They had agreed to meet at 1 PM.
"Why is it already 1:30!?" shouted Misaka Mikoto while she stood alone in the plaza in front of the concert hall that made a decent landmark.
Kamijou ran over to her as quickly as he could while bowing his head and holding his hands together.
"Yeah, sorry about that!!"
In truth, he was running late because the issues surrounding Tsuchimikado Motoharu's food supply had turned into a slight fistfight, but he decided it would be better to simply apologize than to make excuses.
Mikoto folded her arms, tapped the ground with her right foot, and sent bluish-white sparks flying from her bangs.
"I was the winner of the punishment game, so why am I the one forced to put up with your issues? Do you have any idea what it feels to be stuck standing here for everyone to see for an entire hour? Some weird guys called out to me, and I had to go to the effort of driving each of them away with a lightning spear."
"Yeah! Yeah! And like I said, I'm really sorry!"
Kamijou tried to get by with completely meaningless small talk, but then he suddenly realized something Mikoto had said didn't make sense.
"Wait. We agreed to meet at one, right?"
"…Don't tell me you're trying to say you forgot."
"No, I'm not. You said you were waiting for an hour, so did you get hear a full half hour ahead of time? Wow, I am sorry then."
Mikoto's shoulders jumped in shock and her eyes opened wide.
She unfolded her arms and started shaking her hands in front of her.
"No…D-don't be stupid. I was just giving a general amount. I haven't literally been here for 60 minutes. I-I won, so why should I have to wait around for you? I'd rather you didn't imagine strange scenarios and grin like that."
"You…" said Kamijou without thinking. He looked the flustered middle school girl straight in the face. "You wanted to see me suffer in this punishment that badly? I've had my suspicions before, but you really are a cruel person deep dow-…"
Before he could finish speaking, a lightning spear shot from Mikoto's bangs.
Kamijou repelled the blast with the right hand he had immediately held up. From the tremendous zapping sound it made, the voltage had to have been in the hundreds of millions.
His right hand held a power known as Imagine Breaker and it could negate any supernatural power whether it was magical or psychic in nature.
But that did not mean nothing scared him.
While trembling, Kamijou said, "…So I hit the nail on the head?"
Another lightning spear flew at him.
The great noise caused the couples gathered in the concert hall plaza to scream and run away. Kamijou had managed to stop it at the last second, but he had tears in his eyes.
"Just tell me, Misaka-san! What do you want me to say!?"
"Let's just get going," muttered Mikoto as the corner of her lips twitched and she turned her head to the side slightly. "Don't you dare try to oppose me after losing back then, you piece of shit."
"There's something wrong with this high-class lady from Tokiwadai!!" shouted Kamijou, but Mikoto gave no real reaction and merely continued to look extremely displeased. Realizing he was not going to have an easy time dealing with her, he scratched at his head and said, "So, Misaka. What kind of punishment is this going to be? You said to get going, but where are we headed?"
As soon as he said that…
"Uh?" said Mikoto with a blank look on her face.
She looked over at Kamijou.
In complete shock, he said, "Don't tell me you don't even have anything planned."
"I-I have something planned!! Um…uh…well…Oh, right! I'm going to have you make up for the effort I expended to win in the Daihaseisai!!"
"So essentially you have nothing concrete planned."
"Listen to what I'm saying!!"
"You're the one that brought it up, so you come up with the plan. Surely you know I'm not going to think up punishments I have to undergo myself. You sure are stupid."
"…"
Mikoto fell silent, but then looked Kamijou in the eye again.
"Um, Misaka…Uuhh!?"
When she continued her silence, Kamijou started to speak to her, but then he stopped and took a step back without thinking.
The reason for this was simple.
That young lady's eyes were filled with anger.
Kamijou had a very bad feeling about what was to come.
"You will do whatever I tell you for this punishment, right?"
"Oh, well… Yes, but only if you keep things reasonable!!"
"You'll do whatever I say, right?"
"…"
"Come with me."
"To where!?" shouted Kamijou, but Mikoto grabbed his hand and refused to let go.
She dragged him away from the concert hall plaza like that.
She then said, "Just shut up and come with me! That's your first punishment!!"
"First!? There's more than one punishment!?"
Kamijou Touma's face paled while Misaka Mikoto's grew red with anger.
They were currently walking around town hand in hand, but for better or worse, neither one was aware of that fact.