Enemies see red when they meet.
Perhaps, both being students at the same school, and in the same year at that, the relationship between Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki didn’t quite qualify as full-blown enemies.
But from another angle, both being heads of factions at Tokiwadai, both being among the precious few Level 5 espers in all of Academy City, plus their utterly clashing personalities that couldn’t stand each other and didn’t mesh in the slightest, all of it finally led to the two of them now meeting like sworn foes, a thick hostility replacing their initially startled expressions the very instant each laid eyes on the other’s face.
Looking at Shokuhou beside her and the Misaka Mikoto standing across from her, feeling the charged, gunpowder tension these two seemingly born-incompatible people kept giving off, a tension that gave Yurika an inexplicable, suffocating feeling, Yurika truly felt a thread of regret rise in her heart.
Maybe agreeing to have lunch with Shokuhou had really been no small mistake.
Now look: she’d barely rounded one corner before immediately running into Misaka Mikoto, the one person capable of a terrifying chemical reaction with Shokuhou.
“Shokuhou Misaki!? Why have you come over here to the second-year classrooms?”
A wary expression on her face, Misaka Mikoto was eyeing Shokuhou as though looking at someone who’d murdered her own father.
Originally, she and Shokuhou had merely not been able to stand each other, but over the course of several encounters, the relationship between these two had long since been inflamed to the point of igniting the powder keg.
So although Misaka Mikoto’s words this time were phrased as a question, her tone carried a distinctly displeased edge.
“Don’t tell me you’re here scoping out prey again?”
“Yes, and how is that any business of yours?”
She’d only come to grab lunch with Yurika, and out of nowhere she was being treated by Misaka like she’d come to do something nasty; forget that Shokuhou was just a young girl to begin with, even a grown adult would feel uncomfortable about it.
Misaka Mikoto had always found Shokuhou’s manipulation of people’s hearts utterly contemptible, while Shokuhou figured that if you had the ability, you ought to put it to good use.
So in the face of Misaka’s misunderstanding, Shokuhou, who hadn’t had any desire to speak nicely in the first place, readily owned up to it without a shred of courtesy, then fired back with a jab.
“What? You came over to the second-year classrooms to learn from me? You don’t seem to have the talent for it, though. Did all that electricity fry your brain?”
“You—”
Misaka Mikoto herself was still just an unworldly little girl, unlike Shokuhou, who, though young, had already seen all kinds of people’s inner thoughts through her mind-reading ability.
Faced with Shokuhou’s venomous tongue, Misaka, the kind of girl who normally didn’t even care about faction business, naturally found herself at a loss for words.
Looking at Shokuhou’s expression, her face flushed crimson, but she couldn’t get a single sentence out.
“If you’ve got nothing else, kindly step aside. Yurika and I still have to go eat lunch.” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Seeing that Misaka Mikoto couldn’t get a word out, a smug smile spread across Shokuhou’s face, like a little girl who’d snatched the toy she wanted out of another little girl’s hands.
She said this much to the Misaka Mikoto standing in front of her and Yurika, then, not caring what Misaka’s reaction might be, took Yurika’s hand and made to go around Misaka and leave.
“Hold it!”
Having her hand suddenly taken by Shokuhou, Yurika blinked but didn’t think much of it; they were all girls, after all, and physical contact was fairly normal.
But just as Shokuhou was about to lead Yurika away, Misaka Mikoto suddenly moved, blocking the path in front of Shokuhou and Yurika once more.
With that faint flush still on her face from her anger a moment ago, Misaka fixed her gaze on Yurika.
“I came looking for you, Tenshouin Yurika!”
But no sooner had the words left her mouth than Misaka Mikoto’s expression turned a little odd again:
“Say, you didn’t get brainwashed by her too, did you?”
Misaka’s reaction instantly drew the eyes and attention of all the young ladies passing through the hallway, and along with her next sentence, countless girls still inside the classrooms poked their heads out as one.
Some even looked ready to round up their friends to come watch the show.
In a flash, the once-quiet hallway came alive.
Quarrels between Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki were already one of Tokiwadai’s regular sights.
If it had just been the two of them running into each other, it might have drawn some eyes, but nowhere near this many.
This time, even Tenshouin Yurika, who normally didn’t get involved in this sort of thing, had been dragged into the spat between the two, and that was a real eye-catcher.
Plus, Misaka’s line just now had given the onlooking girls a serious fright; after all, Tenshouin Yurika’s popularity at Tokiwadai ran very high, and if Shokuhou really dared lay a hand on the idol of their hearts, it would likely stir up no small commotion.
“This is really…”
Glancing helplessly around the hallway, now thoroughly lively thanks to one line from Misaka, Yurika felt completely overwhelmed. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
She shot a glance at Shokuhou beside her, who’d been left somewhat stunned by the sudden turn of events.
With her mind-reading ability, Shokuhou had probably already seen what these students were thinking.
Though she could deploy a wide-area memory alteration, for one thing there were too many people here, even a Level 5 like Shokuhou would find it a bit difficult, and for another, if even one slipped through the net, that would basically nail down the charge of “brainwashing Tenshouin Yurika” against her.
Knowing she couldn’t get away with staying silent any longer, Yurika sighed helplessly, then, under everyone’s watchful gaze, opened her mouth in her usual flat, mechanical tone:
“Misaki didn’t manipulate me. My ability is a slightly mutated Telekinesis. Without even consciously defending, it naturally blocks the abilities of mental-type espers… so there’s no need to worry about me being brainwashed.”
This situation was actually something plenty of people already knew; it was just that in their fluster of concern they’d forgotten about it for a moment.
Now that Yurika brought it up again, the crowd, tense a moment ago, instantly set their minds at ease, and Misaka Mikoto, who didn’t much care for gossip, also wore a look of dawning comprehension, indicating she now understood the situation.
“I really did make plans with Misaki first today, so if you have something, Misaka-san, could we talk about it next time?”
She said this politely to Misaka Mikoto in her usual tone, while discreetly giving Misaka a meaningful look.
Fortunately, Misaka Mikoto didn’t press the matter further.
Scratching her head, she gave an embarrassed little laugh and waved her hand:
“Ah, it’s fine, it’s fine, you two go on ahead. I really was being abrupt…”
Seeing Misaka Mikoto let the matter drop just like that, Yurika breathed a sigh of relief.
Just eating a meal could blow up into a problem this big; truly, getting treated to lunch wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
She glanced at the still-stunned Shokuhou beside her, then helplessly took Shokuhou’s hand and led her off toward the Student Council office.
Shokuhou, meanwhile, stared blankly at Yurika holding her hand, fixated on the gorgeous white long glove on her own right hand, the star-shaped pupils in her eyes shining unexpectedly bright.
This glove, I’m never washing it again!
Shokuhou Misaki had it bad.