At noon, school was let out for the day.
Kamijou was not a part of any clubs or teams, so he just had to head back to his dorm.
He put his leather shoes on at the shoe lockers and continued on off of the school grounds.
"What did I do wrong?" he muttered.
He was of course thinking about the series of events with the massager and Fukiyose Seiri's headbutt.
(Hmm. Did I word it too familiarly? But even when I said please and called her "Fukiyose-sama", she still hit me. And even when I started with "Dear Madam, the colors of fall certainly have deepened", she still headbutted me across the room. I wonder what had her so upset.)
That boy had grown used to the misfortune that was always pouring down on him, so he was resilient when it came to direct blows. That was why he did not have any bandages despite the beating he had taken. Kamijou Touma had worked up incredible endurance from having his head constantly bitten by a starving girl.
And without ever realizing the fundamental issue despite the deep thought he gave it, he finally decided he should have worked in the seasonal words more casually. All the while, Kamijou continue to walk through the standard cityscape of Academy City.
By September 30th, the final traces of heat had been swept away. The gentle breeze turning the blades of the wind turbines showed that he would no longer need to use his air conditioner. The weather forecast displayed on the large screen on the department store wall had switched from saying "watch out for heatstroke" to "the season is changing, so keep a careful eye on your health".
And then…
"There! There! There you are! I finally goddamn found you!!"
A girl's voice shouted that comment that proved the breakdown of the modern Japanese language that linguistic critics often warned of.
Kamijou turned around and saw (what should have been) a lovely girl of the prestigious rich girl's school, Tokiwadai Middle School, charging toward him at high speed.
It was Misaka Mikoto.
She had shoulder-length brown hair and was about 7 cm shorter than Kamijou. Instead of the summer uniform he was used to seeing her in, she wore a beige blazer and a dark blue checkered pleated skirt. She had to have received that winter uniform brand new only that day or the day before, but the skirt had already been shortened. As befitting a student at a rich girl's school, she held what looked like a violin case in addition to her thin school bag.
Whenever Kamijou saw her face, an annoyed look appeared on his own face.
"Well, this is…ugh…such misfortune."
"Don't react like that every time you see me!! Gyahh!" shouted Mikoto.
Kamijou had received punches and headbutts from Fukiyose Seiri that morning, but he felt more misfortune about this encounter. That may have only been natural since that girl was known as the Railgun and she had a habit of sending lightning spears and other such things his way.
Kamijou readjusted his grip on his thin school bag as if it was quite heavy.
"So do you need something with me? Keep it short. And let's keep walking if possible. I'd like to get home."
"Was that first comment not enough to piss me off, so you had to go one step further?" Mikoto tilted her head to the side with her lips twisted up in an evil grin. "Actually, do you even have the right to treat me so horribly?"
"What are you talking about?"
Kamijou sensed some kind of evil intent behind Mikoto's flat words, so he slowly distanced himself from her.
Then, that Ace of Tokiwadai Middle School who was supposed to have the impeccable conduct of a high class lady folded her arms and said, "The punishment game♪"
Kamijou Touma's eyebrows twitched.
The punishment game in question had been a bet made between Kamijou and Mikoto during the Daihaseisai, Academy City's large scale sports festival that began on September 19th and lasted 7 days. Simply put, the one whose school ranked lower had to do whatever the other said.
In a city of psychic power development, the use of esper powers was allowed during the sports festival. And Tokiwadai Middle School's students could use things like lightning spears reaching hundreds of millions of volts and wall-like blasts of wind that reached 80 m/s to blow away the students of their opposing school like some kind of natural disaster.
Kamijou was in high school while Mikoto was in middle school, but that age difference was not enough to make up for that natural-disaster-level threat. Everyone in his class had been horribly thrashed during their direct confrontation on the third day. Also, several members of Kamijou's class such as Tsuchimikado, Himegami, Fukiyose, and himself had been injured during the trouble on the first day of the Daihaseisai. All those various circumstances had led to his defeat. His school's overall ranking had been terrible and they had certainly had no chance against a prestigious school like Tokiwadai in that state.
But a loss was a loss.
That meant Misaka Mikoto was completely in the right to bring up the punishment game. But…
"Huh? That thing's still valid?"
"Don't one-sidedly let something like that go!! I really am going to get you to do whatever I ask! Hah! You should thank me for keeping things as they were rather than adding on interest!!"
Mikoto puffed out her chest in triumphant pride.
Some of the students passing by looked over curiously.
Her excessive reaction seemed to be an explosion of resentment over the fact that she had wanted to do this earlier but had not been able to thanks to Kamijou's time in the hospital and in Italy. Kamijou started to voice a complaint about the idea of adding interest, but he took the mature route and held his tongue.
Instead, he sighed and said, "That's fine I guess, but there really isn't much I can do."
"Hmm, so you're trying to talk your way out of this like that, are you?"
"No, that wasn't my intention."
"I suppose you're right. Someone as mediocre as you really can't do very much, can you? But don't worry. While you may not be, I am wonderful enough to have already taken that into consideration. I intend to ask you to do things even an idiot can do, so make sure to work hard with your full mediocre ability."
"…"
An odd snapping noise came from Kamijou's temple.
Getting angry would lead to nothing good in a situation like this, but Kamijou Touma was not a wise enough student to think rationally by that point.
"Fine then," replied Kamijou with his head hanging down.
For some reason, Mikoto breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Kamijou's casual response.
But…
His head then shot up to stare Mikoto directly in the eye and he gathered up all his strength to shout.
"Fine!! Go ahead and command your beloved slave, Kamijou Touma, to do whatever you want!!"
The crowd around them suddenly froze in place.
They looked back and forth between Kamijou and Mikoto, and then started whispering amongst themselves. After a pause of a few seconds, the crowd of people moved away from the two of them like a wave.
"What…? Wait…slave…ehh!? What are you saying!?"
Even though he saw the color withdraw from Mikoto's face as quickly as the crowd from them, Kamijou was not the type of person to go easy on her and stop there.
Kamijou reverently knelt on the ground, pulled a thin desk mat out from his thin school bag, and began fanning her with a completely serious expression void of any mocking whatsoever.
"Ensuring a comfortable environment for you naturally goes without saying, milady. I may be unused to this sort of task, but I will do my very best. I beg your forgiveness for any mistakes."
"Wait, you idiot!! You're going way overboard here! And don't fan my skirt up from below!!" shouted Mikoto as her pale face quickly grew tinged with red and she used both hands to hold down her already short skirt. She was wearing shorts underneath, but it was more about how it felt.
And then…
"Onee-samaaa!!"
A pigtailed girl in a blazer named Shirai Kuroko forcefully charged toward them, breaking through the crowd that had drawn away in shock.
"Wh-what is this…!?"
Normally, she would probably have either embraced Mikoto or grabbed both of her hands, but for once her upper body was knocked backwards as if she had run into an invisible wall between herself and Mikoto. The grand scene before her seemed to have come as quite a shock.
"K-Kuroko?"
While (it looked like) Mikoto publicly had an older boy fanning her while he prostrated himself at her feet, she turned her head toward her underclassman with her expression frozen in place.
But it seemed Shirai Kuroko could not hear her beloved onee-sama's voice because she merely stood in place trembling.
Her gaze was fixated on Kamijou Touma who (it looked like) had become Mikoto's loyal servant.
Shirai said, "Wh-what a gallant and straightforward display of subordination… But that is supposed to be my role!!"
Shirai's eyes contained envy, jealousy, and a hint of respect.
"Stop that, you idiots!! Don't you both bow down to me like that! Is this some kind of ritual!? You're making me look like the leader of some cult!!" shouted Misaka Mikoto, but Kamijou Touma merely continued to earnestly fan her from below while Shirai Kuroko could not stop trembling with fear at how formidable a rival he was.