A Certain Electric Princess
  Prologue

July 19, Academy City.
Tokiwadai Middle School, one of the five prestigious schools in Academy city, is considered by many to be one of the most renowned schools for girls in Japan. Not only does it excel in major curriculums like Science, Arts, various Sports, Taekwondo and Music but also provides access to many niche activities like Flower arrangement and playing Karuta. It’s the dream school of young girl from all across Japan but only 180 of them are lucky enough to make the dream come true. Girls from all walks of life can be found here, rich, poor, middle class but they all have one thing in common, they all possess some talent and the one that stands above them all, the one who is considered to be the cream of the crop, the Ace of Tokiwadai, is Misaka Mikoto.
At 14 years of age, Mikoto is considered a genius within her ranks. She is a fast runner, excellent in her studies and graceful enough to be the subject of affection of many of her peers. She is quite slender in figure with  short chestnut hair and eyes. One could even confuse her for an effeminate looking guy if not for her voice and the clip she wears in her hair. But the lady-like appearance that the Tokiwadai girls are used to is nothing but a sham, a proper front for a girl of her stature. The real Mikoto can be found in her home busy playing first person shooters while a Gekota pillow rest on her lap. Gekota is a popular mascot found in merchandise marketed to children but for reasons has found the affection of the not-so-young Mikoto.
“It’s 10pm already, are you going to have dinner or not?”, a voice was heard behind Mikoto.
She waited until her character was dead in-game to look behind, it was a spiky haired kid, wearing orange T-shirt and black trousers, just a head taller than Mikoto. His eyes were blue, hair black and had an unamusing look on his face.
“You know, you shouldn't start a multiplayer game 20 mins before lunch”, he said unamusingly.
“I know, I know, don’t worry, we’re owning the other team. It will be over in 5 mins.”
“You say that every day.”
“Ugh, quit bugging me”
“Yeah, yeah, come downstairs when you’re done.”
Mikoto finished her game in 3 minutes and went downstairs for dinner. There she was welcomed by the three other people whom she shared the home with.  A middle-aged man in his 30’s, a beautiful woman who even though she was in her 30’s too, looked half as young as her husband and the previously mentioned spiky haired kid. Both and man and the women shared appearances with the kid which was not the case with Mikoto. The reason being that they were parent and child. The Kamijou family, that’s where Mikoto was residing right now. She came to Academy City 2 years ago after being selected as a candidate at Tokiwadai but sadly her mother burdened with work was unable to, so Mikoto’s mother, Misaka Misuzu did the appropriate thing and asked her old friends Kamijou Touya and Shiina to take care of her daughter. The Kamijou family was thrilled to have her, well not all of them, their son, Touma was initially not okay with the idea of having a girl so close to his age in his home, but that feeling waned of early as Mikoto turned out to be more of a younger brother for him.
It was 10:30 pm, Mikoto was done with lunch and set off to her room to rest. Practice for 200m and 500m race were going to take place next day and she wanted to get proper sleep. She donned my favourite Gekota pajamas and tucked herself to bed. It wasn’t even 10 mins and she was already asleep. She must have been really tired.
Around an hour later, the colour on Mikoto’s face changed a little, it was like she was having a bad dream. The dream wasn’t actually bad but it was ominous, she was floating in ether and there was nothing but emptiness. Suddenly a lot of books started surrounding her forming a cylindrical pattern around her. It was hard to grasp what these books were but they’re were probably 100,000 of them, not that she could keep count since she was busy panicking.
“What’s happening! What is this place! What are these books!”
Her breathing became heavier, she was unable to breathe through her nose. She tried to calm herself down but it only became worse. After a while it was too much. She suddenly opened her eyes in shock and found the reason for her breathlessness, it was Touma pinching her nose with his thumb and index finger. Panic turned into anger and she let out a scream while kicking him with all her remaining strength. Touma took the kick with zero defence and ended up on the other side of the room.
“What the hell are you doing, you idiot!?
“Aaaaggghhh, why did you have to kick me like that, you were making weird faces while sleeping and talking about books and whatnot so I tried to wake you up.”
“Who the hell wakes anyone like that!”, she exclaimed while throwing her pillow at him.
“Well I tried to wake you up normally but it wasn’t working so I to try other methods, but forget about that, it’s getting late, don’t you have practice today?”, he said while catching the pillow.
“WHHHHAAAAA...!!”, she looked at the clock. It was getting late. Mikoto jumped out her bed and rushed downstairs to get ready.
“I must be getting nervous for the midterms”, she thought to herself trying to make sense of the weird dream she had.
She was wrong. Her misfortunes were only going to increase from now on.












CHAPTER 1

With half a bread in her mouth, Mikoto left her house in hurry, she was late for school. Tokiwadae Middle School reserved strict punishment for students lacking in discipline, like cleaning the pool or cleaning the toilets for a week. As she hurried forward, she saw a familiar face at a distance. It was another girl, wearing the Tokiwadae uniform, she was slightly taller than Mikoto, had purple hair in ringlet curls. Mikoto recognised her, it was her senior, the 3rd year student, Hozake Junko. Her appearance may lead other to believe that she is a high-class lady who looks down upon others, but the reality coudn’t be further from the truth. A kind and gentle soul, Hozake is often referred by many as the sweetest girl in Tokiwadae.
“Wait! This isn’t the time to stop and gaze, I’m getting late!”, she thought to herself.
Mikoto rushed past Hozake in a flash and was well past her hearing range until she called out to her.
“Mikoto! Is that you? Why are you running?”
Mikoto stopped in her place while still jogging, she ate the rest of the bread and then proceeded.
“I’m late for practice, I’ll talk to you later”, she started running again, but then stopped to think, “Junko is in the swim team, she has her morning practise too, why is she walking so leisurely”. A depraved idea ran through Mikoto’s mind, she checked her phone, then she ran back to Junko and asked for her phone to compare times. Yup, she was right, the time on her phone was messed up, it was 15 minutes further. “That bitch!” was basically the expression you could make out of her face.
“Uhm, Mikoto?”, a perplexed Junko muttered praying that the look on Mikoto’s wasn’t for her.
“Oh! Hey Junko. Good morning. Don’t mind me, just some problems with the clock on my phone.”, she said with a smile on her face.
“Mikoto, I’ve meaning to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“It’s...uuhh..I don’t know how to say this...uhh..”
Mikoto had a perplexed look on her face now, “what is it?”.
“Uhm, well, did you have, like a bad dream or something last night?”
Mikoto was taken aback, “how did she know about the dream?”, she came to the conclusion that it had something to do with the midterms, but now it looked like it was something else.
“How did you know that!?”, Uhm, I mean it wasn’t actually a bad dream per se..”
“Uhm....don’t worry about that...it’s just...see there’s something important I have to talk to you about, but we’re getting late for class now. I’ll talk to you later after classes end. Please wait for me in school garden. It’s important”, she finished her sentence with a concerned look which was then reciprocated by Mikoto.
“Uhm, okay, I’ll see you later.”, Mikoto waved her goodbye and then left in a hurry. She was actually getting late now.
As practice went by, various thoughts appeared in Mikoto’s head, about the dream, the books, what Junko meant by ‘Important’, did she know what it meant, it’s significance or maybe all of this was just a big misunderstanding. She shifted her focus back to the race as a girl raced ahead of her. “Can’t allow all of this to get under her head.”, she thought to herself. As the finishing line came close, Mikoto used all her remaining strength and flurried past the other students. The result was obvious.
While in the changing room, Mikoto was still contemplating about her issues when suddenly she felt a chill run down her spine. The ominous feeling, like a slimy gaze that gave her Goosebumps. She turned around to see what exactly it was and was greeted with a familiar figure. Shirai Kuroko, a 1st year student, with tawny hair tied into two curly pigtails, her pigtails tied in place by a red bow each, has long harboured a feeling of affection towards Mikoto, a feeling that is not mutual on Mikoto’s side, but don’t let the initial description fool you, while Kuroko might be somewhat of a pervert when she is with Mikoto, she carries herself like a proper lady. A member of the disciplinary committee and referred by many as a child prodigy, she was a reliable and irreplaceable friend of Mikoto.
The somewhat creepy smile fazed away as Kuroko began talking.
“How was your practise Mikoto?”
“It went alright, I stumbled a little in the middle but manged in the end”
“Hmm...That’s fine and all, but Mikoto I understand wearing shorts while on the track but to wear it while in the uniform is just so not classy”
Mikoto's face turned red.
“I... I like it like that, it makes it easier to kick higher. Stop talking about underwear in front of others!”
“But to wear shorts under a skirt does suit your stature. You should think about you position when making these decisions.”
“N... No one is going to look under my skirt you idiot!”
Mikoto finished changing and hurried out.
Classes went on as usual but Mikoto seemed impatient, as soon as the final period was over, she rushed to the school garden. Here and there, she looked everywhere but couldn’t find Junko. After impatiently waiting for 30 mins, she finally appeared in front of her.
“Sorry for being late, I had some work to do.”
“It’s alright, you said they was something important you had to say? Something about my dream?”
“Hmm...Mikoto, there are things I want to say but I can’t and there are things that I have to tell you but I don’t want to.”
“Eh...”, Mikoto had a puzzled look on her face
“Forget what I just said, just remember Mikoto, if you ever get a strong feeling and you think you must act on it. Don’t do it. It’ll only cause misfortune to you and to those whom you love”
On any other day Mikoto would have taken this ominous speech with a grain of salt, maybe even laugh at it but today due was different. Mikoto showed no reaction. Junko bid goodbye and left.
Mikoto was waiting for Kuroko in school garden, they were to meet their friends from another school once her work in Disciplinary committee was over. She then received a call.  It was from Kuroko.
“Hey, Mikoto, I got a call from Saten, she said her and Uiharu wouldn’t be able to come today since they have extra classes, why don’t we go to the mall together?”
The idea of going on shopping alone with Kuroko made Mikoto slightly uncomfortable, since she would always bring up her shorts and then coerce Mikoto to shop for more “classy” underwear.
“Uhhm.. Why don’t we just hang out another day? I’m kinda tired after the practice and the classes.”
“Sure, your good health is of utmost importance to this school and it’s students.”
“Yeah...I’ll talk to you later”
Mikoto hung up the phone and left the school. While strolling through an empty lane she thought to herself if she could catch up to Junko and ask her to explain in detail what she meant.
Suddenly a shriek of pain ran down Mikoto’s spine. It was so bad she almost let out a cry. It was painful but surreal like she could feel every neuron in her body. She cowered in pain, and then the pain suddenly subsided. In shock she tried to get up but as soon as she pulled herself up, she was in the ether world. It was the same space as when she had the dream but this time it was different, she was aware of her surroundings. All around her were those books and a silhouette. It was hard to make out who it was, but it had a short stature. Maybe even shorter than Mikoto. It came close to Mikoto’s ear, “She’s in danger, you need to help her”, it said.
Who was in danger? Why were they in danger? All these questions popped in her head but it was too late to ask any questions. She was back into the real world. Mikoto had had it, she picked her bag up and decided to hurry back home.
On her way back home, she suddenly started hearing a static noise, it wasn’t loud enough to be irritating but at the same time it wasn’t faint enough to ignore, it came from a direction west of her. “That's the path Junko takes.”, she thought. A sudden realization presided over her, maybe the girl in danger was her. Mikoto decided not to take any chances. She ran at full pace to catch up to Junko. Moments later she found herself in a situation. In front of was not one but two girls, a familiar senior and an unfamiliar one. She had a tall and slender figure, soft tea-colored hair, and a purple dress to match with it. She had a smile on her face. Indeed, she was the only one with a smile on her face.
“So, you’re finally here, that makes it easy”, she said and then while moving towards Mikoto she raised her right hand. Suddenly a number of green balls of light appeared near the hand in a circular fashion. Junko knew what was about to happen she rushed towards Mikoto. The balls of light suddenly began emitting a number of high-speed beams leaving a screeching sound behind. Mikoto was frozen where she stood, she had never seen anything like this. Suddenly Junko appeared in front of her. She brought her hands near each and suddenly the beams split apart and left both of then unharmed. It was as if her hands repelled the beams of light.
What the hell was going on?