April 26th 2011

---

Beep beep beep The forklift would slowly reverse backwards carrying its large wooden crate into the storehouse. District 11 had just received its bi-daily order of supplies that would be distributed to the appropriate sources when necessary. "Alright boss that should be the last of it." The worker said calling his boss over the radio as he started to lower the forklift and its contents.

"Um, Boss. I said that's the last of it." He said again waiting for a response. "Damn, he left already without informing me. Dick." They sighed and began to slowly moved towards the warehouse doors with their forklift and then the power in the thing died. "Damn thing. Boss really needs to spare some expenses to get the new ones." They sighed and sat there for a moment. Did something just move between the crates.

No there was no way. "Is that you Gary?" The man asked wondering if it was one of his fellow staff. Stepping up and away from the forklift. He heard a low hissing noise, and before he could even speak. His arm was laying beside his foot. "A-a------" The scream would be cut short, strangled by the firm hands of the larger faster individual.

---

"We are regretful to report that School district 11 had to report the murder of one of the workers at the district. A one 'kevin' whom was found in pieces at the scene, showing signs of severe mutilation. We have reason to believe that foul play is involved due to the graphic nature of the scene." The newswoman said yawning a bit. "Next up on the news. A local radio group will be presenting their stage drama-"

This would be playing on all the videos in the corner shops and stores. It was pretty curious news. A murderer present in Academy city was always going to raise a few eyebrows but for now it seemed. For every other person now finally leaving their school buildings for the day to either hit the city life or hang out in their dorms. It would probably be a normal day.

But someone... or something was going to make its move.

Miko the local Miko

---

"Ahh... its getting everywhere."

The large woman sat outside her shrine, staring at nothing in particular in boredom. She did not bother with the traditional garb, even though she had already repaired it last night. Miko had put its repair off so long she was already used to not wearing it, but that wasn't good either. Painstakingly remaking every element of its make, from the protections to the minimum features on it to be considered a shrine, to even the smallest frays on it.

"The leaves are getting everywhere..."

She sighed.

Perhaps it wasn't good to think of it like that. She had finally repaired the outfit, so she should at least take the time to wear it properly.

Miko sighed again, more heavily this time.

"I'll just go to the shops then then..."

There wasn't really that much people that actually came here after all, and much much less that would actually need her personally. No one would even notice her going out wearing short cutoff jeans and a hoodie. She didn't much care for what was happening in the city after all, so she didn't particularly stand out any more than all those espers running around.

Ria Tsurara|Warehouse District

"A murderer on the run? Nothing new, injustice and justice abounds no matter what era. I do not believe in religion but I was reminded by the book of Ecclesiastes, the principle I go by as everything is just under the sun." Ria somewhere in the city was walking and passing through the crowd, in her mind she recalled the Bible Verse from the Book she read a couple years back:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.

And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

The very exact and detailed wordings from the scripture which Ria just finished reciting in her mind and in deep thought what lies ahead. She took heed and made herself on guard not wanting to meddle with something petty and bleak. Murder on a daily basis including the tribulations of life and such, there is really nothing to be surprised about. Ria quickly received a phone call from one of her business partners which slapped het back in reality.

"Is that so? I cannot take you dimwits seriously like I'm some kind of Ice Machine here and to think you made it sound like I can poop ice instantly to fix the environment of arctic animals is just a wishful thinking." Ria's mood shifted into an angered child because of a future project.

She rolled her eyes and yelled at her phone loudly, not caring other people's opinions.

"To heck with it you nerds with labcoats. Fixing their habitat with my ability was never the answer to begin with in this helping the Polar Bears thing, your theories of Arctic Rayfield Satelite is flawed with a capital F and even if it worked, it isn't going to solve your problems. Bdbdhddjdbdndscrewyou.

Dbnskdmfnekfnfnfnf@kyou. Enough is enough, I do not have time for crap. To put it considerately, I suggest you get your concept straight on how to make this Einter Wonderland happen. Shutup and goodbye." Ria froze her phone and crushed it, annoyed and stressed from the conversation.

She took out another phone and called them.

"How about an appointment a week from now? I kinda have an idea on how to make this work." Her client was satisfied with her answer.

"Don't get the wrong idea you imbecile. I am not doing it because you begged me, I am only doing it because I want to and like it or not profit is earned, we are making history with pleasure. People are dying for something revolutionary like Winter Machines! Summer is approaching and everyone would want a cold summer ya?"

She dropped the call and glared at zome citizens and they all minded their own business.

"Nagatenjouki just filled all their slots. I want a good school so I can.......

Somewhere on the edge of School District 15, just near the border of Districts 9 and 7, the door of a non-descript convenience store swung shut. Stood by the entrance, clearly annoyed, was a school age girl, phone in hand. How the hell could he even keep track, she thought. Not even she could remember them all. Each day it was a new one, like some shitty advent calendar. She took a step out of the doorway, head down and focused on her phone, and threw herself onto a nearby bench. Her disregard for other pedestrians was blatant, highlighted by the density of students heading to the shopping areas, though only in a "I'm not in the mood for other people" kind of way.

A sigh of resignation escaped Kyoko's lips. At the very least, it wasn't one of those stores that refused to serve even her friends, just by proxy. There were a few of those - even from her seat, spying from her periphery, she could see a few in the distance. Yo would get what she wanted, and they could finish up their evening in relative peace. As much as it frustrated her to have someone with a mental catalogue of where she was banned from, it did make choosing locations that much easier - even if it was a bit creepy.

From the street and its nearby shops, she turned her attention back onto the phone. Even in just the short span of time she had been looking away, multiple new messages had already been sent. That was one of the, if minuscule, benefits of letting someone else buy things: she had some down time to talk. Much of the group was online already, with students leaving their respective institutes en masse. The picture channel Shusui had setup a while back was alight, and even Satoshi was online - if not talking - which was a surprise in and of itself. The only person not around was Yo, but with him in the store, that wasn't much of surprise.



"Catch." a voice called out from the side, drawing Kyoko's attention from her typing. Without looking, she sent a quick "brb", and locked the device, only to look up and meet the gaze of the young man that had spoken to her. He gave a smile, and the bottle of Dk Pepper he held in his left hand vanished, only reappeared just above her in the air. As much as the boy enjoyed his trick, the initial surprise it had held had worn off a long time ago; without a second thought, she grabbed it out of the air, and twisted off the lid.
"You need a new trick." Kyoko idly returned, as she lifted the bottle and drank, "How much?"

"Now that's rude, I bet you don't even remember what being at Level 2 feels like." he replied, dropped a plastic bag onto the bench, and took a seat beside her "But it's on me today."

She withdrew the bottle, and replaced the lid, before setting it aside. The boy named Xx_Mr.Owl_xX, now that he was sat, was already looking through the messages that had been sent in his absence. Even with the two of them sat together, their attention couldn't help being drawn to the Discord group and their other friends, she thought. But then again, his face as he silently read through was pretty priceless. Lid off, and battle raised, she took another drink.
"I've been gone for like twenty minutes!" he shouted, forcing Kyoko to stifle laughter lest she choke on the beverage, "Well at least I've got Satoshi keeping order and talking about normal stuff. Like murders."

His sarcasm wasn't lost on her.
"Kill some people of your own then, and maybe we'll talk about that. Make the change you want to see!" she shouted back. With the smile and glare he gave back, she stood up from the bench, "It's just murders. Probably Skill-Out infighting or something - if Anti-Skill doesn't take care of it, some hapless vigilante will do; keep trudging along, head held high.

"Bit pessimistic."

"You can only get banned from so many shops before it takes a heavy toll, Yo. We're at the point of no return now."

"Yo" gave a slight chuckle. The rustle of plastic accompanied his arise from the bench alongside her, some student foot traffic shifting to the other side of the pavement as the two of them obstructed the path.
"Well, I've got about an hour before I should head on back. Arcade?" he asked, as he pulled a bag of crisps from the bag and handed them off to Kyoko, before taking his own bag out.

"Nah. We haven't been shopping together in a while, y'know?" she tore open the package.

"Because I'm a Level 2 and have no money?"

"Then I'll buy," in response to the offer, a look of doubt crossed Yo's face, "What? I have money. Just take the damn invitation and let's get moving." His doubt turned to resignation, as his compatriot grabbed his upper arm and pulled him along into the mob of students, towards whatever shopping mall they could find first - that actually let her inside.

紫菀

---

Shion found herself walking through the crowds of let-out students, a rarity for her given her ability, as she headed towards District 19 through 23 and 6. Her headphones cancelled out the inane talking completely, a benefit of their design, but was constantly switching music as she walked with no songs catching her interest. This in turn led to her growing annoyance which she took out on the onion she was carrying in her hand as she tele-peeled the skin into a nearby garbage bin and took a large bite out of it. Her other hand stayed in her pocket where she flicked through her MP3's library searching for something she actually wanted to listen to. It wasn't until she was well into District 6 that she settled on a single song which found itself looped over and over.

She passed by the now uninteresting recreational facilities and the no-longer appealing amusement park, noting that her newfound source of income could pay for the younger children's time there. It's hard to find enjoyment in thrill rides when you're used to free-fall on a daily basis, but the other orphans would likely enjoy it. The only question was if it was worth the money for all of them going or if it would be better spent going towards necessities. Her right earphone began emitting a new sound in addition to lowering its volume of music; the person closest to being called Shion's "friend" was calling her it seemed. Truly, these headphones were Shion's lifeline with the abundance of technology put towards their development. The one-way call continued for several minutes, the girl on the other end updating her that the orphanage needed a few things that Shion could more easily get, so she changed course, finishing off the onion's sprout and began teleporting towards District 15.

Ryuji Igarashi - Out Doing the Rounds (Near District 15-District 7 border)

The 5:30 PM streets of Academy City, just as the sun began to sink in the May skies.

In a word...

"'Scuse me. Pardon. Shitsurei. Pizza, coming through."

Packed. Paaaaacked. Packed, packed, packed.

Stepping off into the nearby bike lane, a teenager of roughly 173 centimeters in height freed himself and his cargo from the throng of people clogging the Academy City walkways. Dressed in a sharp green polo and denim jeans, he brushed his cobalt hair away from his eyes, taking care to balance the cardboard box upon his fingertips as he took a running start. It was a natural part of the Academy City ecosystem, and it wasn't as if the concept of "rush hour" could ever be alien to anyone in an urban setting; the only truly unique part about this place was how many of these people were his peers. Fellow students, as opposed to nine-to-fivers, were what made up the majority of sidewalk congestion. People getting off of club activities, going hang out with friends after getting home, whatever could drive a teenager to be out and about was.

The grip of the asphalt released upon his feet with little more than a thought. Placid blue eyes squinted slightly, as they were brushed by the breeze of a casual cruise.

"There we go."

For Ryuji Igarashi, that drive was work. Luigi's Pizzeria, a local spot with (in all fairness) pretty good pizza, was popular enough to be delivering, and had historically needed some fast movers to get the food to people who needed it. Ryuji, a young man who often found himself needing a quick buck on the side, fit that bill with aplomb— they didn't even need to trust the kid with a vehicle! With his Esper Power, a level 2 friction-control type, he could just glide along the ground as he was now, providing easy, quick, and remarkably smooth transportation of these artisanal goods!

For a given value of "artisanal", anyway.

It was an instant hire.

He had no doubt it would be the easiest job offer of his life, but the job itself was another matter. Being a high schooler, Ryuji by necessity worked a lot of evening shifts, which meant dealing with a lot of people in a lot of places. Pizza was a popular dinner choice. It was doable, sure, especially when you could get around with as little effort as him, but even his calm demeanor could get worn down at the end of a long night of stingy tippers and obscure locales and pedestrian traffic.

The first two he couldn't help, so he tried to not let himself agonize over them. The third, however, he had developed a robust cheat sheet for—

"'ey, good hustle." He gave a thumbs up to a cyclist as he leaned past them, pushing off the air with that same hand afterwards to add a bit more speed.

Chief of which was the bike lane. Free passage for anyone who could keep up— And he certainly could, at least with bikes. Venturing out onto the road road wasn't smart unless he really wanted to run for it. And this early in the shift...

Nah. This was a game of endurance, not raw speed. Better to do it on cruise control for anything except priority delivery. By all means, skip the masses of people lining up for Gekota merch, shouting profanity into their cell phones, or making tracks for the local mall— but you'd be dumb to run yourself ragged before your first break.

So, he slid on, at an easy pace of "just faster than most bikes".

All in all?

Normal day. Just another one to knock off the calendar, nothing too important or special about it. He'd probably run into a weird character or two answering the doorbell, but that would be about it. Not terribly engaging, he noted, but that was the service life. A man had to learn to deal with it and move forward, just like anything else.

Especially in Academy City. Any other town and his power, the way he gracefully flowed across solid ground like an ice rink, would turn heads for miles. Here? Maybe a glance brought on by the uniform more than anything else. This place was a den of the amazing in that respect. A city full of those who, with enough will, could break certain parts of reality and rewrite it with their own new rules. Espers that could teleport from one place to the next, freeze ambient moisture and shape the ice, even cause localized earthquakes— All of them called this place home. Far more fantastic things than him were a part of everyday life.

In that respect, you couldn't say something so simple as "ah, lots of people here today" measured up in the slightest to "Uh oh, that's Amori. Better be ready for uneven surfaces". In fact, he was for once glad that the day was trending towards a little dull. Better that than having to answer to an unreasonably, angry Level 5 that he was not actually allowed to deliver to her.

A bit of a frown pulled upon the edge of his lips. Apparently, his propensity for managing to "get away" with that (and straight up get away from it) meant that his coworkers tended to field him "the weird ones".

Unfamiliar numbers. Like those with area codes outside the country.

Unfamiliar locations. Like the ass end of a cram school.

Unfamiliar demands. Like "send your cutest delivery boy~!".

Ah, Ryu-kun can take care of himself the best, probably! He's cute enough, and it's not like anyone could keep up with him if they disapprove, right?

"They all gotta live a little." he muttered. "Not like I'll be around forever."

That last one did happen, by the way. A couple Garden Schoolers thought it would be a fun prank after seeing something about it on tumblr.

They were disheartened when he showed up in mint condition, and not suffering from any scrapes or bruises earned by defending his honor and ranking as "the cutest".

It was the end of the shift, too, so he was a bit more frank with them than usual when he informed them of their folly.

He doubted they'd ever called back since.

This order, however, was pretty normal. A regular customer, living in a regular part of town, at, honestly, a pretty regular hour. Part of the reason it wasn't any skin off his back that he was out during "rush hour" was in the simple fact that this was when a lot of people wanted a slice of faux-Italian goodness.

He caught a sign and used it as a centrifuge, swinging to the right side of an intersection, and allowed himself a beguiling smirk.

"Helps that everyone tips, too."

A man's gotta eat.

Kazuhiko Tsuda

---

“Well, that just happened,” the frazzled looking esper with black hair grumbled. If he squinted, he was sure that he would still be able to just make out the bus he was supposed to be on fading farther into the distance. Yet his bitterness had less to do with the reality that he would now need to walk to his job and more so with the fact that he had missed out on one of the precious few chances to nap today. After all, even if he wasn’t blessed enough to get a seat, nodding off while standing was a skill Kazu had been dutifully cultivating over the past few weeks. It was only a matter of time before he mastered it and became that much closer to being able to say that he could sleep literally anywhere.

Letting out a noise that was an odd cross between a dejected sigh and exhausted yawn, he took off at a rather sluggish pace. There was plenty of time before his shift started at the noodle shop that currently had a reserve on Kazu’s free time, so there was little point in using up what little energy he had left rushing there. But even so, some of that energy was still wasted dwelling on the person that had caused him to miss his bus to begin with.

A tired hand ran down an equally tired face as Kazu recalled the phone call he had received from his dad, who somehow managed to be equal parts doting and deadbeat. And as if to illustrate that very point, his father had called to let Kazu know that he had dropped off a surprise at his son’s apartment. The sheer dread from such news had caused the young esper to turn even paler and rooted him to the spot just outside of his school for five full minutes.

As a child of the Tsuda household, Kazu had been engrained with the knowledge that his dad only bought presents in two situations: when it was somebody’s birthday or when he had really screwed up. And seeing as the teenager’s birthday was still months away, Kazu couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of mess his old man had managed to get himself into this time. “I seriously don’t feel like going home today…”

Kazu’s attention snapped back to the present, his eyes falling on a news segment being broadcast across the street while he waited for the crosswalk to turn. The picture was unbelievably grainy, as it was coming out of a relic of a model that was completely out of place in the modern world, but he was able to get the gist of it from the banner running across it. Apparently there had been a murder in the warehouse district, and a rather gruesome one at that. Everything about the incident just didn’t add up to Kazu no matter how he looked at it, from the motive behind it to the method involved.

After all, just how much sleep could that guy have gotten if he had just turned in for the night instead?

"Afternoon already, Huginn?" A soft voice inquired of the black bird perched on her balcony, lilting in her native tongue. No one else spoke it, not here, and Sieglinde missed it a little. The caw could almost have been an answer, not that the question needed one. She knew what time it was, she had already spent the better part of the day roaming the city. She had only been home a little while before the corvid appeared on schedule. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Be patient."

Crossing her apartment was easy; there was almost nothing to obscure its hardwood floors or bar her path. She just walked from the kitchen to the sliding door, collecting the scraps of bread she'd left on the counter as she went. The bird hopped a little when she opened the door and stepped out, evidently more than ready for his habitual feeding. It had only taken a month for him to start appearing on time, and she hoped to coax him into eating out of her hand by the next. But for now she just scattered the scraps on the balcony floor, exchanging positions with Huginn to perch herself on the railing. With hours to go until sunset the celestial orb had passed its zenith and reached the western sky, radiating pleasantly onto her small abode. It was almost unbearably hot even in April when the weather had yet to reach its apex, but the sun... She enjoyed how the sun felt on her skin. It was so much brighter than home.

Fingers wrapped around the railing she leaned back, out over the street a few storeys below. Further, further, further until her spine lay almost parallel to the ground below and her head craned back to face the sun. Muscles taut, the light reflected dimly in her eye, she hung leisurely. The sun warmed her skin pleasantly, more tolerable in the waning heat of the air around her. She hoped that she moved on by summer, she wasn't sure how she would tolerate the oven the city would become.

"We are regretful to report that School district 11 had to report the murder of one of the workers at the district. A one 'Kevin' whom was found in pieces at the scene, showing signs of severe mutilation. We have reason to believe that foul play is involved due to the graphic nature of the scene."

Saddening.

"Next up on the news. A local radio group will be presenting their stage drama-"

The aging CRT TV atop the small stand continued to drone from inside, but Sigi had already stopped listening. A murder was horrific, an affront to all decency, but it was a small thing. No one could stop everyone from dying, though she resolved to roll through District 11 on tomorrow's expedition. But...

"I'm not sure why I'm here," She began again, ostensibly to the bird. The rest of the city was humming, especially at this hour, but District 19 was as silent as the grave. Not a soul could be seen on her block save herself, and suspended in the air she could almost believe she was the only person in the whole city. The quiet was nice, normally. No one asked too many questions, no one really bothered her. She could come and go as she pleased. But being alone save for one's thoughts wasn't always productive. "Only that I feel like I need to be. Does that make any sense?"

She cracked open an eye to glance at the bird, but he simply looked at her expectantly. He had joined her on the railing, clearly wishing for more.

"Thought not. Don't be greedy." The Nordic woman chided softly, closing her eyes again. "You'll get more tomorrow."

The fluttering of feathers told her that the bird had left, probably in a huff, before silence descended again. For her part, Sigi continued to recline. There wasn't anything else to do. She had already locked her bike up again for the day, though it was a formality more than anything. Someone had stolen it, once. It was Academy City, there were better things to steal, but someone had wandered through the district and elected to take it. She had found it again in a matter of hours and simply taken it back. No fuss since then.

Idly she flipped open her phone and glanced at the screen while the blood began to rush to her head. Twenty minutes since she called her order in. No doubt dinner would arrive soon. It was always very timely, seeing as any deliveries to District 19 tended to get foisted off on one particular student.

Still, she glanced at the time again. She was starting to get hungry.

I'm so bored.

"Hmm phmm mm mm. Phhmm mm hmm. Hmmm hm!"

Rica continued to stuff her face with chia bagels and attempted to maintain a conversation with Richard Spuraway, the owner of Spuraway's Baked Goods™, at the same time. She did not succeed.

"Rica, I have no idea how you manage to eat so much of my stock and never gain a single pound. He flashed Rica a smile. "I'd give you free donuts for a year if you could somehow teach me that trick."

Rica licked the last of the cream cheese off of her thumb. "Well it's simple, Mister Rick! Come to the gym with me and find out!" Rica closed her eyes and leaned back with a contented sigh. "You've known me long enough to learn that I really really really hate exercise. But the more I work out, the more I get to eat! So in a way, it kinda ends up being worth it in the end!" Rica paused. "Now, about those donuts..."

Rica never received her free donuts. Instead, she hopped on her bike and peddled back toward her apartment, hesitating as she approached Charmy's, but decided that three meals worth of bagels at SBG made getting fast food at this time of day a little silly. Arriving at her home of three years, she slipped the key into the ancient brass lock and creaked open the apartment door by two inches. It was stuck! Rica groaned and shoved the entirety of her one hundred thirty five pounds against the door. It didn't budge. Okay... time for my secret technique. Rica took three and a half steps backward and charged at the door with the heart of a thousand elephants. Sure enough, the door swung to the side, gouging an elliptical gash into her hardwood floor in the process. "Aww ma—wooahuughhh!" Rica was thrust by her momentum face-first into her floor, crushing beneath her whatever dignity she had left.

Rica picked herself up and stumbled toward the flour-coated kitchen to wash up, but paused when she noticed a flash of red and blue in her periphery. She glanced toward her left arm and was met with a chromaticity diagram's worth of colored sparks spewing from her shoulder. "Huh?" Her confusion was answered by a smeared trail of blood across the oak wood floor, forming a wide red streak where she had fallen. Rica curiously approached the door, analyzing it more closely than she had before. The wooden rectangle was off-center, tilted, which is what had caused it to dig into the floor and jam when she tried to open it. But that wasn't surprising—there had been an unusual number of minor earthquakes in Academy City recently, which could easily explain why why the door wouldn't be balanced. Instead, what drew her attention was the rusty metal latch of the door, which had now been painted dazzling red. In fact, it was roughly the same size and shape as the patch of sparks that now faded from her newly-healed shoulder.

"Agh!" Rica thrust her palm firmly into her forehead. "I'm going to get tetanus again!"

“How long will you be in the country?”
“Three weeks,” Julius replied, offering the customs agent his trademark smile as he did so.
“And the purpose of your stay?” the agent continued on, giving no reaction to the smile.
“I was invited to give a series of lectures over in Academy City’s District 12,”
“I see. Well everything here seems to be in order. Enjoy your stay in Japan Mr. O’Sullivan,” After giving Julius’ papers one last glance through, the agent slid them back across the desk.
Julius thanked the agent, before quickly gathering up his documents and proceeding past the customs checkpoint. From there, it was only a simple matter of following the posted directions before he stepped out of the terminal and into the sun outside. He took a moment to appreciate the warmth of the sun shining down on him before he made his way over to a bench outside the airport. Sitting down on the bench, he took a moment to search through his bag, making absolutely sure all of his possessions were still there. Once he was satisfied that everything was in its place, he pulled out a map of Japan and carefully unfolded it.
The map was extensively notated, with important locations, optimal travel routes, and even a few tourist spots marked in bold red ink. He’d asked his assistant back at the Vatican to do the notation for him, as she’d been to Japan previously on holiday, and she also had an almost obsessive fascination with Japanese culture, much to Julius’ disapproval.
He was surprised to learn as he looked the map over, that the nearest subway station was actually a part of the airport passenger terminal itself, rendering his journey outside pointless. After studying the map for a number of minutes, making sure he was satisfied that he’d committed the route to Academy City to memory, he stood up and folded the map back into his bag. He headed back into the airport, and after following yet another series of posted signs, he finally made it to the subway station.
It took him longer than he would have liked to determine which platform corresponded to the line he needed to take, but he did eventually manage to figure it out and before long he was comfortably seated in the train car as it made its way to Academy City.

---

Standing with jaw agape and many bags of groceries in his hands was Shirogane Kuuro, who had just witnessed the news report about a murder that took place in District 11. His surprise and confusion had temporarily overtaken him for he was appalled that such a travesty could happen. A murder was one thing, but to mutilate the victim was an entire different beast. Only a monster could do so.

"Damn... that's messed up!" Kuuro felt sickened that there were people like that out there. But more than that, he was upset that such an injustice had happened and he was not able to prevent it. Despite being merely a member of Judgement, any horrific crime happening always made Shirogane feel like he could have done so much more than he did.

Yet standing there forever was going to get him nowhere. He could act surprised and upset all he wanted but it would change absolutely nothing. If anybody knew this, it was him. His entire character was shaped by an event of cruelty that wove his story even today. That is why people who were evil made him sick, because he knew exactly how it felt to be their victim. So there was merely one thing that rivaled his contempt for evil-doers, and, quite honestly, was people who did not put effort into their existence. People who neglected their privilege to truly live and experience all of life's joys. People who were lazy, good-for-nothings.

People like the woman he currently sheltered.

"Nero, come help me put this stuff away!" he called out as he finally set the groceries upon his kitchen table with less care than he intended. His arms ached from carrying them all the way home, but that was his fault, really. Purchasing so much things at one time and not having a means of getting it home besides carrying it could be chalked up as nothing but a foolish endeavor on his behalf. He persevered, however, and did so anyways. Speeding past your natural limits was the only way he would achieve his lifelong goal of becoming a Level 5 Esper, and so he did that any time the chance presented itself.

Yeah, there's really no way that helped me at all!

Kuuro comically hit his forehead with his palm, ashamed of how stupid that excuse was.

He was a somewhat stubborn man who refused to make multiple trips to the store or to ask for help. It certainly wasn't his defining character trait, but he owned a mild hero complex and a pride with it that prevented him from being on the receiving end of a helping hand, if he could avoid it.

Someone might ask, "If he doesn't ever ask for help, then why did he call Nero over, then?" and the interesting answer to that question would be:

Because spending time with this woman had caused Kuuro to develop a bit of passive aggressiveness. Knowing the woman's nature, he said this precisely because she would not listen and help. She was like a leech, sucking away at his wallet and will to live, one selfish day at a time. She frustrated and annoyed him. Pestered and corrupted him. She was anything but a good influence on his character, and a smarter man would have cut her loose long ago.

But throwing a helpless woman like her on the street would be an honest man's shame. He was convinced that if he did that, she'd have to resort to criminal activity, or she'd simply die. Neither conclusion would be ideal.

So if that meant that he would have to suffer chip damage to his faith in humanity, then so be it. Even if their rather lewd introduction and her admittedly immoral choice of clothing dealt blows to his purity, then fine. He could take all of that. The only lasting damage was those hits to his monthly stipend, which were entirely meant for only a single person to live off of. He had yet to tell his uncle about the bum living with him, but that was obviously for the better.

"...so what do you want to eat tonight? I went shopping before coming home and got a lot of stuff." he asked, moving towards the refrigerator to put away the perishables. He pushed the fact he sounded like a whipped househusband to the back of his mind as he did so. There was a more important matter to settle, anyways.

As he opened the door and gazed inside, his eyes shot open even wider than earlier. He saw something that shocked him to his very core. A grotesque murder could not compare to the horrible truth that revealed itself to him:

The space where he kept the milk was empty, and there was only one person bedsides himself who could've been the culprit.

“Ehhhhh!?”

A voice from the living room called out to Kuuro, seemingly annoyed by his “demand” assistance in the kitchen to help with the groceries. A seemingly simple enough request from a seemingly simple enough individual, and perhaps to an average individual it would not have been too much effort to assist in this way to someone who had been providing her with room and board for this short period of time.

...Of course, the level of hospitality and humility that one might expect from one who seemed to owe the other for providing them with a roof over their head and even went out of their way to cook for them. Such was the individual with the name “Nero Etheldreda Kagami”, whom of which had been living with Kuuro for almost a week now after a certain “incident” left Kuuro with what Nero considers to be an “obligation” and what Kuuro considered to be an “annoyance”.

A self-proclaimed “Sister” without a lick of dignity about her. Though she was not currently wearing the … “outfit” … that Kuuro had met her in, forcing the uniform of the school he went to on the girl at this time, she still seemed to not have any dignity, her legs open at a wider angle than one might expect a lady to show.

To Kuuro, it might have spelled out a rather luscious nature behind her act - especially if one considers how the two had originally met, though to Nero there was no other choice to her. If asked, she might say something along the lines of “It just felt better this way.”

“I don’t want to! I’m busy with this level! I started my own playthrough on this “Schatten 4” game you had here while you were busy doing… whatever it is boys like you do during the day.”

Unfortunately for Kuuro, this particular game only had one option for a saved game.

“Where were you, though? You said you’d come home early today, but I guess you took your time today, didn’t you? You scolded me yesterday about “being punctual”, but I bet you were just going around picking up strange women again, you perv. I guess a boy like you is growing, so you should enjoy your youth while you have the chance~.”

Nero called with the grin only a cat would wear.

The other day Kuuro scolded Nero about “being punctual” when in reality it was about him asking her to take out their dinner out of the oven while he was at the store or it was going to burn. Thus, she considered her actions here right, despite, as per usual, being in the obvious wrong here.

... The fact of the matter is that the two had takeout that day.

However, her own statement seemed to invoke a sense of discomfort within Nero, forcing her to think about the time she and Kuuro had met only a week ago.

“Perv,” Nero simply repeated, taking her gaze away from the man, a feverish red strip taking residence upon her face.

“Ah, please forget about that. Just thinking about that makes me want to die,” Nero said, her eyes glazing over for but a moment before returning to normal.

...The least that the brute could do was knock!

The momentary reliving of what could be considered Nero’s worst day was the only thing that could take her eyes away from the game, a [Game Over] screen plastering itself on the television due to her distracted nature at the time. She didn’t seem to mind, nor give that any thought as she left from the living room-like area of the apartment to the kitchen located in the same room divided solely by a counter that sat abnormally tall at chest level to Nero with barstools that lined the side facing the living room.

Nero got up to go watch Kuuro put away the groceries.

Not help Kuuro put away the groceries. Simply watch.

“I want meat tonight, by the way. You promised me meat yesterday but you never gave me it, after all~. Men need to keep their word, do they not?”

April 26th 2011

---

---

"You know, Martha. When you said you had an idea of who the culprit was, giving me a doodle of you fighting a dragon doesn't really help at all." The man said staring at the doodle in his hand as he rolled his eyes, talking to one of his officers over the radio.

"Bloody Nora, King If I actually knew whodunnit I woulda already beat em up for ya." The woman said through her gas-mask. She looked back at her squad and rubbed her temple. "Who'eva did this was too fast for us though, since Im getting nothing, bar blurs from my power." The Yellowjacket agent known as Martha would stand up, looking back at her squad as she shook her head.

The two other yellowjacket agents rolled their eyes. "Y'know you two could talk a little more." Martha said, only to recieve a simple phrase back from one of them. "Stop. Breathing." It was as if a plead or a beg. One which Martha would ignore all the way back to rendezvous.

---

@Krayzikk

---

The Crackling of electrical lamps and the flickering of their bulbs may of been indication enough that something was about to happen. If Sieglinde was observant she'd have noticed the sudden shift in atmosphere. The crackling of atoms that were trying to figure out if the thing should even exist permeating around its existence. It seems anomalous, hard to look at. Its shape was shifting and warping. It was humanoid and yet at the same time, its arms were mishapen and it was limbering towards her like an zombie composed out of clay that was constantly being battered blended and reshaped.

The creature was lumbering towards her with a unnatural hunger. It let out a scream that would make not a sound yet would pain the mind of those that observed it screaming. A mental anomaly...


@GreenGoat
[/center]

A soft hissing could be heard from around the parameter of the Miko's shrine, whatever it was that had been in the cargo and brought here had stumbled upon this shrine. The lupine creature with its silvery shroud would be hungrily studying the Miko upon the steps. It would let out a growl, her only alert. As it would begin to move on its padded feet. Building up speed. Ah, it was flesh and blood at least. Even if and that was big if the miko noticed that it appeared to be getting unnaturally fast with each step as if normal rules did not apply, denoting it as a magical beast. She had a second or two before it was upon her position.

And it looked like it had been starved for years with how thin it was.

---

@Rhodus
Standing at the train station, or rather squatting at the train station was a A girl young enough to be a student was wearing a particular garb. Certainly a member of the church is not a standard one. Her blue hair was her most noticeable feature. It appeared she was spacing out a bit though as she was busy staring at the gear on the train. Always curious about how all this machinery worked. It seemed it was best if he approached her first because otherwise she was going to be lost in thought for another 30 minutes~!

Miko the local Miko
Shrine

---

She sighed.

"I don't know who you are but... you've made a very bad mistake."

Miko did not even need to verify who it was or what it was; her shrine's reaction was all she needed to know about the thing currently trying to attack or even eat her.

By herself, and with just her family's training, she could probably tear apart a boulder with her bare hands and move fast enough to befuddle the sights of any untrained person, but within the boundaries of her own shrine, within the protection of its charms, talismans, and territory... Well, it did not bode well for anyone trying to fight her, much less something that was essentially close to a youkai in existence.

Almost as soon as Miko recognized the danger, the boundaries around the shrine closed to the beast, the wards and talismans exerting an enourmous pressure upon the foreign entity inside it, sapping its strength. In the space of a mere moment, she had already moved towards its side leveraging a powerful kick towards its face, her movements and abilities augmented far beyond her normal from the various wards and talismans within her shrine's territory.

The beast would learn that fighting a shrine maiden in her own territory surrounded by her wards was a bad idea.

Ryuji Igarashi - Hitting Traffic - District 19

@Krayzikk

Ryuji Igarashi was, normally, a pretty observant sort. A fair student who managed to comfortably stay on top of his grades and crack into the top 25 in his year come time for exams, he had a knack for both picking things up and noting small details. A Smash Bros enthusiast, such an eye for detail was naturally honed further as he learned to read playstyles and opponent tendencies, turning him into a local nightmare amongst Sakurai Central High's fighting game community. With his job being primarily service-based, he again learned a new facet of this all-important life skill: reading people, reading rooms, reading between the lines of a conversation.

All this he had quietly and unassumingly learned over the course of seventeen years. His perception had just found and fostered an environment where it could grow to an admirable level, nothing more, but that still had its own hand in shaping the boy. It helped him deliver a deadpan joke right when it would inspire the most confusion, it helped him learn when to filter and when not to filter his wholly honest opinion, and it helped him even to understand some of the idiosyncrasies of the people in his life— Takeda-kun liked goofing off and talking about seedy subjects to ease the tension he felt as karate club captain every day, Hanazawa-san's gossiping about coworkers peaked whenever she wasn't certain she was in on something, "Luigi" was still smart enough to sign his name on their checks as "Ryuuji" so they would clear without issue.

Now the point of all this—

He rounded a corner, having returned to the sidewalk upon his entry to District 19.

...And his gaze narrowed upon a shambling, almost sloshing figure.

"Huh?"

—Somewhere along the way, it hadn't clicked that District 19 was one of the "weird ones".

Maybe it was desensitization. A quiet street wasn't anything to worry about compared to an angry Level 5. Or a Skill-Out gang. That was all he ever encountered out here, no matter when he was called to make the walk over. Just a quiet, slightly windy, slightly worn, and otherwise unremarkable section of town. He hadn't thought too hard about it at all. It was just kind of nice, easy to move through, and maybe needed a couple lights fixed.

Here, he belatedly realized that he had never heard anyone else get sent to District 19.

Not once.

He skidded to a stop. The hairs on the back of his neck rose, each one standing at attention as a sickening pins-and-needles sensation followed in their wake. While this was the exact reason he must have been the one always fielding this District, he was damn certain he'd never heard anything, either officially or less so, about...

Mud...men?

Mudmen walking the streets. Maybe a Golem, but that was the territory of magic. He would only know about the collected details that showed up amongst things like RPGs or books, not any actual, real world rules on it. Putting aside thoughts about finding a "weak point", he only knew that it looked like a godless abomination, something that very much should not have been— he could say those things about his classmate Zippo and his lighter fluid fingers, but this was different. Its form, if you could even say it had one, looked like it was barely trying to be humanoid to begin with. It ambled slowly, brokenly, shifting down the street just as much as its shadow did, long enough to meld into his own in the low light of afternoon.

Not... necessarily threatening just off of looks, though. If it was a golem, that mean automaton, and basically mud-robot. Academy City was full of those.

Almost as if to answer his thoughts, the clay thing raised it's "head"—

A̭̳̺̕A̡̝͙͕̲̯͉̩̅A̮̜̙̹͈̲ͨ̐ͨ̀A̅̈́͒ͥͮͭ̕A̜̅͂ͬͧ̎̊̓A̠͓̪ͬ̀̈̏ͭ̈́͠Ȃ̦̳̰̖̠̃ͪ͗ͣ̃A͈͎̣ͧ̇͋̆̈́̅ͅḀ̪̬͑̍ͮ̔̚͜Á͕̦̫͗̿͐̆̐A̐̇̿ͦ̓͏̥̹̲̦̤̫ͅḀ̫̯͈̜͈͉ͦ̅̃͂̿̓̊Ả̺̰̦͓̬̠A͍̗̦̱A̵̘̔̓Ắ̤A̬̣̳̭̥̤̜A͗̄͆̿ͦͣ͏̖A͕͚͍̙̎͂̎́ͤÄ͙͓̜́

There was no sound. He was sure of it.

There was nothing echoing off of the buildings. There was no ringing in his ears. There wasn't even a mouth that opened—

And yet he felt his head threaten to split. Every muscle tensed as his eyes went wide, clawing at his scalp to stop not ringing eardrums, but a ringing cerebrum.

He could now scratch "potentially harmless" off the list. Gathering his shattered wits into a tiny pile, he looked up. Amazingly he hadn't dropped the pizza. The construct continued to shamble forward, each lumbering step squelching against the pavement.

He felt his heart grow light as a very specific hormone sent his whole body into overdrive, spurred on by the attack on his very psyche. The primitive part of his brain had immediately known what his conscious mind was realizing— he was in danger.

He wasn't the only one, either.

His pupils probably looked like saucers, as his vision managed to clear further than it ever did on its own. Between short, sharp breaths, his hands found his phone in its pocket on their own, without him taking his eyes off the mudman until they brought up the screen.

There was also his customer. By now, a regular. A beautiful blonde that had surprisingly little accent and clear grasp on most conversational Japanese. A good tipper from the Nordic West with the exact kind of phonetically impenetrable name you would expect. Someone who he didn't quite expect to be normal, because in all honesty, nobody in this town was.

But normal or not, she needed to know.

He didn't know if anyone else lived here, honestly, but he could get ahold of her, and she would.

He could warn her, she could warn her neighbors.

His fingers flew across the keypad, making use of as much time as he could before this thing noticed him here.

>hey this is pizza guy

This was the upside of being personally accountable by phone to your customers.

>theres something that looks like a golem walking around here. screamed at me
>no sound felt it in my head
>stay inside and warn people around you

Letting them know about the shit you ran into in real time was much easier.

Raising it, he snapped a photo and sent it to one Sieglinde Driessen.

It was blurry, but so was the thing's outline even when your adrenal gland was going nuts. Probably didn't matter.

It was interesting, absurd in a way, how much of his usual sangfroid remained. Perhaps he hadn't just felt his blood turn to ice. Or that subconscious bit treated this like an encounter with a wild animal— No sudden moves.

>call the police
>i'm gonna try and find a different route so i can get u yyour food
>Luigi's Pizza apologizes for the inconvenience in advance

With that distinctive flip-phone sound, Ryuji cut communications there, and—

What if it follows me to her?

—Froze for a moment, before slowly sliding backwards the way he came, gauging for a response.

The monster's arrival was impossible to miss. The air was charged; it crackled, it flowed, and none of it felt right. Whatever this thing was, it didn't belong. Sieglinde watched it appear from her inverted position, frown deepening. That it had appeared here, near her, was more than a little suspect.

Granted, it also could be taken as a warning to be careful what one wished for. She wasn't bored now.

But, as her buzzing phone reminded her, there was a complicating factor. Her pizza was on the way. Setting aside for a moment that she was hungry and wanted her pizza, there was no way that Pizza-kun was suited for this sort of scene. He had no idea what he was walking into. Or, as her phone revealed, he hadn't.

>hey this is pizza guy

The creature screamed, an unnatural sensation. Not a sound, per se, though it gave the impression of one; it scattered the thoughts, like a migraine would. She pushed through it, in time to register the next series of texts.

>theres something that looks like a golem walking around here. screamed at me
>no sound felt it in my head
>stay inside and warn people around you
>call the police
>i'm gonna try and find a different route so i can get u yyour food
>Luigi's Pizza apologizes for the inconvenience in advance

He was still trying to deliver.

She couldn't help it, her head dropped back and she actually laughed. Gods bless that boy. When this was over, she'd tip extra. He'll have earned it. But for now there was work to do.

Rather than take the stairs, the blond girl tightened her abdominal muscles and returned from her sojourn over the abyss. There were a series of balconies on the buildings between her and where, in the distance, she could see the pizza boy trying to draw its attention. They made for a lovely set of stepping stones, one bound at a time. She applauded his gall in refusing to simply run, but the boy was out of his depth. And he was only in danger at all because of her, either because she had ordered the pizza or, as she was starting to suspect, because the creature had been drawn to her.

Either way, his safety was her responsibility.

"Sorry, Ryu-kun, I think this is a bit beyond the police." She called out, jumping from the last balcony, sailing over the delivery boy's head, and alighting on the ground just a pace behind him. She pivoted without missing a beat and placed the heel of her hand on his shoulder, glasses pinched in between thumb and forefinger. "Hi. Hold these, please?"

Her Eye was fixed on the monster already, ensuring her advance notices of direct hostility from it. But she still needed a weapon.

---

Kuuro was still in shock at the troubling realization that had struck him when he'd peered into the depths of his refrigerator. This was a good thing, however, as the last thing he needed to hear now was that his 90 hours of hard work went to waste because of this selfish, ungrateful woman. The truth was that he currently desired little more than to be able to finish Schatten 4, and it is what he intended to do once dinner was made. Unbeknownst to him, another tragedy awaited.

His attention for now though was solely on his lack of dairy, so his brain was essentially on autopilot while she spoke. For the most part, at least. "Y-you...!" he suddenly glared at the woman. She had obviously been the cause of this! There was an entire gallon left, and now it couldn't be found. Kuuro couldn't help but wonder where it all went. Did she just sit around drinking milk all day? The young man found his gaze lowering to her somewhat sizable chest. It has to be those two...! The scowl he wore at the time could not be recognized as anything else. On his face, there was no hint of perversity or the like. There was merely contempt. Contempt for the two breasts that he decided were the reason for his lack of milk.

It did not take long for Kuuro to realize what he had been doing and he turned his face away, his features closely mimicking Nero's right about now. "...Anyways, suppose I should make another run to the store tomorrow." he quickly changed the subject, motioning to the spot in the fridge where his milk would typically rest. "Don't suppose you know anything about this?"

He didn't really expect an answer.

Instead, he continued looking through the fridge. She had made her demands known, and while any sane man would throw this woman out of his house and tell her to begone, he was not like that. Yet. Somehow. "Meat, you said? Sure." He sighed despite agreeing. The only 'meat' he really wanted to give her was a "meeting". One with someone who could help this woman with her obvious mental illness. Deep inside, he refused to believe a human being could honestly be like this without something severely wrong.

Eventually, the young man retrieved some pork that he'd almost forgotten he even got. Taking in a whiff and giving it a lookover, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it... yet, so he'd use this for tonight's meal. There was a number of things he could make with it. While he was indeed a Japanese man, through and through, his parents and his uncle had taught him a few recipes from around the world due to their constant outings. He briefly pondered making burgers with pork, but since he had never done so before he thought that it might simply be easier to stick with a food he was familiar with.

Pork with miso it is.

She would probably be content if he just went ham, no pun intended, with the pork servings here. Anything leftover he could use as lunch tomorrow. "Alright, we'll have pork bowls. Doesn't that sound absolutely divine right now?" he said to her, omitting the fact that he simply didn't want to do more work than he had to right now. If he could get away with just using pre-made ramen packets and throwing pork in, he would do that in a heartbeat. But if he was going to complain about her being a lazy good-for-nothing, it would be from the high ground he could stand on. One built on instant ramen would never last. She was abnormally perceptive when it came to food, for some reason. Her sense were only second to the dedication she spent on doing the absolute bare minimum.

As he prepared what he would need to get their dinner started, he remembered she had actually said more than just what she wanted for dinner. "You asked something about where I was earlier, didn't you? I had to do some busy work regarding Judgement. And then I shopped my way home." he explained, then adding, "And what kind of attitude is that to have towards me? I don't ask for much, but you treat me like some sort of wolf. You think I have time to run around and pick up strange girls on the street? I would never do tha--"

Kuuro cut himself off, realizing that he was about to accidentally lie.

"...Sorry, I would never do that again, I mean to say. You're the only strange woman who has or ever will be in this apartment, I promise." though he said this with a look in his eye that revealed he was speaking nothing but the truth, this couldn't hide the fact that it was unlikely to be a very flattering promise to make someone.

紫菀

---

The wind rushed against Shion's face as she fell, nearing terminal velocity. 3. 2. 1. There was a sudden gap in the sky where she had previously been as she teleported herself vertically and horizontally forwards, "landing" in the air higher than she was and much closer to her destination before repeating the process. Free-fall, four seconds passed, and suddenly she shifted to a new location. It took about a minute, though she admittedly took a bit of time to enjoy her music more, before she found herself in District 15 and warped herself to the ground again. Ah yes, the shopping district. She began to walk again as she went around looking for the items she was requested to get.

... After several minutes Shion could be found carrying a multitude of grocery bags as she walked through the district to more shops. Once she finished her shopping, she'd be on her way back to her original destination at District 19.

"Oh fuck you too then!"

A little ways behind Kyoko was the hapless Yonosuke, trailing on out the entrance of one of the multiple shopping malls that lined the District. She flung open one of the many doors marking its entrance in annoyance, forcing a group of students from some District 9 school to dodge out of the way; it wasn't particularly often that she was barred entry to an entire mall, usually just the individual shops inside.
"Hold on Kei, would you-" Yo started, as he pushed his way around another gaggle of students that caught his path, "Would you slow down a sec?"

In terms of physical ability, he was no match for Kyoko. She seemed to be spending all her free time in some activity or another nowadays, unless it was time dedicated to meeting friends. Perhaps it was the fact she never attended school, he considered. But to have free time, whenever that time was needed, it felt almost like a carefully cultivated skill. She was never interrupted, never cancelled plans, and never arrived late - and yet she was always busy with something or another. Not even a NEET like Hiki had that much time on his hands.

But Yo's call-out seemed to reach her. She had continued her march down the street a short ways, but it wasn't that far away before she stopped and deviated off to the side, into the shade of some stores awning. It didn't take long to catch up.
"'Excuse me, you're Miss Amori, right? I'm gonna have to ask you to leave' fucking bullshit..." Kyoko muttered, slightly louder than she had intended, as Yo approached, "Gotta love that Level 5 lifestyle, dontcha? - science experiments, allowance cuts and shit like this."

She slipped her bag off her back, and let it drop to the floor as she slumped against the wall with it - something metal near the bottom audibly colliding with the pavement as it fell.
"You okay down there?"

"Who, me? Oh, yeah, great. Magnifico, molto bene."

Kyoko glanced up at her friend, who slid down the wall beside her. As far as Yonosuke's famously documented expressions of concern went, his look fell around the margin of "You think I believe that bullshit?" and "You're not getting enough sleep, are you?"
"I never asked: how do you feel about that?" Yo asked, as he pulled out a second bottle of soda.

"That," she took the drink, "was two weeks ago. Hiki already said everything, anyway." the open bottle forced away her slight, reminiscing smile, "'How could a middle schooler derank her?!', 'What's the world coming to?!'"

Kyoko laughed. Yonosuke did not.
"Yeah, but... I'm meant to be your best friend and all, y'know? Childish promise or not."

You're not meant to bring that up, she thought. Somewhere in the past a little Kyoko and a little Yonosuke were making a pinky promise. "We'll stay friends even after we're both Level 5's!" - a promise only children were capable of making. Part of her wanted to reply: "Like I'd remember some weird promise like that". The same part of her that occasionally had to stop her from assaulting shop owners, from using her Ability on street thugs, and, when things got really bad, from destroying the city. From his spot to the side, he could see the grave expression she wore.
"So, c'mon. How do you feel about it?"

"I don't really care about it."

Yo rolled his eyes.
"Tell me the tru-"

"I'm sure seven year old me is off kicking herself at the idea of getting deranked by some fourteen year old, but I don't care about it, or her, or the "Level 5 Rankings". And I guess that frustrates me?" Kyoko continued. Using Yo as a platform, she grabbed his shoulder, and pulled herself up from the floor, "Like, I wish I cared that this kid passed me, cause then I'd be motivated to take back my spot at number four and all. But I just don't."

Yonosuke sighed. He'd known her long enough to tell what was a lie and what wasn't when it came to her responses, even though she usually played close to her chest. It made sense, given her lifestyle, but he could tell, as much as he wished he couldn't. Somewhere deep down she was lying that she didn't care - some residual motivation from her days of obsessing over ability development, and how cool the Level 5's were - but he couldn't just say that. Instead, he stood up.
"D'ya wanna check in here?" he stuck his thumb behind him, to the shop they had taken shade under. A medium sized, odds-and-ends type of store, with a window lined almost entirely with Gekota merchandise. Even a weird looking, limited edition phone case - the kind of thing he could tell in an instant that Chi would love to own.

Not a beat passed with Kyoko stepping around him and into the store, leaving him to trail along again.
"If you really wanna know about that Level 5, why dontcha go find them? They're a middle schooler, can't be that hard to find." she joked, as she picked up with of the phone cases, seemingly pleased that she hadn't been thrown out of the place yet, "They're a Teleporter too. Who knows, maybe they'll fix that calculation glitch you keep having?"

"That's not a bad ide-"

"Or maybe she'll just say Kyoko was right, and removing that air displacement calculation in favour of my proposed shortcut is all you need~"

“You mean the milk? I threw it out the window! You should pick up more at some point!”

Though it had not reached the expiration date on the package due to a misprint at the factory, those who consumed the milk would likely spend the entire day regretting their choices over a toilet. Nero was not the sort to wish that sort of fate against anyone, even though the primary reason for this benevolence was her own desire to not have Kuuro use the spoiled milk in his cooking.

After all, there was no reason why an act cannot be both selfish and selfless.

Nero, of course, neglected to mention that she had noticed it was expired and likely saved Kuuro from certainly getting sick from the milk. And it wouldn’t even cross her mind to inform him of such a situation, given that he probably already knew.

Regardless of her intent in the matter, her smile seemed to convey a sense of pride in her action, as if she expected Kuuro to praise her, despite likely giving the man the wrong idea. It wouldn’t be too far fetched of an assumption for Kuuro to make that there was some sort of malicious intent if only given her previous record.

“Pork bowl? No idea what that is supposed to be, but if Kuuro is making it, then I’m sure it is going to be tasty!”

Nero knew very little about her “roommate”, but if there was one thing that she understood, it was that Kuuro seemed to have a way of making even the most mundane-sounding dishes into a delicious meal. She was sure that he had to have worked part-time at a restaurant or something, or perhaps it was the changing time and all young boys were this proficient at cooking.

“Who taught you how to cook like this? I think I would die on the street if it weren’t for your meals! When I came here, I tried to get directions from a stranger who asked to borrow my luggage bag before he ran away! He never even came back to return it!”

There was not a lot found within that bag in the eyes of Nero. Just a few changes of clothing into what more resembled a true Sister’s outfit, a few falsified documents from her organization, a map marked in a few locations in Academy City, as well as around 100,000 yen worth of money in the Academy City-style of circulation.

To someone with any shred of common sense, these were not trivial objects to have lost, but to the sheltered Nero, whom of which spent most of her life in the monastery away from the outside world, they held little significance, aside from her change of clothing perhaps.

“You said “Judgement”, though? Aren’t they those police-like guys who go around and protect the city? Are you, like, a superhero or something? Maybe you could get my bag back! Someone asked to borrow it after bumping into me at the port, but after waiting for four hours, he never came back! I thought people were supposed to return things they borrowed!"

Nero’s eyes lit up, only to dim a moment later with what Kuuro had said after.

“...Are you trying to sexually harass me?”

She paused for a moment, as if collecting her thoughts, before continuing, a finger resting itself below her chin and her face contorted into a disgusted expression; The kind of expression one might make after they realize they had stepped in the freshly-made excrement of a dog whose owner is in viewing distance while walking down the street, or the face one might make if one were to see a maggot-infested piece of garbage in a back alley of some shady part of town.

“No, let me rephrase that. 'Are you trying to sexually harass me again?'”