The Legend of Level 0 in Academy City

Inoue Hideka looked smugly at Misaka Mikoto, whose face showed disappointment, and asked a question with a smile.

Without waiting for Misaka Mikoto's reply, she suppressed her smugness and said reassuringly:

"Well, maybe I remembered wrong. Anyway, I'll go shopping with you the day after tomorrow! Hehe!"

"Huh? Wh-what?! Who, who needs you, you bastard, to keep them company?!"

Caught red-faced, Misaka Mikoto retorted.

However, she quickly realized that Inoue Eika was clearly teasing her.

Thinking of this, he shouted angrily again:

"You bastard! You did that on purpose, didn't you!"

"No."

"Damn it! Still denying it? You understood me right away, you're definitely doing it on purpose!"

"No, no. If you want to shock me, go ahead. I'm not afraid of being kissed anyway~~"

Crunch, crunch... I grit my teeth.

------

The familiar playful banter, the familiar teasing.

The ordinary things that happen day after day are called daily routines.

But now, this routine, which she found anything but boring, seems to have come to an end.

Can a person live without a heart?

Why did that guy have to die?

Shouldn't it be me who died?

The long-awaited time, after nearly a month apart, is finally here tomorrow, when I will be alone with this guy again after he lost his memory.

Why would this happen at this time?

why,

Why is this happening?

If at that time,

I shouldn't have bought that Indian deck of cards back then...

If at that time,

He didn't listen to him and leave...

in case,

At that time —

Let's rewind to half an hour ago.

Misaka Mikoto walked toward the designated location as promised.

It was agreed beforehand that I would introduce my junior to a certain idiot at noon today.

Even if she's very unwilling, a promise is a promise, and besides, she's not that petty—except when she's emotionally out of control, of course.

There was a vendor selling Indian playing cards on the street. He was a rather chubby-looking vendor wearing round sunglasses.

This wasn't the first time Misaka Mikoto had seen him.

Because of what that idiot told Saten about collecting interesting Indian poker cards, Misaka Mikoto has recently started paying 'slight' attention to Indian poker cards.

However, the playing cards she had seen before were all uninteresting to her, so she had never bought any from him.

With a try-it-and-see attitude, Misaka Mikoto asked the vendor again.

Surprisingly, I also became interested in the playing cards that the vendor was so enthusiastically promoting, so I bought them.

It is said to be a technique that allows you to pick up even the smallest things with chopsticks.

After paying, Misaka Mikoto took out her phone, intending to ask that idiot if he had shown up as promised, and incidentally—just incidentally—announcing her results to him.

However, instead of his pleasantly surprised praise, he asked for her address and then...

"Mikoto, don't ask any more questions. Stay where you are and don't move, understand? Don't move! Wait for me... I'm coming to find you right now!"

His voice was serious, anxious... and even contained a hint of panic that he had never heard from that idiot before!

Although Misaka Mikoto was unaware of what was going on and didn't even care, she stayed where she was because of her trust in someone.

As time ticked by, Misaka Mikoto, who was already impatient, began to get restless.

Even so, she patiently waited.

Her intuition told her that the idiot wasn't the type to joke about something like this.

However, she unusually showed patience, but what she waited for was not that familiar figure.

Instead, it was a strange, tall, slender, brown-haired boy!

The unusually frivolous young man immediately revealed her identity...

"If I could, I wouldn't want to fight you. But your identity can't be unrelated, right? The third one, Railgun—Misaka Mikoto? Of course, if you obediently hand over that thing to me, I might let you die a little easier!"

Volume 4, Daihasei Festival, is over. How much more everyday life is left?

Chapter 324 Misaka Mikoto VS Kakine Teito

After school at noon.

After saying goodbye to Inoue Eika and Saten Ruiko, Uiharu Kazari left the school.

Following the address that Misaka Mikoto sent him this morning, he headed towards the underground shopping mall.

To this day, he still finds it inexplicable.

He was utterly baffled as to why the young lady from Tokiwadai wanted to see him.

He wasn't so narcissistic as to have the young lady from Tokiwadai become his admirer just because he won first place a few times at the Daihasei Festival.

But since it's a punishment, and it's just a meeting, there's no need to refuse.

However, recalling Saten Ruiko's fierce warning before parting, Inoue Eika still felt a wave of lingering fear and utter speechlessness.

Although he truly loved three girls at the same time—Saten Ruiko, Misaka Mikoto, and Shokuhou Misaki—he genuinely felt guilty about it.

But after thinking about it carefully, he wondered if he really was a womanizer.

is it?

No?

is it?

No?

Silently reciting this in her heart, Inoue Hideka placed her right hand on the red cross behind her back and measured it, intending to decide whether she was a fickle person based on the options she would read when her hand couldn't reach the area.

Just then, my phone rang.

It's Misaka Mikoto's phone call.

After answering the phone, Inoue Hideka was initially just boredly responding to Misaka Mikoto's arrogant and spoiled urging, but Misaka Mikoto's next words startled Inoue Hideka.

Inoue Hideka really couldn't understand why the 'tweezers' ended up in Misaka Mikoto's hands.

The momentary daze was fleeting. Immediately afterward, Inoue Hideka quickly inquired about Misaka Mikoto's address and sternly demanded that she stay where she was.

Next, while activating the magnetic gloves, Inoue Hideka called Akiyama Yan, the intelligence expert of the "Group," and asked her to access the surveillance footage to monitor Misaka Mikoto's movements in real time.

But... only a minute had passed when things changed on Misaka Mikoto's side.

That person—the No. 2 in Academy City, the Unreal Matter, Kakine Teitoku—arrived at Misaka Mikoto's location just one minute later.

In terms of intelligence, Inoue Hideka never doubted the capabilities of the 'school' of the secret service where Kakine Teitoku was located.

After all, there is a level 4 psychic in the 'school' named Yuwang Wanhua. With the help of special goggles on his head, he can search for intelligence over a wide area and analyze, extract, and transcribe the intelligence he finds without any problem.

Of course, he also searched for all kinds of communication, such as text messages and phone calls between mobile phones.

But why so fast?

Why did Kakine Teitoku arrive at Misaka Mikoto's location so quickly?

Was it because he happened to be nearby, or because he was too impatient, that Kakine Teitoku used his ability to rush over there?

not understand.

Inoue Hideka didn't understand any of this, nor did she have time to figure out the reasons behind it.

All he knows now is that Misaka Mikoto is going to face the second-ranked person in Academy City, the Unreal Material Kakine Teitoku!

Following Accelerator, another player whose ranking is only slightly higher than hers, but whose strength completely overwhelms hers—one of only seven in Academy City's 230 million population.

Superpowers! ! !

With this thought flashing through his mind, Inoue Hideka became increasingly anxious.

He frantically activated the magnetic gloves, completely disregarding the damage that high-speed movement would cause to his body, and leaped between buildings at speeds exceeding his limits.

------

at the same time.

Misaka Mikoto, who was leaning against a large tree waiting for Inoue Hidekazu, was looking at the inexplicable brown-haired boy with a mixture of confusion and helplessness.

She couldn't be bothered to consider the strange meaning behind the boy's words; lacking patience, she was already thinking about how to pass the time while waiting for Inoue Hidekazu.

So, Misaka Mikoto provocatively said to the brown-haired boy:

"Huh? You know I'm the Railgun, and you still dare to spout nonsense? Hmph! I'm in a bit of a bad mood right now! It's alright if I teach you a lesson, isn't it?"

Upon hearing Misaka Mikoto's words, the brown-haired boy chuckled softly.

"Ha! I'll take that as a joke. To be honest, in my opinion, the difference between second and third place... oh no! The difference between you and me is like the difference between a level 5 superpowered person and a level 0 powerless person—they're truly incomparable!"