"Hey! You wait for me!"
In one of the alleys of School District 7, Misaka Mikoto chased after Fang Li, who was walking ahead without even looking back, calling out as she caught up.
"Where are you planning to go? Could it be that you're heading straight to Scorpius's headquarters?"
Hearing that, Fang Li didn't turn around, nor did he answer Misaka Mikoto's question.
"I should be the one asking you, what are you doing following me?" Fang Li said without looking back. "Didn't I tell you to stop wandering around at night recently? You'll get dragged into trouble if you're not careful."
"You don't need to worry about me," Misaka Mikoto replied casually, as if it were nothing. "If trouble comes knocking, I'll just beat it back, and that'll solve the problem."
She then continued, her tone turning more serious.
"Anyway, you should hurry and find a way to end this whole incident. My friends have already been affected, and I'm sure other students are living every day in fear, wondering if they'll get caught up in the conflict with those armed Skill-Out groups."
That was why Misaka Mikoto had come looking for Fang Li at this time of night, to end this situation and let Academy City return to normal.
Unfortunately, she didn't realize how perfectly timed her arrival really was.
Fang Li suddenly stopped walking.
"Ah!"
Misaka Mikoto, who had been following right behind, bumped into him with a light "Pa!" sound.
"What are you doing!?" Misaka Mikoto demanded, rubbing her forehead.
But Fang Li didn't respond. He simply lifted his head, eyes fixed on the shadows ahead.
A second later, without warning, Fang Li extended his arm and shoved Misaka Mikoto aside.
Misaka didn't even have time to react before…
"Whoos…!"
With the sound of space being sliced open, a white beam of light shot violently out from the darkness ahead, tearing through the air and streaking past where the two of them had just been standing.
It hit the wall behind them.
"Chiii…!"
When the beam struck the wall, there was no explosion. Instead, it looked as though the surface was being baked under intense heat, melting rapidly, dissolving like butter.
"...!"
Misaka Mikoto finally realized what was happening, and she drew in a sharp breath.
Then, voices drifted out from the darkness ahead.
"Hm? Did I miss?"
"Looks like their luck's pretty good."
"I'd say it's more like Mugino's lack of enthusiasm."
"…Target not hit…"
As those voices spoke, several figures slowly emerged from the shadows.
"I was expecting the leader of the Scorpius group, someone who supposedly managed to throw all of Academy City into chaos, to be something more impressive. But this guy's just an ordinary high school student, isn't he?"
The speaker, a girl with a tall, slender figure and fluffy, tea-colored long hair, sounded thoroughly impatient. She looked young but had an unmistakable onee-san (older sister) aura.
"Isn't that a good thing though? Easy jobs like this don't come around often," said another girl, a petite junior-high–aged student with a shoulder-length brown bob, a hooded jacket covering her head.
"Ah, I agree with that!" chimed in a third voice, cheerful and carefree.
This one looked like she came from Northern Europe, with fluffy golden hair, blue eyes, a slim, delicate figure, a beret perched on her head, and a super-short skirt paired with long stockings, an utterly adorable cute-type girl.
"…Looks like I won't be much use this time," said the last one quietly.
Her face was blank, eyes filled with a trace of weariness. She had shoulder-length black hair and wore plain sportswear, nothing distinctive at all.
The four girls, each with a distinct style and striking features, walked slowly out from the darkness ahead.
Their demeanors varied: some impatient, some relaxed, some energetic and cheerful, some drowsy; different from one another, yet all seemed perfectly at home in the surrounding shadows, as if they were born to live there.
So, although each of the four girls had a vivid personality, they were by no means the kind of people who operated under the sun.
"You…!"
Misaka Mikoto seemed to sense something; her expression immediately grew serious. Only Fang Li, watching the four approaching girls, kept his complexion unchanged.
"So they really came?" he said.
"The Dark Side of Academy City," was the reply.
Those words didn't first provoke a reaction from the attackers so much as from Misaka Mikoto.
"Dark side?" Misaka Mikoto was momentarily stunned.
Clearly, she had been unaware of the existence of such an underworld.
That made perfect sense.
"The so-called 'dark side' refers to Academy City's underground organizations, shadow units that operate for their own purposes. They're usually directly subordinate to members of the Board of Directors or even the Superintendent, and they handle dirty work that can't be revealed to the outside world: assassinations, destroying strongholds, erasing records, gathering critical classified intelligence, and so on. For the right pay, they'll take on almost any task, and they're often accustomed to bloodshed," Fang Li explained to Misaka Mikoto in a calm, matter-of-fact tone.
"And they're the ones tasked with keeping the upper classes, including the Board of Directors, from running amok, and with suppressing the sources of rebellion and riots inside Academy City, they're called 'ITEM.'"
As he spoke, Fang Li's mind surfaced the intelligence on the four girls standing before them.
The tall, onee-san type was Mugino Shizuri, the de facto leader of ITEM. She is one of Academy City's seven Level 5 espers, ranked fourth and nicknamed "Meltdowner."
The bob-haired junior-high look was Kinuhata Saiai, a member of ITEM who wields an ability named "Offense Armor" and is a Level 4 esper.
The petite, Northern-European–styled girl was Frenda Seivelun, another ITEM member who specializes in explosives. She looks cute but is no less formidable than Kinuhata Saiai.
The expressionless, slightly weary-eyed, listless girl was Takitsubo Rikou, also from ITEM. Her ability, called "Tracking," is for locating and pursuing enemies. Although she is a Level 4 esper, she isn't a frontline fighter, she handles targeting and tracking.
Hearing Fang Li's explanation, Misaka Mikoto turned her gaze to the ITEM girls.
"So Academy City has things like this too?" she said.
Until this very moment, the ace of Tokiwadai, the third-ranked member among the seven Level-5 espers, the girl known as "Railgun", who had always acted in the sunlight, was only now truly encountering the city's darkness.
But Misaka Mikoto's words provoked an excessive reaction from the opponents.
"This kind of 'thing'?"
Mugino Shizuri's impatient expression snapped into something else.
"You little innocent brat who doesn't even know Academy City's 'real' side, how dare you call us 'this kind of thing'?" Mugino Shizuri said, fixing Misaka with a look and curling her mouth into a grin.
"I'll kill you, damn brat."
No sooner had she finished speaking, "Whoosh, !"
With a sharp rush of wind, a white beam of light struck out again.
(End Of This Chapter)
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