still didn’t know her name. In other words, he was not really looking to be friends.

Today as well, that girl had been planning on blasting something into pulp, while Kamijou had been trying to prevent that. There were never any exceptions. It was 100% certain.

After losing fair and square, the girl’s mood might clear up a bit, but Kamijou was no good at acting. One time before, he’d told her that as well, and had spent an entire night being chased all over by what looked like a demon.

“……Actually, what did I ever do to you?”

“I cannot stand there being anyone stronger than myself. That should be more than enough reason.”

Characters in fighting games nowadays get more detailed motives. (rofl)

“You’re taking me for an idiot as well, aren’t you. I’m a Level 5, you know? Did you think I would go all out against powerless Level 0s? I’ve got just the recipe for dealing with those weaklings.

Within this city, the common opinion that “delinquents hanging out in alleys = the most violent” does not fit. Those who dropped out before the psychic ability development part of the curriculum were just powerless Level 0s.

The ones who were truly the strongest in the city were people like her, psychics in the honor classes.

“Um, you know what I’m getting at? I know very well that you’re a 1 out of 328,571 genius, but you really should stop with that condescending way you speak if you want to live long. Seriously.”

“Shut up. There’s nothing you can call people like that, who get drugs pumped directly into their bloodstream, and shocks buzzing from one ear to their brain and on to the other ear, and still not be able to bend a spoon, but incompetent.”

“……”

Certainly, Academy City was a place like that.

Inserted into the curriculum innocuously to “develop the mind”, these practices were hidden under such euphemisms as “recording techniques” or “memorization techniques”. This was the other face of Academy City.

After all, it is not as if the 230,000 “students” living in Academy City are all like protagonists from a comic book, and transcend being human. Looking at it as a whole, a bit less than 60% of Academy City is made up of people who range from those who can only manage to finally bend a spoon with great effort after the blood vessels in their brain are torn up, or Level 0s who simply cannot use psionics at all.

“If you need to bend a spoon, you could always use pliers. Want a fire, a 100 yen lighter does the trick just as well. And even without telepathy, there are always cell phones. Are psionics really that special?”

Which were Kamijou’s words, whom the sensors labeled “incapable” during Academy City’s inspections.

“After all, this is all ridiculous. Don’t get so proud at the psionics, it’s a side effect. Don’t you know, that’s not our goal, right?”

Faced with that, the girl, one of the seven level 5s in Academy City, merely sneered.

“What? ……Oh that, huh. What was it again, ‘Humans cannot understand God’s plans. And thus, we must become more than human to reach for God’s answer’…wasn’t it?”

The girl scoffed.

“Sigh, that always makes me laugh. Just what is “God’s wisdom”. Did you know? They’ve been developing my “Sisters” by analyzing my DNA as a foundation for military use. Doesn’t that look like they’re looking more for the side-products than this goal we have?”

And, after having said so much, the girl suddenly fell silent.

In the silence, it felt like the very air around them was changing.

“……And actually. That was like the words of the powerful or something.”

“Huh?”

“The powerful. The strong, the top. Those born into their abilities, never knowing the hardship up struggling up to that point… like something tough and cruel a comic book protagonist would say. What you said back there.”

The river below the steel bridge slushed with an ominous sound.

Those seven Level 5s in Academy City… how much of their humanity had they cast aside as they struggled to that point… that was what was hinted at from the dark flames burning at the end of those words.

Kamijou had refuted all of that.

Just one sentence, just one thing that could not be taken back.

Just one time where he did not lose.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Just look at the annual inspections, will you? My level is zero, while you’re the highest at Level 5, you know? Just ask anyone walking around here, anyone could tell you at a glance who’s stronger here!”

Academy City’s ability development was based pharmaceutics, neuroscience, and brain surgery, a thoroughly scientific approach. By following the curriculum regularly, even without much natural talent, most people would be able to at least bend a spoon.

But even so, Kamijou Touma could not do anything.

As far as the testing equipment at Academy City were concerned, he was utterly without any ability whatsoever.

“Zero, huh.”

The girl repeated that one single word, as if she were rolling it around in her mouth.

She thrust her hand into her skirt pocket, clutching a metal coin as she pulled her hand out again.

“Hey, do you know what a ‘railgun’ is?”

“Huh?”

“It’s the same theory as a linear motor car. By using a powerful electromagnet, seems like they’re battleship weapons used to fire a metal projectile.”

Pling. The girl flipped the metal coin into the air with her thumb.

The coin flipped through the air, as it reached her thumb again.

“Something like this.”

And at the same time as those words.

Without a sound, an orange spear of light suddenly pierced through the air right by Kamijou’s head. A spear, or more like a laser beam. The only way he could tell where it had come from was simply because the end of the afterimage of the light could still be seen extending from the girl’s thumb.

Like a thunderbolt, an instant later, an echoing roar boomed out. A turbulent blast of air close by assaulted his ears, disrupting Kamijou’s sense of balance. As he staggered about on his feet, he took a fleeting glimpse behind him.

At the point where the orange light hit the surface of the bridge, asphalt had been sent flying, just as if an airplane had made an emergency landing at sea. Thirty meters past the point where the destruction stopped, a burning orange afterimage could still be seen in the air even though everything had already stopped.

“Even just a coin like this, by flinging it out at Mach 3, can be pretty powerful, you know. Of course, after about 50 meters it breaks apart due to friction with the air.”

The steel and concrete bridge began swaying about as if it were a flimsy rope bridge. Grrgkt! Bzzt! The sound of metal bolts snapping echoed about.

“……………………!!”

Kamijou felt as cold as if all the blood vessels in his body had been packed with dry ice.

He wondered if all the water in his body had become sweat and evaporated through some mysterious process.

“Y-You. Don’t tell me you did that to drive that gang away…!!”

“Don’t be stupid. I’ll at least choose who I use it against carefully. Not like I want to be a murderer for no reason.”

As she said that, sparks buzzed from the girl’s brown hair as if it were an electrode.

“Against Level 0s like that… this would be more than enough to chase them off!”

As more white sparks scattered out like a horn about her bangs, a bolt of lightning speared out into the night.

There was no hope of escaping that. After all, it was a spear of lightning blasting from the hair of a Level 5. It was the same thing as trying to dodge a bolt of lightning you see coming at you from a black raincloud.

BOOOM!! A sound like an explosion followed a moment later.